God Works for Those Who Wait for Him (Video)

Well, thank you, Brett and Thomas and Wally and Christ's Redeemer for inviting me to come. There are many joys in life, and one of them is to see your children walking in the truth, even children of churches. So to be with you, to worship with you is very powerful for me. So thank you. Let me pray and ask God to help us for these next few minutes. Oh God, there are glorious things to be spoken of now, and we need hearts, minds that are supple and tender and malleable, touchable, so that the things in your word don't bounce off of us, don't ricochet off of granite hearts, but sink in and do their saving, sanctifying, sweetening, humbling, joy-giving work. So do the heart work, Lord, that I can't do while I try to give a voice to the glories of your word. Pray in Jesus' name, amen. So I thought to myself, it's different preaching once in a church instead of week after week after week, which I've done most of my adult life. And so you get a chance to step back and say, now what would you say if you had one time to say to a people, what would you say? And I find that my mind runs back to formative periods in my life where a truth did something amazing for me. It never stopped changing because it sunk. It just came once, it came once, and then it was just there for years and years. I thought, well, if I could make a deposit like that that happened for me, say, when I was 22. So I'll just give you a little, this is one of those. So I'm about 22, newly married, living in Pasadena, California. Noel and Talitha are back here, so Talitha, I mean, Noel will remember this. And truths are coming at me as I'm studying Bible and theology and seminary, and some of them are simply explosively transforming for me. And one of those was the simple discovery, and I think the seeds of it were already there from my family, but it was just explosively true that God's greatness is not magnified by his gathering workers to work for him, but rather his greatness is magnified by working for his people. Acts 17.25 clobbered me. God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything, but he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. So like, get your service right here. You don't serve him, he serves you. I mean, I just never put it like that before I was 22. The eyes of the Lord, this is 2 Chronicles 16.9, if I remember, 2 Chronicles 16.9. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. What's he looking for? To show himself mighty on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him. But he's looking for somebody to work for. He's so strong, so self-sufficient, so overflowing with energy. Where's somebody I can show myself strong for? I just never, that just never hit me. Psalm 50 verse, oh shoot, I forget. 15, I believe it is. Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you will glorify me. So what does God get glory for? You call on me, you're the one that has needs. I don't call on you when I need help. You call on me when you need help. I show up, I do wonders. Then you spend the rest of your life, eternity, glorifying me, that's the deal. I work for you, you glorify me. You get the joy, you get the help. I get the credit, I get the glory. That's the deal. And I just never, I mean that was a life changer for me. Here's a picture of it. I don't jog as much as I used to. I do elliptical now, easier on the knees. But I used to jog through my neighborhood 25 years. I had routes that I went through the neighborhood where we lived on Phillips. So I'd jog down Franklin Avenue, I'd take a left on Cedar, I'd go up through Seven Corners, come across Washington, come down 11th, take about half an hour or so. And there was a machine shop of some kind, I never figured out quite what it was, and it had a permanent Help Wanted sign. It was attached to the building. Help Wanted. Only sometimes there was a big red no pasted on it. No Help Wanted. And every time I ran by the red no, I said, yes, that's the gospel. God never hangs out a Help Wanted sign. I can't run my shop if you guys don't show up. I can't do it. He just never does that. The gospel is no Help Wanted, help available. In fact, this is, I'm adding to the picture now. God's running out of the shop and chasing me down the avenue. I got help for you, stop. I wanna help you, don't run away from me. These things have stayed with me all these years that God is a God who works for us. So I invite you to open your Bible. To Isaiah, big glorious prophet in the Old Testament. Isaiah, right near the middle of your Bible, after Psalms, a few pages. And we're gonna read four verses and I'm gonna preach for a little while on one of them. Namely Isaiah 64, four, which perhaps better than any of those three or four verses I've just quoted already, captured this moment of revelation in my life in those early years, which have shaped my view of God ever since. So let's read Isaiah 64. I'll read it to you. You follow along, one through four. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations might tremble at your presence. When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. Here it comes now, watch. From of old, no one has heard or perceived by the ear. No, I have seen a God besides you who acts, or I'm gonna translate it works, because I think that has a striking and proper effect. No, I have seen a God besides you who works for those who wait for him. My son, Abraham, I have four sons and a daughter. When he was two and a half, he's 33 now. When he was two and a half, I remember, I remember because I read about it recently in my journal. I remember coming upstairs to waken the family. I don't think I usually did this, but I can wake all the family by announcing a Bible verse. And the Bible verse I announced was Psalm 20, verse seven. Some boast in chariots, some boast in horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord, our God, family. And that morning, Abraham became a preacher. At least for two or three years, he did. And he stood on the stool in the kitchen later and said, we not boast in horses, we not boast in chariots, we boast in the name of the Lord, our God, and he'd jump off the stool. And at church, after I finished preaching, he'd come up on the platform in the old sanctuary, about three feet high, and he said, we not trust in horses, we not trust in chariots, we trust in the name of the Lord, our God, and he'd leap off this, and it was like, hey. And I watched that with absolute pleasure. Because I think every family in this church, and every single person in this church, should have a flag flying over your life. We don't trust in horses, we don't trust in chariots, we don't trust the internet, we don't trust in our health, we don't trust in our smarts, we don't trust in our job, we don't trust in our minds, we trust in the Lord, our God. That's the banner I think should fly over every family. And here's the reason. God works for those who wait for him, Isaiah 64, four. So I just wanna linger over this verse four for the rest of our time, and help you feel and see the wonder of it. And read it again. From of old, no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God beside you who works for those who wait for him. So I wanna lift up that truth, that God, and enjoy him with you for the next little while, by focusing on what that verse means. You know, if everything that you needed was provided by your work, or another person's work, then preaching would look very different than it does. We would celebrate you, and we would celebrate your friends, who provided by working all of the things that you really need. That's what we would do. If the provision of all the things you most need came from people, I would preach, people! Let people be exalted, we'd sing people songs. But that's not true. Let me ask you a few questions. Did you, did we, work to be created? Did we make our eyes so that we could see the joy of sight? I was eating my cereal this morning, looking down at the granola, thinking, I can see. Did you do that? You would not take a million dollars for your eyes. You didn't do that. Did you make your ears so that you could hear the sweetest sounds that you love to hear? Did you make your tongue to taste sweetness, and your nose to smell bacon and toast? You didn't, you didn't make it. Did we supply the earth with water for drinking? Did we make the sun or station it at a perfect distance from the earth so that we would swing in perfect rotations? There would be day and night with temperatures that are at least manageable. And the growth of all the trees that are just trying their best against this crazy spring to make things green. No, you didn't. Did you surround the earth with air to carry the clouds and the birds and the oxygen for your lungs? You didn't do that either. Do we paint the sunrises or the sunsets that come up every day? No, they don't just come up every day. They come up every minute somewhere in the world, right? There's always a sunrise and always a sunset happening somewhere in the world. And God's doing every one of them, not you. You didn't have anything to do with that beauty at all. And it meets your needs profoundly, morning and evening, if you have eyes to see. And when we come to die, will our labor help us? Will it be us who make it possible for God to acquit us for our sins and take away our fear and our pain and our guilt and give us new resurrection bodies someday forever and ever? No, in other words, all the things we need most and love best, we did not do. We didn't make, our work is not the key. His work is the key. So the truth I wanna leave ringing in your ears is that God works for those who wait for Him. God works decisively for those who wait for Him. And so I have three things to observe from this verse. One is the uniqueness of this God, because that's the main point. Secondly, His competence in working for you. And third, what it means to wait for Him, because it says He will work for those who wait for Him. So those are the three pieces of the verse that we'll focus on for a few minutes. Let's talk first about uniqueness, the uniqueness of this work. Let's look at the verse again and see if you agree that this is the focus. From of old, no one has heard or perceived by the ear. No one has seen, no eye has seen a God besides you who acts this way, because there isn't one. Can't see Him because He's not there. There isn't any God like this. You are unique. You're in a class by yourself. The uniqueness of the Christian God is that He doesn't ask people to work for Him. He works for them, and all of their service is a depending upon His service. That's the uniqueness of our God. That's what the verse says. Now, to just underline this, you might wanna just flick back to chapter 46, verses one through four, because in 46, one through four, Isaiah contrasts the true God, Yahweh, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus. He contrasts Him with Baal and Nebo. That's the Zeus and the Mercury of the Babylonians. In other words, there are so-called gods, right? One of them's called Baal, and one of them's called Nebo, and these were the gods of the Babylonians. Now, how are they different? This is what this text is about. So I'll read the first four verses of chapter 46, and you ask how the difference is like 64.4. Baal bows down, Nebo stoops. Their idols are on beasts and livestock. These, you carry, are born as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop, they bow down together. They cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been born by me. You're not carrying me, I'm carrying you. See the difference? O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Eva, who have been born by me from before your birth, carried from the womb, even to your old age, I am he, I love this verse. Even to your old age, I am he, and to gray hairs, yes, I will carry you. I have made and I will bear, I will carry, I will save. Six times, I mean, that's repetitious. What's the contrast? Let me give it to you again, starting in verse three. Who have been, one, born by me, I carry you. Two, carried from the womb. Three, to gray hairs, I will carry you. Four, I have made and I will bear. Five, I will carry. Six, I will save. Balaam, Nebo, what are you doing? You're making your people carry you on carts. All the gods of the world, except our triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are a burden, rather than a burden, bearing God. Because the way of salvation in every religion is work enough for me, and you'll make it. That's not Christianity. We have a God who works for us. There's the difference, it was the difference in the Old Testament, and we're going to see that it's a difference in the new. Here's another verse from Isaiah, chapter 30, verse 18, goes like this. He exalts himself to show mercy to you. This God is unique. He exalts himself in getting down low and treating people better than they deserve. That's how he makes much of himself. I like a God like that. I need, I desperately need a God like that, who will come to me in my undeserving and show that he's great by treating me better than I deserve. Amazing. And as if this were true only in the Old Testament, it is also true in the new. Here's a story, you remember this. Jesus teaching, James and John come up to Jesus and say, we would like to be on the right hand and on the left hand of you in your kingdom. And Jesus says, well, are you able to drink the cup that I will drink and be baptized with the baptism? And they say, we're able. And he said, well, I don't make those assignments my father does. And at that point, the other 10 catch what's going on here. They hear, they're really angry. So I'll pick it up right there and read it to you. This is Mark 10, 41 to 45. The reason I'm reading Jesus here, even though I'm talking about Isaiah, is because what you find in Jesus, the son of this God that we're talking about, is the clearest demonstration of that kind of God. All right, I'll read it. This is Mark 10, 41. When the 10 heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them. Okay, everybody knows how to be great in this world, right? Have lots of people to lord over. That's what makes you great in this world. I got lots of employees. They do what I tell them to do. They meet my needs. They serve me. I'm great. That's true, that's true. That's the way the world does it. So Jesus, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant. Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. Why? For the son of man came not to be served. You gotta stop right there and let it sink in. I didn't come to gather slaves. I'm not a plantation owner. I didn't come to get a workforce over whom I could exercise my authority. That's not my greatness. I'll finish it. The son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That's Isaiah 64, four written with blood. Who has ever seen a God like this? Who not only works for those who wait for him, but who does the hardest, most painful, most despised work there is, namely crucifixion. Show me, show me, come up to me after this service and name me any savior, any God, any deliverer, any person, any deity like that. No religion, not Muslims, not Hindus, not Buddhists, not Judaism. Nobody has a God like this. Only Christianity has a God who sends his son into the world and says, this is what he meant back in 64, for this is what he meant. I'm coming not to be served. I'm coming to serve you. I'm gonna lay my life down for you. There's nothing you can do to save yourself, nothing you can do to work for me. I'm gonna do it all, and all you need to do is trust me. Will you trust me? Will you have me as your God? Or will you insist, I'm gonna work and be somebody? There is no God like this, so my first point, he's unique, because that's what the verse says. No one has heard or perceived by the ear. No eye has seen a God besides you who works for those who wait for him, because there isn't any other God who does that, period. And Jesus is the proof of it most clearly, most powerfully. Jesus is incomparable in the demonstration that God, his Father, works for you, and does the kind of work that you could never do, that you so desperately need to have done, namely, an atonement for your sins. Point number two, the competence of the work. So the first is the uniqueness of this God, and the second is the competence of the work. I don't like incompetent work. Really, I do not like incompetent work. We got new gutters put in our house two years ago, they still leak. I have called back four times, over and over, they cannot make these gutters stop leaking during the rain, drip, drip, drip, drip, and then when it freezes, long icicle, I'm calling back, ooh, incompetent work makes me mad. I don't like incompetent work. I wouldn't want a God who's incompetent. Everything's different with God. Everything is different. There are reasons humans are incompetent. One might be motive, they don't really care. These are just workers, the boss, they don't even like the boss, so they put in lousy effort, you know? Because they don't have a zeal for the name of the company. Well, God has a zeal for the name of the company. God is zealous for the name of the company called God. It is an infinite zeal. He will not suffer himself ever to do anything but the best. And another reason people are incompetent is because they lack wisdom or knowledge. They do their best, they just don't know enough. God always knows everything. So he can't be incompetent because he knows everything. A third reason people are incompetent is because they don't have enough strength. They may have all the heart, but the name of the company, they may know everything they need to know, but they're not good at it. Their arms aren't strong enough, or they don't know how to, they just, they're not able. Well, God is infinitely able. In other words, all the reasons that things are done incompetently don't apply to God, ever. All the work that God does, he does perfectly. He's God. That's what it means to be God. Isaiah 46, nine, I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, my counsel will stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose. Yes, he will. He never fails to accomplish everything he sets out to do. His work is always totally competent, well done, well-timed, and you can bank on it with your life. So we have a unique God, that's point number one. There's no God like this God, who works for those who wait for him, and we have an infinitely competent God, because that's what it means to be God. I accomplish everything that I put my hand to, because I'm God. Finally, number three, he does this for those who wait for him. No eye has seen, no ear or eye have seen or heard a God besides you, who works competently for those who wait for him. Isaiah 64, four. So what is this prerequisite? Not every work of God for people has this prerequisite, does it? Gotta clarify this now. Does God work for people who don't wait for him? Well, he does, but not this way. So let's make the distinction, okay? Here's a verse that causes me to reflect on this. Acts 14, 16 goes like this. In past generations, God allowed the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without a witness, for he did good by giving you rain and from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. These are for people who didn't even know him or love him. This is called common grace. You know the distinction between common grace and special grace? Common grace is looking out over the Twin Cities metro area and realizing, my Lord, the sun came up on this city this morning. And most of them don't give a rip for God. He did that for this city. He's done it 10,000,000 times on the world. That's common grace. God works for people who don't love him, thumb him. That's not what this verse is talking about. This verse is talking about a different kind of work, a kind of work that God does only for those who wait for him. You know I have seen a God beside you who works in special, saving, helping, strengthening, preserving, adopting, saving, reconciling, preserving, joy-giving, eternal life-giving ways for those who wait for him. So the big question is then, what does it mean? What does it mean to wait for God? In Isaiah, waiting for God usually implied the people were in trouble and they needed to wait for God to work rather than running to Egypt to get help. Here's Isaiah 31 verse one. "'Woe to those of you who go down to Egypt for help "'and rely on horses, who trust in chariots.'" Sound familiar? "'Because they are many, or in horsemen, "'because they are very strong, "'but do not look to the Holy One of Israel "'or consult the Lord.'" So the first meaning of waiting for the Lord that I'm gonna give you is, you don't do that. Your first reflex is not Egypt, not chariots, not horses, not horsemen, but God, what should I do? God, help me. God, show me. I need you. That's a waiting. It's like this reflex to run to Egypt. I'm going, I know how to fix this. That, that, that. Those are all those natural causes. I'm gonna use that one and that one quick and fix it. And you wake up a half an hour later, or an hour later, a day later, or a week later. Oh, I never consulted God. I never talked to Him. I never prayed. I never asked. I just did what I thought would fix it. That's not waiting for the Lord. One of the reasons we forfeit much divine engagement in our lives in remarkable ways is that we just rule it out from the start. We're straight after our own plans and our own designs how to fix the problem in our life. And we don't get on our faces, linger for just a few minutes, maybe. I mean, some decisions you have to make quick, right? You don't have three days to take a retreat. You gotta get an answer now. At least you gotta tune in on the frequency and say, God, in five minutes, I'm having this meeting. And frankly, I'm not sure what the right thing to say is or the right thing to do is. And a lot hangs on it. I'm consulting, I'm crying out, and I'm hanging on to the promise that you work for those who wait for you. So the first meaning of waiting is, pause in prayer and consult your God. This is simple. A six-year-old can do this. And a 65-year-old can do this. It's not complex, but it does require a God orientation to your life. And let me just be honest and exhort you to form this habit early, because it's not automatic, even when you've preached for 33 years. Preach this, believe this. It's not automatic for John Piper today to have a problem arise in my life, and my first reflex would be to consult God instead of fix it with ways I know can fix it. Isn't that a shame? What that shows you is that you can walk with God for 60 years and nothing is automatic. You'd like to think that if you've done something and preached something and believed something long enough that all the spiritual impulses would be fairly automatic. They're not, they're not. Satan is too real. My flesh is too corrupt still. And this age and this world are pressing us into its mold continually. And the walk of the Christian life, therefore, is an ever-renewed, ever-fought-through life. So I'm just encouraging you, in as much as you can, wherever you are in your pilgrimage, form this habit. Put it on your, you got one of these beep, beep, beep clocks. Every hour it makes you go beep. And they say, oh, that's a consult God beep. Something, I mean, that's weird, right? But that would help, maybe. Or you got one of these. You can do it on this little dinger here. Or just something that begins to help you say, that's right, I'm walking through these days never talking to God about how to help me next. I'm never, I get up, I go to prayer. I'm gonna prayer at night by the bed and say, shoot, I haven't even consulted with him today. Something's wrong with that. Do what you have to do. Do what you have to do. God works for those who wait for him. And the first meaning of wait for him is pause and consult with him in prayer. So that's the first one. There is more. Sometimes what God says when we ask him to help us, to guide us, to work for us, sometimes he says, pause and do nothing. Let me do it. And sometimes he says, act, and here's how to act. And I wanna argue that in both cases, we must keep waiting for God. So the first way, I'm gonna put it up here, how to draw this in the air. The first way of waiting for him is you pause and you turn to him, you pray and you ask for his help and his guidance. You consult with him before you run to Egypt for all the human means of solution. You consult with him. Then his two possible answers are stand still and another possible answer is go at it. Use the means I've given you and tackle this thing head on. So the second meaning, let's go here, of waiting for the Lord would be just stand still and watch me work. Don't enter the battle yet, let me do the work. So he might say Isaiah 30, verse 15, Isaiah 30. In returning and rest, you shall be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength. And you would not, but you said no, we will speed on horses, therefore you will speed away. And we will ride on swift steeds, therefore your pursuers will be swift. In other words, he said to Israel, I'm telling you in quietness and trust will be your strength. And they said, no, no, we're getting on our horses and taking charge here. And he says, okay, I'll tell you what's gonna happen. You got fast horses, Assyrians are gonna be faster. I'll see to it. You don't throw away God's counsel to be still and expect him to keep working for you. Exodus chapter 14, verse 13, fear not. He said to Moses, God said to Moses, fear not, stand firm, behold the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be still. So the second way you wait for God is when God makes it plain to you, let me do this. Be quiet, be still. There are, you can think of situations in your life right now, probably related to family issues where you feel helpless. You'd like to see some things change. Maybe church family. You'd like to see some things change. And you've tried everything you know to bring about the change. It didn't work. And God is now saying to you, lay this down. I will work for you, trust me. I work for those who wait for me. You got children, grown children maybe, and you've done everything you know to do that they would be where you'd like them to be. Other relatives. And he's making it plain, let me do this. I will do this for you. So that's the second meaning. We wait. After we consult, we get the word, stop. You've done everything you should do. It's now mine. Trust me. And there is one more. Namely, he might say, act. Get up, do something, prepare, fight. Make war on the situation. Fight your own sin, fight sin, do what you have to do. And then the meaning, the third meaning of waiting for the Lord is that you don't say, oh good, now I can stop. Stop waiting on the Lord and act. That's not the right way to think. You stop waiting one way, and you start waiting another way. In other words, as you begin to act, like right now I'm preaching, okay? I was waiting here, sitting in the chair, and as I was waiting, I'm praying for help, for sustaining grace. If you tell me not to preach, I won't go preach. But you didn't say that, so here I am. Now at this moment, what should I be, should I not be waiting on the Lord? Right now, right now. If my brain has the capacity on two frequencies to send up little messages, which it should, I think, in between sentences and here and there, just say, I need you, I need you still to finish the message. You look at somebody and you see a certain disposition on their face as you're looking around preaching, and you say, maybe, Lord, that means this. And you whisper, God, if it means that, work. Please work there. So I'm waiting, I'm expectantly walking through my working with a sense that God'll do something. God'll do something in me, do something in you, so you don't ever stop waiting. It's just different kinds of waiting, different kinds of expectancy that God will come and work in and through your working, not just telling you to stop, don't work, that's one way, not just hearing your consultation at the beginning, that's another way, but as you pour your life out in your job where you work, you do, most of you are called to do ordinary work, and you should give it your 110%. But if you're a Christian, Jesus is in you, there's this other frequency that's been tuned in your brain like this, and all day long, I need you, I love you, I trust you, help me, anything new here, anything more, I haven't thought of anything, help me, strengthen me, help me, guide me. If I had another sermon to preach here, I'd probably go over to Isaiah 41.10, which is like the whir of the gears of my brain when they're in neutral. Fear not, for I'm with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God, I'll strengthen you, I'll help you, I'll hold you up with my victorious right hand. I've quoted that 1,000 times in my life, in the middle of an activity, when I need help, in it, in it, not just before it, not just after it, in it. You're in it, God help me, God help me, help me. God loves to work for people who are expectantly waiting on him in the midst of their life. A king, this is Psalm, I mean, where, Psalm 33. A king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might, it cannot save. Our soul waits for the Lord, he is our help and shield. Yes, our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. And I think he means even as we sit on the war horse and make war. There's another proverb. The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord, which doesn't mean you don't need a horse. This is not what that means. He called his people to make war. Often, get on your horses, go up against the Philistines. Why, if you fight for us, cause I'm gonna fight through you. I might fight for you while you stand still, Exodus, watching the Red Sea do its work, and I might fight through David swinging his sling. I guide that rock, I give him courage, I bring down the giant, but I do it with a David. Says David is waiting upon the Lord, trusting in the Lord. So that's the third way. Let me sum them up in close. Number one, so three ways of waiting upon the Lord so that he will work for those who wait for him in all the ways that we especially need. Number one, seek his counsel by pausing to pray at crucial moments when you have something you need to do and you're not sure what to do according to his will or at any moment. Just pause, pause, pause, send up a brief prayer, consult with the Lord. It is amazing, I have done this so many times. It is amazing how much he does for you in those moments. I don't think I can count, it is a countable number, I just can't remember. I'm ready to walk out of the house, we're going on vacation, we're going to some ministry trip or something, I pause at the door and I say this, God, if there's anything I have forgotten, right into my mind comes my computer cord. I mean, where did that come from? Where did that come from? Number two, if he says be still, let me do this for you. She sometimes does, trust him with it, trust him with it. That's very hard, very hard to do. We're all, Americans are productive people. We know how to get things done, that's what we're known for around the world. We're a make it happen people. And therefore for us to be told stand still on this one and let me work, because if you push too hard here, it's gonna backfire on you, let me do this for you. So the second way of waiting is let him do it and trust him. It's not laziness, it's not laziness, not shirking duty. And third, when he does say, okay, go, move, act, work, in the very work itself, trust him. One of my favorite verses, by the grace of God, this is the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 15, 10. By the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain, but I worked harder than any of them. Nevertheless, it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me. So I worked, but it was grace working in me. And what was my disposition? Trust in that ever arriving grace in the work. So concluding comment back to Jesus. When Jesus said to his disciples, don't try to be great by elevating yourself to have lots of people under you. Don't try to be great that way. Be great by coming under people, being their servant, lifting them up, laying your life down for them and giving them life by your sacrifices. When he said that, and then when he illustrated it by dying for sinners and rising again, when he did all of that, we should not respond by saying, well, thank you, Jesus, for working for us then, but now I have work to do and you're not working anymore. Don't ever treat Jesus that way. He is alive, and when he said, I'll be with you to the end of the age, he meant all authority in heaven and on earth is mine. I'm a worker today. Trust me. No one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you who works for those who wait for him. Father in heaven, I thank you for being the God who works for those who wait for him. I thank you that Jesus came and said, the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And so we now in this room together simply say, we lay down our demands that we do the work and we get the glory. We lay that down, and like little children, we say, go ahead, work for me, help me, strengthen me, forgive me, cleanse me, save me, strengthen me, guide me, show me everything I need so that I get the help and you get the glory. I get the joy, you get the credit. So work that in us, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.