Kerry Shook - It's Not Over Yet
Recently, our kids and all of our grandchildren were coming back from a trip when the plane landed at Bush Intercontinental Airport. And our grandkids who had been really excited about the plane ride when it took off, were now way over it. And all the problems started when the plane had to wait on the tarmac while the gate cleared and the wait became longer and longer and unfortunately, for the rest of the passengers on the plane, all our grandchildren were done with the waiting and here's the video of what happened next.
Yep, those are every one of our grandchildren. They're always perfect and nice and wonderful, that was just the 1%. You just saw the 1%. One guy next to Josh asked, do you guys have a connecting flight? And Josh said, "Oh no, we all live in Houston". The guy just said, "Thank God," and everyone on the plane cheered. Hey, kids hate to wait but we as adults don't do much better when it comes to waiting. We hate to wait on anything. We grumble, we gripe, we complain, when we have to wait. And we really hate to wait on God. We're waiting on God to come through and we're waiting, we're waiting and nothing is happening and it feels like God has left the building and left us in the waiting room of life, all alone. It's during the delays of life, we begin to doubt God.
We begin to doubt that God really cares. We begin to think that God is never going to come through. And some of you are in that delay stage right now, you're in the middle of the mess and all you can see is the mess. And you're wondering, will I ever be in a different place? Will I ever get through this, will I ever experience joy again? And it's critical that you understand, delays are part of God's process for us. It's one of the ways God builds our faith and grows our character and delays can't destroy God's purpose for you, in fact, they're part of God's purpose for you and delays don't have to steal your joy, they can build your joy.
We're concluding our series, "The Joy Challenge," but we're not concluding practicing choosing joy. That's something we need to keep practicing and keep practicing, choosing joy, whether we feel like it or not because joy is not dependent on our feelings, it starts with a choice. It's a focus, not a feeling and it's in the delays of life, when I'm waiting on joy, it's even more important to choose joy no matter what. I want you to open your Bibles to Psalms 30, because we're going to look at David again. We saw David last week really seeking to stand for the Lord in the winds of change and not letting the winds of change blow away his joy and today, we're going to see how David chose joy in the delay.
So would you stand in honor of God's word and just follow along with me? David said, "I will exalt You, LORD, for You rescued me. You refused to let my enemies triumph over me. O LORD, my God, I cried to You for help and You restored my health. You brought me up from the grave, O LORD. You kept me from falling into the pit of death. Sing to the LORD, all you godly ones! Praise His holy name. For His anger lasts only a moment, but His favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning".
You can be seated. David says, when I was going through the most difficult delay of my life, there were a lot of desperate tears shed, I went through the dark night of waiting and it was a night that I thought would never end. It felt like the darkness had become my destiny. It felt like the light had gone out of my life. It felt like my life was over. But then God said it's not over yet, your darkest night of delay can't stop the sun from rising. Midnight can't stop the morning from coming. The weeping may last the night, but joy comes in the morning. There's no delay that can destroy God's purpose.
And some of you today are in the middle of your darkest night of delay and it feels like the darkness has become your destiny and you think your dream is done. You feel like your purpose has died during this delay and it feels like it's all over. But God says to you today, it's not over yet. I want you to know it's not the end, it's only the in-between. It's not over yet, the darkness isn't your destiny. There may be a lot of tears shed, there may be a lot of prayers prayed in the waiting, but there's no midnight that can stop the morning light. Just remember in the waiting, the morning of joy is coming to you.
The great theologian Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over till it's over". And in the waiting room of life, we give up and leave before the blessing because we believe the lie that it's all over. We believe the lie that the enemy tells us that it's all over, give up, and we leave before the blessing. But the God of the universe says it's not over yet because I'm not finished with you yet. It may look like the dream is dead, but God says, it's not over yet because I'm not finished with you yet. It may look like you'll never overcome the problem, that the walls are closing in and there's no way out, and you feel like it's all over, but the God of the universe says it's not over yet because I'm not finished with you yet. Maybe the doctors have said it's all over but God says it's not over until I say it's over. He alone determines our days on this earth.
And God says to you today, you're not in the "it's all over" stage, you're just in the delay stage where I'm developing your character for all eternity. God will bring you through the delay to your destiny, but God says we have a part to play in the delay because that delay can build our faith or destroy our faith and it's up to us. So I want us to look at what David did during his long night of delay. David was an unknown shepherd boy when God called the prophet Samuel to go down to Bethlehem to the house of Jesse because God said, I want to anoint one of Jesse's sons as the next king. So all of Jesse's sons are lined up in front of the prophet and they're all tall and strong and look like mighty warriors. They all look like kings.
But God tells Samuel, I've rejected them because I don't look at the outward appearance like people do, I look at the heart and God tells Samuel, none of these are the one. And then in 1 Samuel 16, Samuel says, "So he asked Jesse, 'Are these all the sons you have?' 'There is still the youngest,' Jesse answered. 'He is tending the sheep.' Samuel said, 'Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.' So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, 'Rise and anoint him; this is the one.' So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon David".
So David is anointed king by God in this unexpected and powerful ceremony and the next thing David does, he goes back to his lowly job of leading the family's flock of sheep. He's anointed to be the next king and then he goes back to this lowest of the low job of being a shepherd. Then he becomes King Saul's servant, and for years he serves King Saul like all the other servants and then he spends years running from King Saul who because of jealousy is trying to kill him. So he spends years running for his life, and so David is anointed king, but it's years before he gets to be king. Why? Why does God allow those delays in our life? And how can we keep the delays from stealing our joy?
Well, first we have to see that delays mature our character. It's those delays that develop our character, if we let them. We have to decide, we get to choose whether or not we let those delays mature our character and build our faith. Look at what David did when he was a servant to King Saul in 1 Samuel 18:30 it says, "David acted with more wisdom than all the servants of Saul. So his name became very important". So David was doing this very unimportant job, he was one of the servants for King Saul and he didn't try to be important.
Can you imagine if you were in that position? If I was in that position, I'd been anointed the next king, I knew I was going to be the next king and maybe the other servants didn't realize that, hey, I'm gonna be the next king, I might have said, hey, guys, I'm not gonna clean the bathrooms today because you know I've been anointed to be the next king. I'm going to be the next king and I don't think I'm gonna do this day because I don't want to and I just want you to know that I'll remember you when I become king. And so you better let me just do whatever I want to do because I'm going to be the next king.
No, he didn't tell anyone that. He just put himself under the king's authority and he served, he just served, he just worked hard, submitted to that authority, waited for God's time, and his name became important. He was willing to do the unimportant, so his name became important and if you're willing to do the unimportant that God calls you to do, he'll lift you up to do the important. See, David was anointed to be the leader of the nation but before he could become a great leader, he had to learn how to be a great follower. He trusted that God would raise him up at the right time. So he waited by working hard, serving the king in this lowly job that no one noticed because he knew his time would come. That is if he let God build his character to match his challenge, he needed to develop the maturity to match the great mission that God had called him to.
See the problem today is everybody wants to lead, but nobody wants to learn to follow and you'll never be a great leader until you become a great follower. Until you learn to place yourself under authority, you can never be great in authority. Until you understand authority and you humble yourself to be a great follower, you'll never be a great leader. I mean, there are all these business books today on how to be a great leader. You see a lot of them in the bookstores at the airport, how to be a great leader, and I like those leadership books, but you never see one on how to be a great follower. You can become the greatest follower. Nobody cares about that.
And I'm afraid that a lot of our young men and women today are coming up and they want to be a great leader. They've been told you need to be a great leader and then they get really impatient and they don't want to wait to learn how to be a great follower. And it's like, you know, I could lead better than this person. And so they rebel against that authority and they don't learn to be great followers so they can't become great leaders. We don't like to wait for God's time, but God brings us through those delays to prepare us for our purpose. To prepare us for that position that he has for us and the longer the wait, the greater the wave of blessing that's coming.
You see, we start to believe that God's not going to come through, that it's all over unless I do something, but David tells us, from personal experience, what happens when we're willing to wait for the Lord. In Psalm 27:14, he says, "Wait on the Lord. Be courageous, and He will strengthen your heart. Wait on the Lord"! And focus on that phrase, "He will strengthen your heart". That's counterintuitive because whenever we're waiting for something to happen and it's not happening, I feel powerless. I feel weak, I feel powerless to change the situation because it's not happening. But when we trust God in the waiting, in our weakness, God will give us strength that comes from him.
Our character will grow stronger, our faith will grow stronger, and our faith will be built when we wait upon the Lord. But it's in that time of waiting that we feel so weak. But when we bring it to God, he gives us strength. And right now, your heart may feel weak in the waiting, but it's not over yet, you just admit your weakness to God so that he can strengthen your heart. Your heart may feel anxious right now, but it's not over yet. You bring your anxiety to God so that he can develop peace in your heart that the world can't explain. Your heart may feel discouraged and broken, but it's not over yet, you bring your broken heart to God so he can develop joy in your life that no one can take away.
Delays mature our character if we let them or we can just waste the delays and difficulty to gripe, grumble, and complain and don't understand it's part of God's plan. But then delays, draw us close to God, for you see when the delay brings us desperation, that's when we run to God and fall on our knees. That's when he draws close to us and provides for us and comforts us. David is being chased by Saul in the desert and it was a barren and dry and desolate place. But God provided for him right in the middle of the desert of delay. In 1 Samuel 23:29 it says, "And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi".
Chris and I have been to En Gedi in Israel and it's this beautiful oasis in a dry and barren desert. I mean, all around this little place, En Gedi, it's just desert, it's just hot and dry, but there's a beautiful spring in En Gedi and everything is lush and green in this one spot. So David has water and food for his men and animals, there are caves to hide away and rest in that protect him. Right in the middle of the desert of delay, God provided him with all he needed to make it through one day at a time. And that's a great picture of where God wants to guide us in the delays of our life.
If you find yourself today in a dry and desolate place in the desert of delay and it feels like there's nowhere to turn and you're waiting and you're waiting to get through this desert, let God give you your En Gedi right there in the desert of delay. You go to him every day and spend time and let his word nourish you and refresh you. Go to the spring of his joy and drink that in, connect with Christ every day, even if it's 10, 15 minutes to start your day off. Whenever you're going through the wilderness of waiting, God wants to give you an oasis. And most scholars believe that David wrote this next Psalm while he was in the caves of En Gedi.
In Psalm 91, it says, "Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust Him. For He will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with His feathers. He will shelter you with His wings. His faithful promises are your armor and your protection". What a beautiful place to be when life gets really ugly in the Lord's presence and protection. That En Gedi where you're nourished through his word and through his love and through his presence in your desert of delay.
And look what David says in Psalm 25:10, "From now on every road you travel will take you to God". When we're traveling through the wilderness of waiting, we don't know where the road is leading, we don't know how long we're gonna be on that road and it feels like the road will never end, so we lose our joy. We don't know what's coming around the corner, we don't know what frightening thing is coming up that we can't stop, and so we lose our joy. But if you're a believer, you can know that whatever road you're on in the waiting, it's taking you closer to God. You may not know all the curves and the turns that are coming. You may not know what's next, but you know where it's leading, it's leading you closer to God. It's taking you closer to his heart.
The road you're on right now may be a bumpy one, it may be steep and rocky, it may be muddy and slippery and scary, it may be slow going, it may be a long and broken road, but it's taking you closer to God, I guarantee you that. And God will never forsake you on the road, you won't walk the road alone. You see delays mature our character, if we let them. And delays, draw us close to God, if we let them. And delays can't keep us from choosing joy. There is no delay, no difficulty, no dead end that can keep you from choosing joy. There's no delay, there's no difficulty, there's no dead end that can keep you from choosing joy.
Look what David said in Psalm 71:20, "You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but You will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. You will restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again. I will shout for joy and sing your praises, for You have ransomed me". David says, God, you've allowed me to go through much hardship. I don't like it, I don't understand it completely, but I know you're good, and you're God and I'm not, so I'm going to trust you and no problem can nullify your promises in my life.
So I choose to shout in joy, I choose to get my eyes off myself and onto you, I choose to get my eyes off myself and on to bringing joy to others. Weeping may last the night, but joy comes in the morning. So I'm gonna shout and sing for joy, even though I don't feel it right now because joy is coming in the morning. We can choose joy, we can choose joy in this painful and broken world that needs the joy of Jesus desperately. When they see joy in your life, they'll want what you have because they won't have it because it doesn't come from any other source than Jesus Christ, the God of joy. And because of Jesus, we can have the bright morning of joy forever in our home in heaven.
Philippians 3:20 says, "But our homeland is in heaven, and we are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven, by his power to rule all things, He will change our humble bodies and make them like His own glorious body". You see every believer on Earth is in the waiting. Every one of us are in that stage of delay. We're waiting because our true home is in heaven. That's where our true destiny is, and so all of us are in the waiting. We're just passing through this Earth, we're just visitors on this planet because our ultimate home is that perfect place, the perfect place of fulfillment, heaven. The true perfect En Gedi.
You see, that's our home, we're just in the waiting right now, that's why, no matter how many amazing things come into your life, how many blessings come into your life, how many joyful moments, there's always a little something missing. There's always a little ache in our souls because we were made for eternity. We were made to be in that perfect place, heaven, and God is preparing us here on this Earth, through the delays, through the difficulties, through the dead ends, God is preparing us even through the pain to rule and reign with him for all eternity, when we finally get home, our ultimate home. But here on this Earth, when we go through the delays and this time here on earth, just know it ain't over yet.
God's gonna bring you through and he's positioning you for a new purpose here on this Earth. He's going to bring you through like he brought David through to your destiny here, but he's preparing you for your ultimate destiny because you see, when life on this Earth is over, it's not over yet, it's just beginning. It's just beginning in our home in heaven. And some of you today feel like it's all over, the dream has died, it's all over. Your hope is dead, it's all over, God's never going to come through.
But I'm telling you, the God of the universe says it's not over yet and it's not over until I say it's over, God says. And God always keeps his promises. He says, I'm gonna bring you through that delay, this is just part of my process, but deliverance is coming. Deliverance is coming and that road you're on right now may be broken and painful. That broken road is leading you straight to me, to be closer to me, and I'm drawing close to you and I'm going to see you through and I'm gonna be your En Gedi during this desert of delay and you're gonna discover that you can make it through with my power and I'm going to become so real to you that you'll never forget this time.
No matter what road we're going on, no matter what the road is like, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how broken it is, we know what happens in the end. It takes his right to God, it takes us right to our champion who's won the victory and we have the victory already. And so we don't have to lose our joy, we don't have to live in anxiety and fear because we know, we know it. That's why we can have such faith is because we know who wins in the end. And it's the God of victory, our champion Jesus Christ, the God of joy.