Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed says when you're waiting, God is working, and that's a good time to pray.

Pastor Ed Taylor: When you're waiting on the Lord, you should make this decision: You should talk to God about it more than you talk to other people about it. You should talk to God about it more than other people. Because who knows? You tell your story and your story, but eventually, it's not your story, it's His story.

What is God doing in your life? How have you grown? What is He doing even in the tears and the pain? Look at the faithfulness of God. God is faithful and utterly reliable in every way. He's with you now, working while you're waiting.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Abounding Grace. Whether it's in the doctor's office or in traffic, we typically don't like to wait. We grow impatient if we have to wait for something for ten minutes. But imagine having to wait for something for many years.

Today we turn to the book of Acts and learn a thing or two about waiting on the Lord. We learned last time that our eyes need to remain on Jesus at such times, and we need to remember Christ is coming back. Here's Pastor Ed Taylor with more about how we're to wait on the Lord.

Pastor Ed Taylor: How do we wait on the Lord? Number three, I want you to refer not to just your eyes and your desires, your emotions, but now thirdly, I want you to remember your feet. And when you remember your feet, I want you to remember while you're waiting, go forward in your Christian life. Go forward. Continue going forward. Continue living your life. Continue.

Sometimes we think that waiting on the Lord means that everything around us must stop, but that's not true. God has you waiting in one area, but not all areas. And so as you're waiting on God, there is that renewal of strength to be faithful where you are. And that's God's will for your life today—to be faithful or to come back to faithfulness of where you are, no matter how hard the situation is.

Be faithful. Remember while you're waiting it's not inactivity or idleness. It's not pulling away or pulling back, but rather they are continuing. Notice in verse 14, they're continuing in one accord. This waiting is a place of unity, which brings us to number four. I want you to think of your heart and the seat of your emotions.

While you're waiting on the Lord, you don't just continue living life and live faithfully, but fourthly, you are in community and oneness and unity with other believers. Unity is so vital for your spiritual health. They use the phrase here "one accord," but you could write, again, circle that phrase "one accord," you could write next to it "unanimous." The Greek word here speaks of a unanimous agreement among the believers while they're waiting.

I want you to use your holy imagination for a moment and just think about this. What a beautiful thing it is when the church is unified. The church, our church, unified, moving forward, not fighting one another, not gossiping, not going at each other, not complaining, not murmuring, but unified in the cause of Christ on the earth. Don't you think that would get the world's attention—a unified church?

But never in the history of my ministry have I ever seen the church so divided. And it speaks volumes to a watching world. Let me say for our church family, in the years that we've been here, we have experienced a very sweet unity in this church. We've had some seasons, we've had some difficulties, we've had some issues that we've walked through by faith, but in a general sense, I have pastors all around the country, friends that are serving in the United States around the world that have not experienced the kind of unity in their church that we've been blessed with. Even as difficulties come up, we seek to resolve them in the Lord, in humility, in repentance.

But not every church enjoys that, and the broader church of Christ right now is very divided. Extremely. Very selfish and self-centered in their approach to following Christ, valuing and exalting opinions above the word of God. Valuing and exalting the social pressures above the word of God. And just so much fighting, so much infighting because churches and families and friendships are always wrecked by division.

This is the weapon. This is the go-to weapon of the devil, to get you divided. Divided in heart, divided in mind, being upset, being unwilling, being rigid, inflexible, hard-hearted. The devil uses it against us all the time. I appreciate the unity that we've experienced here, but I'm asking you to pray for more. I'm asking you to pray for more.

I'm asking you that when you pray over a meal, when you pray with your kids before they go to bed, when you have your own personal prayers, you pray as a married couple—when you pray, please add to your request. Add something like this: "And Father, we ask you to bless Calvary Chapel. And we're asking You to bring more unity within Calvary Chapel." Our bigger family of churches, there's a lot of division in our family of churches. It's all a mess.

And then think of your own church family. And then when you drive through town and you're just going over here and you see the McDonald's over there and you see the Burger King and you see the church—pray for that church. Pray for the leadership there. Pray that there would be a sense, if the church is off and they're into all bad doctrine, then pray they would repent.

If they've got some kind of behavior you hear from friends who go to that church—pray that you don't hear it anymore. Pray for the churches because what's the purpose of unity? It's not just so we can get along. It's this: so that when we get along, we will have a more unified front and example of the love of God that changes heart to a world that is more fractured than the church.

We have our issues. We're human. We've got our problems. We definitely do. The church does. But the world is far worse, far more challenging. And live in the spirit, church. Pray for the peace and the blessing of God upon Calvary Chapel, upon our fellowship here. Pray that God would use us in these last days. Why? Because a divided church is a weak church.

A divided marriage is a weak marriage. A divided heart is a weak person. We don't want to be divided. We want to be unified. Can I just show you a scripture? Turn over to Philippians chapter 1. This is not unique to our generation. Throughout the ages, division has been a tool. Right now in the early church, they're about as unified as they'll ever be because later on, even in the book of Acts, by the time you get to Acts chapter 15, there was some serious disagreement in the church.

But the way they handled it—you know how it ended? In unity. It's so good. So it's not like disagreements won't come or we're not going to see every single thing eye to eye. We're so different. But when we yield ourselves to the Spirit and we think of others more highly than ourselves, unity is just around the corner. You can read ahead in Acts 15 and see how they handled it. It's beautiful.

Notice this in chapter 1 of Philippians, verse 27. Again, it's one of those verses that you step back and go, "Yeah, this is in the Bible. This is for us today." "Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel."

How does this apply in waiting? Well, first of all, when you're waiting on the Lord, be sure to continue to be in fellowship with other believers. Because waiting, a prolonged time of waiting, usually leads to disappointment, frustration, anger, and eventually bitterness. You become super bitter. And then a bitter person doesn't want to be around other people that aren't bitter.

And so they stay away. And then the people that are close to the bitter person, they see and recognize the bitterness in you and then they stop dropping off. And you go, "Oh, here it is, nobody likes me anymore, nobody cares, the church doesn't care." Actually, that's probably not what's happening. What's probably happening is your bitterness is infecting others and they've had enough of it. And so they're going to step back for a little while and pray for you, asking God to deal with that.

Because the Bible says when a root of bitterness grows up and takes root in your life, you defile those that are around you. And it's just a recipe for disaster. So you're not in fellowship anymore, you're not in church anymore, you're mad at the people that are closest to you, you're upset, you're churning on it because now, if you're waiting on God for something particular, then you start getting mad at God.

And then you have no outlet. And before you know it, you're not in fellowship. So it's time—today you might even be in that position. Your first step back, and I commend you for that. You're in, you're still in a bad attitude. You don't need to clean up all your bad attitude to be in fellowship, just come on back. The Holy Spirit will deal with you. He'll minister to you.

You're thinking, "Ed, I'm here but I still don't want to be here." That's all right, you don't have to want to be here. We're not going to let you go, but you don't have to want to be here. It's all right. You think, "I'll be here but I won't sing." That's all right, everyone around you will sing and it'll minister to you. "I'm not going to listen to you, I'm going to play Angry Birds." Angry guy, Angry Birds, I get it. I'm still going to teach you.

The Holy Spirit's still going to use His word. It's still going to sew. It's okay. As you work through your thing, don't separate, but instead do what they did here: they continued with one accord. And instead of fighting against one another, we need to fight with each other for the unity of the faith. Someone once said, and I quote, "The continuous and widespread fragmentation of the church has been the scandal of the age. It has been Satan's master strategy. The sin of disunity probably has caused more souls to be lost than all other sins combined." End quote.

As we wait on the Lord, our hearts need to be in tune with our fellowship of believers in unity, not isolating ourselves, but just coming and casting our cares upon the Lord because He cares for us. In Proverbs 18:1, it says a man that isolates himself seeks his own desire and he rages against all wise judgment. We just share a community together. That will be unfolding as we study through Acts as well. There's a beautiful community together with the saints.

So, eyes looking to Jesus, our desires expecting Him. How is it that we respond? But rather we have our feet moving forward, living out our lives even though there are disappointing times. Our hearts need to be striving for unity together. And then finally, notice as they're in verse 14, they're in one accord. Notice what they're doing—they're praying together.

And so with our mouths, number five, we need to be praying and increasing our prayer life. This isn't meant to be a guilt trip or anything; it's just the more we pray, the more in the presence of the Lord we are. The more our faith is built up. I would put it this way: when you're waiting on the Lord, you should make this decision: You should talk to God about it more than you talk to other people about it.

You should talk to God about it more than other people. Because who knows? You tell your story and your story, but eventually, it's not your story, it's His story. What is God doing in your life? How have you grown? What is He doing even in the tears and the pain? Look at the faithfulness of God. God is faithful and utterly reliable in every way. He's with you now, working while you're waiting.

And one of the ways to draw near to God is through prayer. And one of the ways to see unity grow is through prayer. Seeking the Lord together. When you're ministering to one another, adopt this phrase and say, in the middle of when somebody comes to complain to you, just say, "Hey, let's pray." Somebody has some issue, let's pray. "This heavy burden's going on in my life"—well, we need to pray. And then pray right then.

It's better to say "let's pray" and do it than to say "I will pray for you" and forget about it. It just puts you in an awkward position because the next time you see the brother, you avoid the brother, you avoid the sister because you know they're going to say "thank you for praying for me." And now you have the temptation to be a hypocrite. "Oh yeah, I prayed for you," but in your heart you know you forgot.

Instead of just saying, "You know what? I forgot. I'm so sorry. Let's pray right now. I'm not going to say I'm going to pray anymore, I'm just going to do it right then and there. And then I'm going to pray that the Lord will bring you to remembrance and I'll pray for you then." It's a good thing to adopt this phrase: "let's pray." And to those that might be in a different circle of friendship with you, maybe a coworker, a boss—here's another question that you can lead up to as you see something's going on.

Even in the church, just you're looking at someone—sometimes you can watch people walk in and everything that they've been going through all week is on their face. It's in their eyes. You could see it. Where you can come alongside and it might be awkward, but it's only awkward until it's not. Here's another phrase to adopt: "Is there anything that I can be praying for you about? How can I pray for you today?" Most of the time people will answer some affirmative thing to that question. Most of the time.

There's the occasional person: "I don't believe in God and I don't want you to pray for me." Okay, I respect that. I'll pray for you anyway, but I respect that because I love you. "Why do you pray to a God I don't believe in?" Because I love you and I care for you. And so praying is important together. Pray alone. Pray for your church, pray for your pastors, your families. Pray for the people you sit next to. The more you pray, the more—praying, that talking to God also involves listening to God.

I like to pray with an open Bible. I like to pray during my devos, part of my devo time, just praying through what I'm reading. Praying what God's saying. "God, I see what You're saying, but what are You saying to me? What do You want to accomplish in my life?" Because there are going to be those what I call those "in-between" times where God gives you a promise and then the fulfillment hasn't come and you've just got all that time of in-between.

As we get older in life—for some of you that are younger, you'll learn this soon enough—as you get older in life, you just see that things aren't so resolved so quickly. And then when they're not resolved so quickly, things in our lives tend to stack up. And that's where the weights and the burdens come on our shoulders, where there's just a stack of things. We've got this issue over here and we've got this issue over there.

There are things happening with your kids you would never have thought of when you were raising them at five years old. But now that they're 18, now it's another issue. It's another thing. And you know when you got married, you never thought that divorce papers would be on your desk. You never thought you'd be hiring an attorney to handle that person that's trying to sue you. You never knew that you would file for bankruptcy.

You never thought that when you first started attending church that now your spouse is going to a different church. You would never know that. And so you're waiting for God to act, and you're waiting for God to answer. But ultimately, we've learned in the in-between times, we're just waiting for the Lord Himself. Enjoying relationship with Him. Trusting Him with our lives.

We're all broken. We're all limping along. I picked up a new book yesterday. The title caught my attention, but it was also written by someone that I respect. His name is Pastor John Wimber. He's with the Lord right now, but he was the man that helped create the Vineyard movement, the Vineyard movement of churches. And the title of the book was just what caught my eye: *Never Trust a Leader Without a Limp*.

And I thought—and I know what he's saying. He's like, "Hey, you know what? The leadership around you needs to be living the same life you're living." And there's going to be hurt and pain among all of us. Who wants to limp? We all want to go through life without any pain, without any suffering. But it's the pain and suffering that develops you into the men and women that He wants you to be. And it's okay if you're limping today.

I got a text in between services; one of the brothers said, "Yeah, I'm not limping, I'm in a wheelchair." Yeah. The brothers in the wheelchairs, we admire you because there you are, still going forward, serving the Lord, loving Jesus, just knowing that, yeah, life is hard and it's a little bit harder for you than it is for us. But together we get to worship Jesus, and we get to wait. It's a privilege to wait on the Lord. Not everybody waits on the Lord. Not everyone today has a relationship with Jesus.

That could be describing your life. I'm talking to our church today from the Bible about waiting on God, but here you are today without a relationship with Him. It makes me sad because where are you going to turn for help? Do you really think alcohol is going to give you all that you think? You think you're really going to be satisfied when you wake up in your own vomit? Is that where satisfaction comes?

Smoking pot now is legal. Oh, you know what? That's where satisfaction comes. Whatever you're thinking right now, at a low moment, you would tell me, "This is not living life. I don't like my life." That's why you keep drinking. That's why you keep smoking. That's why you keep going from person to person. Why broken relationships are something that not only have you experienced, but they're—like you look at the failures and the pains of life and would you just admit today? You don't have to admit it to me.

But would you just admit today that the root source of that is not the way you were raised, it's not the community you grew up in—it's because you've heard about the love of God and you resist Him. Because if there's one testimony in this whole room of God being able to save someone that was really perceived as being unsalvable, I'm standing before you today. God transforming a life and then many lives after that. You're going to learn that in Acts chapter 9 when we get to the testimony of Saul.

If you met Saul, if he walked in here today, you'd hide the kids, get everyone out of the way. Saul is here, he's going to kill us and arrest us. And yet Saul in the heart of God, that man's going to write half the New Testament. That man was salvable. If we see people with the eyes of Christ, then you are salvable. You are not so far from God today that if you would acknowledge—but see, here's the barrier: you won't admit that you've sinned against a holy and a righteous God.

You won't admit that your life is as bad as it's ever been. You won't admit that you need Him. And I'm inviting you today to admit your sin before Him, to admit your failures, to admit—what we say in relationship to, "Oh, you know, we all make mistakes," and it's true, but we also all sin and fall short of the glory of God. That's true. And God so loved you that He sent His only begotten Son to die for you, to rescue you from this limited existence so that you might learn to trust Him in the difficulties of your life with hope, with courage, with boldness, with a love that's unspeakable, with a joy that's experienced, with peace, and to be patient, kind, gentle. That's all available to you in Christ, submitting your life to Him. We're all going to have the in-between times. We invite you to be in a place where you can wait not only on the situation but you can also now wait on the coming of your Savior who loves you.

Guest (Male): That is Pastor Ed Taylor on Abounding Grace. He'll be right back, so don't go away. If you joined us late or would just like to hear this message again, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com. Another way to take in a steady dose of God's word is through the app. It's free. We're also on oneplace.com.

Abounding Grace is made possible through the support of our listeners. And when you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, we'll send you a copy of When the Storm Hits by Chuck Smith. Maybe you're in a storm even as we speak. Know this: the Lord stands by you, His purpose sustains you, and God's word will encourage and guide you. So if you're feeling a little overwhelmed by the waves, see how to get anchored on Jesus the rock as you read When the Storm Hits. Call 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also get the book online at calvaryco.store. Now as promised, here's Pastor Ed to close things out.

Pastor Ed Taylor: These times of waiting on the Lord, waiting for God to show up, waiting for God to give us an answer, waiting for the open/closed doors come to us all. And I read something from Elisabeth Elliot, the widow of the famous missionary Jim Elliot. He lost his life seeking to reach the lost. The very people that he went to minister to in the jungle turned on him and killed him. And Elisabeth writes, and I quote—it's a little long, so stick with me.

"When I went back to my jungle station after the death of my first husband Jim Elliot, I was faced with many confusions and uncertainties. I had a good many new roles besides that of being a single parent and a widow. I was alone on a jungle station that Jim and I had manned together. I had to learn to do all kinds of things which I was not trained or prepared in any way to do. It was a great help to me simply to do the next thing. Have you had the experience of feeling as if you've got far too many burdens to bear? Far too many people to take care of? Far too many things on your list to do? You just can't possibly do it and you get in a panic and you just want to sit down and collapse in a pile and feel sorry for yourself? Well, I've felt that way a good many times in my life and I go back over and over again to an old Saxon legend, which I'm told is carved in an old English parsonage somewhere by the sea. I don't know where this is, but this is the poem that was written about the legend. The legend is called 'Do the Next Thing.' The poem says:

Do it immediately and do it with prayer.

Do it reliantly, casting all care.

Do it with reverence, tracing His hand,

Who placed it before thee with earnest command.

Stayed on Omnipotence, safe 'neath His wing,

Leave all resultings and do the next thing.

And this is a wonderfully saving truth: just do the next thing." End quote.

This ministered to me greatly in the last eight years of my life. There were days when I did sit there and feel sorry for myself. I wonder how many of you are in a similar place. And the word of the Lord to you today is to get up. There's no progress sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. There's no progress for the kingdom, there's no help for your family, but there is healing from the Lord.

And the way that she describes this was a new thing that I'd never experienced before. And the way she explains it later on in the book is she says, "Doing the next thing means if you need to wake up and get out of bed, then get out of bed. Do the next thing. Go take a shower. Put some clothes on. If you've got to go shopping, go shopping. If you need to do the dishes, do the dishes. But do the next thing." I like that. Just do the next thing.

Guest (Male): Next time on Abounding Grace, we'll continue our series, "Be the Church," with another look into Acts chapter 1. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado and online at aboundinggraceradio.com.