Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 585 | Waiting is Preparation
Transcript
- 0:05She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well.
- 0:09Ministries podcast with Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man,
- 0:14woman, boy, and girl must come to Jesus, just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
- 0:20Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
- 0:26Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
- 0:30or on our website at watwm.org,
- 0:34we invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
- 0:39who God is and to strengthen your daily walk.
- 1:03So many times we get discouraged during the waiting.
- 1:07We think that all the preparation is just that, preparation.
- 1:12We neglect to realize that the preparation is an event in and of itself.
- 1:17Every effort spent in preparing yourself for service for the Lord is actually service for the Lord.
- 1:25Join Kim Miller of Woman at the Well Ministries as she walks us through the
- 1:29life of Noah, revealing the incredible relationship Noah had with God formed
- 1:35while preparing for the flood.
- 1:37The flood was an event, but it wasn't the only event.
- 1:42Every day, as Noah prepared for the flood, he drew closer and closer to God.
- 1:49His faith was increased and his relationship with God was developed.
- 1:53When all the preparatory events were completed, Noah was ready for the flood,
- 1:58and the rain came and the waters rose.
- 2:01This was a catastrophic event that Noah was fully prepared for because of all
- 2:07the events he had shared with God.
- 2:11Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
- 2:17where waiting is preparation.
- 2:20I think so often in our lives, we are just so busy getting ready for some big
- 2:27event that we often determine that that's what's happening,
- 2:32is that everything we're living up into that event is somehow insignificant.
- 2:37It's It's necessary for us to get the job done or the task or have the event to come off as planned.
- 2:46But we think that everything going up to that event is somehow less.
- 2:55But today I want to bring in your hearing something that God has really dropped in my spirit.
- 3:02And that is that the preparation, the wait, is an event.
- 3:13And as we are waiting, He is prepping us, not just for the event,
- 3:20but for us to be who He has intended us to be, for us to be able to withstand
- 3:26all the blessings that He has for us.
- 3:30Some blessings are too big for us to have in our current state.
- 3:36Our face is too small. Our dreams are too small. Our vision is too narrow.
- 3:44But as God works in us and through us and around us, prepping us and creating
- 3:52us to be who he would have us to be, that wait is preparation.
- 3:59See, wait is a verb.
- 4:02Wait is an intentional choice to remain stationary in this state of readiness and expectation.
- 4:14When we wait, we are to look forward expectantly.
- 4:19Waiting is a moment in time for something ahead of us to happen.
- 4:26But as we look in today's message, where waiting is preparation,
- 4:30I want you to look at Noah.
- 4:34And our text is going to come out of Genesis chapter 8, verses 1 through 20.
- 4:39But there's a lot to talk about before we get to Genesis chapter 8.
- 4:44But as we begin to do this self-reflection of what is our relationship with God,
- 4:53What is God trying to teach us and prepare us for and create in us so that we
- 5:00are better equipped for all that he has for us?
- 5:05I used to have a friend. He's still a friend, but we don't see each other as often.
- 5:10And he used to say to me all the time, Kim, you're wishing your life away.
- 5:15Because at work, I would be preparing for the next big event,
- 5:18the next big thing, the next project, the next reporting of a project.
- 5:25But the reality of it is, is that every day that I was working on it was a big event.
- 5:32And we need to make sure in our lives that we're not wishing our lives a way
- 5:38to be something else or to do something else or to hurry up and wish what we
- 5:45wanted to come would come.
- 5:47We need to redeem the time.
- 5:49And we need to be excited and to look expectantly at every single day,
- 5:56because he says, rejoice, for this is the day that the Lord has made,
- 6:00and we're to be glad in it.
- 6:01And it's not just marking space and time.
- 6:05Every day, every moment that we have is time to grow closer to the Lord.
- 6:13And in James 4, 8, he says, if you'll draw nigh to him, he will draw nigh to you.
- 6:19The filter verse that I would like to use for today's message comes out of Psalm
- 6:2462.1, and it says, Truly my soul waiteth upon God, from him cometh my salvation.
- 6:33That whole definition of wait that says that we are to remain stationary in
- 6:39readiness or expectation,
- 6:41that we're to look forward expectantly it really makes some amazing sense and
- 6:47thrilling sensation in our heart and soul when we read it in these terms of
- 6:51this verse in psalm 62 1 that says truly my soul.
- 6:57Remain stationary in a readiness expectation. It looks forward expectantly to
- 7:02what God is going to do, because there from Him is going to be my salvation, my blessings,
- 7:10my life, my goodness, my grace, my mercy, and a love that will not fail.
- 7:16So as we look forward into Genesis and the account of the flood and Noah,
- 7:22I ask that you would just truly think about your relationship.
- 7:27About how important are your day-to-day activities with regards to your relationship with Jesus.
- 7:35There's a lot going on in this world.
- 7:39And sometimes we'll find ourselves saying, I wish the Lord would come.
- 7:45Sometimes we'll say, I wish the Lord would intervene. Other times when our faith
- 7:50is very weak, we'll say, where is God?
- 7:53But Noah teaches us something pretty incredible.
- 7:57Noah teaches us that God is present in the wait, that the time of wait is valuable.
- 8:07And that because we wait upon the Lord, we receive that which he has for us. Let's pray.
- 8:15Our kind and most gracious to Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this and
- 8:19other opportunity to come before you.
- 8:21We thank you for your love and your mercy and your grace. And I ask,
- 8:24Lord, that you would just be in this message.
- 8:27I pray, Lord, that you would enable me to articulate that which you placed in
- 8:32my heart, that you would open our minds and our hearts to be ready to hear what
- 8:37you have to hear and to apply,
- 8:39instantaneously to our lives, that we would be exactly who you've created us to be.
- 8:44Lord, I pray that you would remove me from this message as far as the east is
- 8:49from the west, and Lord, that you would have your way with your word. In Jesus' name we pray.
- 8:57Amen. Let's look at Genesis chapter 8, verses 1 through 20.
- 9:02And God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the cattle that was with him in the ark.
- 9:09And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters assuaged.
- 9:14The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the
- 9:19rain from heaven was restrained.
- 9:21And the waters returned from off the earth continually.
- 9:24And after the end of the hundred and fifty days, the waters were abated.
- 9:28And the ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month
- 9:34upon the mountains of Ararat.
- 9:36And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month.
- 9:40And the tenth month on the first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen.
- 9:45And it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of
- 9:50the ark which he had made.
- 9:52And he set forth a raven, which went forth to and fro until the waters were
- 9:56dried up from off the earth.
- 9:58And also he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from
- 10:03off the face of the ground.
- 10:05But the dove found no rest for the sole of her feet.
- 10:08And she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth.
- 10:13Then he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
- 10:19And he stayed yet another seven days.
- 10:22And again, he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came into him in the evening.
- 10:27And low in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off.
- 10:30So no one knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
- 10:34And he stayed yet other seven days and went
- 10:37forth the dove which returned not again unto him
- 10:39anymore and it came to pass in the six hundredths and
- 10:42first year in the first month the first day of the
- 10:45month the waters were dried up from off the earth and no one removed the covering
- 10:49of the ark and looked and behold the face of the ground was dry and in the second
- 10:55month on the seventh seven and twentieth day of the month was the earth dried
- 11:00and god spake unto noah saying Go forth of the ark.
- 11:05Thou and thy wife and thy sons and thy sons' wives with thee.
- 11:08Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee of all flesh,
- 11:13both of fowl and of cattle,
- 11:15and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, that they may breed
- 11:19abundantly in the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.
- 11:23And Noah went forth and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him,
- 11:29Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth from
- 11:33the earth, after their kind, went forth out of the ark.
- 11:36And Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast,
- 11:41and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
- 11:47That is the culmination of what most of us would refer to as the big event.
- 11:56But I submit to you that there was a lot went on in that hundred years,
- 12:03before the event took place. Scripture tells us that approximately 100 years
- 12:10to prepare for this building of the ark.
- 12:13Some people think it was 50, some people think it was 100, some people think it was 70.
- 12:18We know that his age when he built the ark,
- 12:21and we know that his sons were married and
- 12:25had wives and came into the ark
- 12:28with him so a lot of time
- 12:31had taken place between god
- 12:35coming to noah and telling him to
- 12:38build an ark and actually using the
- 12:41ark what i want you to see in
- 12:44this event is that preparation gets
- 12:48you ready for the event and preparation is an
- 12:51event all in itself once
- 12:55noah had built the ark and granted he built it i'm sure under a lot of ridicule
- 13:04under a lot of people looking at him thinking he had lost his mind people that
- 13:09were making fun of him people who scoffed at him and mocked him.
- 13:15Noah continued to do what God asked him to do.
- 13:21He was building an ark, and he was telling people they needed to come to the safety of the ark.
- 13:27And he was explaining to all around him that outside of the safety of the ark, they would perish.
- 13:36And no one believed him. After all, he was talking about rain coming from the
- 13:40sky and flooding the entire earth and destroying it, and they had never seen rain come from the sky.
- 13:47Noah took God at his word and believed him enough to continue to work in an
- 13:53effort to build an ark because God said, build it.
- 13:58I think so many times in our lives, God wants to do something incredible and
- 14:03amazing, and you have to admit that what God does,
- 14:07sparing Noah and his family and all the animals on the ark was pretty magnificent.
- 14:14And while Noah was working day in and day out and suffering from what other
- 14:22people thought was his craziness, he continued to do what he was supposed to do.
- 14:29And when we look in Genesis 8-2, we see that the scoffers are now going to be destroyed.
- 14:39In Genesis 8, 2, it says, The fountains also of the deep and the windows of
- 14:43the heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.
- 14:48What happened was, in that time of being called to the ark and the rain stopping,
- 14:55everything on earth was destroyed.
- 15:00The rain stopped. The devil is never going to win.
- 15:05All those that were making fun of him, all those that had scoffed at what he
- 15:10was doing, they were no longer around.
- 15:14They had missed the opportunity to come to safety.
- 15:21And I believe it's worth noting to all of us that those who do not know Jesus
- 15:26Christ of Savior, should he come today, will miss the opportunity of safety in Christ Jesus.
- 15:36So what we see in this preparation is that Noah spent a hundred years building an ark.
- 15:45And during that time, he endured a lot.
- 15:49And that endurance created patience. It created determination.
- 15:57He learned a lot. And every day that he worked on this ark, he was growing closer
- 16:04to the Lord because people were drawing further from him.
- 16:09And he began to see God for who God was.
- 16:15And I believe that each day that he began to work, he worked alongside God.
- 16:21And I believe God spoke to him in ways that we don't know.
- 16:27I believe that the relationship that Noah had with God was one that was strong,
- 16:34one that was persistent, one that was going to see him through.
- 16:40And I believe that daily, doing the work that God had called Noah to do,
- 16:46looking only to God for approval,
- 16:50created in him the person that was going to be able to withstand over a year in the book.
- 17:01I want you to see that Noah...
- 17:06Understands what it's like to hear God speak and to follow him.
- 17:15And no matter what anybody else said or what anybody else did, Noah was not detoured.
- 17:22And I believe that every day was an event with God and Noah,
- 17:29building God and Noah's relationship,
- 17:32strengthening Noah's character, and getting Noah ready.
- 17:39In verse 4 of Genesis 8, the ark comes to rest on Mount Ararat,
- 17:45and God remembers Noah, we're told in verse 1.
- 17:49The ark is lifted above the earth, above the flood, above the waters.
- 17:58I want you to know that Noah had chosen intentionally to hide himself in God.
- 18:07And in doing so, as the rain came, as the waters rose, Noah rose above it.
- 18:14Because God lifted Noah above the storm, and God will always lift you above
- 18:21your problems in your storm if you will get in the ark of safety with Jesus Christ.
- 18:29Jesus is the ark of safety, and only those inside of him are going to survive.
- 18:37This hundred years or so of preparation got Noah in a place that he could be
- 18:47successful with what God had for him next.
- 18:52I want you to know that after the waters had receded and the boat comes to rest
- 18:59on Mount Ararat, there's 40 days of silence.
- 19:06Nothing is happening. He waits 40 days before he steps out and opens the window.
- 19:13Can you imagine all this time in the ark, all the same people for all this long,
- 19:22how it must have smelled,
- 19:24how things were, yet Noah doesn't rush?
- 19:30He demonstrates a deliberate and strategic patience.
- 19:37And I have to believe that that kind of patience came from offering himself
- 19:43on a regular basis for God to work on him and through him,
- 19:48for God to reveal himself to him, and for Noah to know him in a way that he could trust him fully.
- 19:56Waiting in this 40 days of
- 19:59silence Noah shows complete obedience Noah's
- 20:04simple action of delaying until day 40 tells us that there's a spiritual maturity
- 20:09about him and spiritual maturity often requires restraint a quiet restraint
- 20:18there are times that people will say things to you,
- 20:22and you desperately want to rebuttal.
- 20:24You desperately want to defend yourself.
- 20:28But Jesus showed us an example where he said not a word.
- 20:32And when you let Jesus fight your battle, because it doesn't belong to you,
- 20:36it belongs to the Lord, according to David in 1 Samuel.
- 20:39When you allow him to do that, and you have the spiritual maturity to trust
- 20:45him fully, in full obedience, you'll find that you can wait.
- 20:53You're going to wait expectantly. You're going to know that he's not withholding
- 20:58anything good from you, but that he's preparing you to receive something that
- 21:04he has prepared that is perfect.
- 21:06It allows you to stand firm in the wait.
- 21:12Noah kept the window closed until God tells him to open it.
- 21:20And when he did, Noah was safe.
- 21:25Noah stays on the ark until God tells him to leave.
- 21:30And so when he does, he steps out on dry ground.
- 21:36We hear in scripture one passage
- 21:41of verses that are spoken so often which is proverbs 3 5 through 7 and he says
- 21:47trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not into thine own understanding
- 21:50in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths be not wise in
- 21:56thine own eyes Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
- 22:02Noah had spent a long, long time building the ark, which gave him what he needed
- 22:09to endure being on the ark.
- 22:13Which gave him what he needed to wait for God's perfect timing to get off the ark.
- 22:20See, too often we get ahead of ourselves.
- 22:25We push forward. We make our own ideas.
- 22:30We help him know what it is we want to do, and it'll seem logical to us.
- 22:36And we get ahead of God, but when we get ahead of God, things don't go the way that we need them to go.
- 22:43They don't go the way that he intended them to go.
- 22:46Noah could probably have never endured the weight if he had not endured all
- 22:54the events leading up to it while he was building the ark.
- 22:58Those 40 days of coming to rest when he was no longer sloshing back and forth
- 23:03in the waters would have been very difficult for him to sit still until God said, open the window.
- 23:09So had he not come to know Jesus, put himself on the anvil for God to mold and
- 23:18to make into who he needed to be.
- 23:22There was a lot of patience demonstrated on the ark, and we don't know the whole stories of the ark.
- 23:31But what we do know is that we can learn some stuff from what is revealed from
- 23:38this account in Scripture.
- 23:41You must trust God's timing instead of your own. That's exactly what Noah did.
- 23:49He didn't get ahead of God.
- 23:51He didn't lag behind God. He followed what God said.
- 23:56He trusted God's way above his way. Can you do that?
- 24:03I have to believe that while Noah was constructing the ark and the Lord gave
- 24:10him all the instructions of exactly how to do it, if he's like any other human
- 24:15person, he had his own ideas.
- 24:18And i imagine there were times when the lord had instructed him to do something
- 24:23a certain way and he himself wanted to do it another way but he had learned through this process.
- 24:31To trust in the lord he had learned that god requires that you deny yourself,
- 24:39denying self and natural instincts and curiosity is what allowed noah to stay
- 24:46in the ark when it had come to rest on Mount Ararat, but he still waited 40 days to open the window.
- 24:54He didn't force his agenda. He didn't create his own solution.
- 24:59He simply waited on God.
- 25:03Remember, waiting on God is remaining stationary and ready, expecting something to happen.
- 25:13Waiting on the Lord is looking forward expectantly, but remaining steady and
- 25:22stationary until God says move.
- 25:28You must trust God's timing instead of your own. You must remain faithful during the wait.
- 25:36Think about it. All this time had passed.
- 25:40He had to want to get out of the ark. He had to be going stir crazy.
- 25:47He must have been tired of hearing the animals.
- 25:50He had to be tired of tending the animals.
- 25:53But he remained faithful during the wait. He continued to feed the animals.
- 25:59He continued to lead his family. He did all the mundane chores and things of
- 26:07living, all while not seeing anything change.
- 26:13How many times have we not learned the patience that was demonstrated by Noah on the ark?
- 26:20And we go out and we do whatever it is we want to do and we do it however we
- 26:24want to do it and and we take a notion from god and then we just do our own
- 26:28strategy and we figure out just exactly how we're going to do it and then it all falls apart.
- 26:35Noah teaches us that we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him.
- 26:40The following part he had to have learned in the preparation of the wait for
- 26:45what was the event to come.
- 26:47But Noah never wasted the events
- 26:51that were taking place that was preparing him for his time in the ark.
- 26:58It was okay that he hadn't seen anything happen. for 40 days. He could wait.
- 27:06He'd been in the boat over a year, and he hadn't seen anything.
- 27:11But that had to seem like a small pause to 70 to 100 years.
- 27:19He had acculturated the character of God to the extent that he truly and fully trusted him.
- 27:29And when that took place, that's when God put Noah in his ark of safety.
- 27:37That's when God fulfilled his promise to Noah.
- 27:41And those who had laughed at him, those who thought he was crazy,
- 27:45those who had given him problems and issues, they were annihilated.
- 27:50And by the time all of that happened, I have to believe that Noah was so close
- 27:56to the Lord, had assimilated his character so strongly that he didn't even feel any joy.
- 28:05I know this must be the case because it was the Lord that shut the window from the top.
- 28:13When they all got in, Scripture says, God shut the door.
- 28:20No one knew what was going to happen, that those were not in safety.
- 28:26And Noah could not have borne the grief and the guilt, the condemnation,
- 28:31the wailing, the gnashing, the screaming, trying to get on board if he had been the one that shut it.
- 28:40But there is now no more condemnation to them that love the Lord,
- 28:43to them that are called according to his purpose, to them that follow him.
- 28:47And so he's safely in the ark, and he remains faithful during the wait.
- 28:55The last thing we see of Noah's demonstration of patience in this account is this.
- 29:06You must choose obedience over pride.
- 29:11Pride will choose you
- 29:16incorrectly every time pride
- 29:20will have you to develop decisions and strategies based on your knowledge and
- 29:28your wisdom obedience abandons all of that and follows what God says using wisdom.
- 29:40Knowledge, and intelligence to know what God has said and to fully believe who he is.
- 29:52The first move came from Noah only when God instructed him to do so.
- 29:57He continued to faithfully do
- 30:01what god asked him to do as he prepared the
- 30:04ark he continued to faithfully do what
- 30:07god asked him to do while he remained in the
- 30:10ark and he waited for
- 30:13god to completely fulfill god's
- 30:17plan for his life he waited
- 30:20patiently in the ark of
- 30:24safety so often in our lives
- 30:27when we are faced with projects and tasks we want them done we want to get them
- 30:34done we want to do them we forge ahead often to our own detriment because we
- 30:41can't afford to be one second ahead of God's plan for our life.
- 30:46When we step ahead, what we are demonstrating is self-pride, self-reliance.
- 30:52What we are doing is we are denouncing our faith to believe God's timing is
- 30:58right, that God's will is right, that God's plan is perfect.
- 31:02We can't get ahead of God in all the time of preparation.
- 31:09Noah was learning God's time schedule.
- 31:16Noah was learning to rely upon God and his timing.
- 31:24Noah was prepared to wait.
- 31:29And it was his waiting on God that was going to allow God to complete fully
- 31:36his plan through and by Noah.
- 31:39Noah demonstrated tremendous
- 31:44restraint spiritual maturity by
- 31:48the things of patience that he
- 31:51demonstrated in his life by the
- 31:55way he carried on by his
- 31:58attitude by his character these all
- 32:01showed spiritual maturity and I believe the
- 32:04spiritual maturity needed for the time
- 32:07in the ark happens with every event in the preparation of building of the ark
- 32:15too often we think one is unnecessary one is unimportant and the other the stage the platform.
- 32:26The flood, the flood of the blessings. We think that's the event,
- 32:31but the reality remains that the event is the day-to-day relationship with Jesus.
- 32:37It's the day-to-day communication with God.
- 32:40It is the becoming who God wants you to be because you are falling in love with
- 32:46him more and more every day.
- 32:48You are yielding more and more of yourself to him. You are following the Lord and denying yourself.
- 32:54You're denouncing your pride, and
- 32:56you are fully committed, strategically planning to follow and not lead.
- 33:04And every step you take in that direction of laying yourself on the altar of
- 33:09God, his anvil to mold you and to make you and to form you, that is an event
- 33:15that is worthy of noting.
- 33:17It is an event that is worthy of having.
- 33:20It is just as important as anything else, because what we find is the flood
- 33:26was a revealing of all God had done to Noah and for Noah and through Noah up until that time.
- 33:34It was no different for Noah and Noah's relationship with God.
- 33:39In fact, it was all the pre-work that allowed Noah to faithfully and successfully.
- 33:48Carry out what the world calls the event.
- 33:53I'm not taking away from that. It's a catastrophic event, and there's much to
- 34:01be learned in it. But if you think...
- 34:06That your time on the platform, that your time on the stage,
- 34:09that your time in a position, that a role that you are playing is what matters to the Lord.
- 34:16You need to think again.
- 34:19It's the work God has done in you to get you to there.
- 34:24It's the preparation and the development of your relationship with him that
- 34:29is revealed there that others may see, but you know, You know what it takes to get there.
- 34:35You know the cost of the oil in your alabaster box.
- 34:38You understand that day by day, you've grown a little closer,
- 34:43and day by day, God has worked on you, and if you had missed the hundred years
- 34:48of preparation of the ark, it wouldn't have mattered that the flood came.
- 34:53You wouldn't have been prepared. Noah would have perished like everyone else.
- 35:00The significant difference in Noah's survival was his obedience in the preparation.
- 35:09So tonight, today, this morning, whatever time you're listening to this,
- 35:14God is preparing you for an event that's surely going to come.
- 35:20For sure, I know that he's preparing for us. his return.
- 35:26Have you made your decision to follow?
- 35:30He has called you to do a work for him, and the harvest is white.
- 35:37The workers are few. When he calls your number and you are ready,
- 35:44will you be spiritually mature enough to expectantly wait and remain stationary
- 35:51in a readiness position that he may use you.
- 35:56There are some lessons that we have to learn during our season of waiting because
- 36:03we walk by faith and not by sight, according to 2 Corinthians 5-7.
- 36:11And here it is. Listen closely.
- 36:15God often works invisibly before he works visibly.
- 36:22God is preparing a way where there seems to be no way.
- 36:28God is working things out for your good and his glory, and you can't see it.
- 36:35Too many times we give up right before the victory. The truth of the matter
- 36:42is that we have a front row seat to watch God unfold in a miracle.
- 36:49And just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.
- 36:55Every one of us can blow out a breath, and not a single one of us can see it.
- 37:02But we all know it's there.
- 37:06God is working, and we need to learn that from Noah.
- 37:11Because all the time that Noah
- 37:13prepared the ark, he was being prepared and being worked on and formed.
- 37:19So that he could carry out the task of being in the ark.
- 37:27In other words, he was prepared for the victory because he learned preparing
- 37:33the ark how to rest in the arms of Jesus.
- 37:39While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
- 37:44For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
- 37:50Noah watched day by day. Boards go up on an ark. Nails inside of boards.
- 37:59Stories build upon stories.
- 38:02Plans come to fruition. But he never saw the whole thing till it was done.
- 38:09And if at any point he had chosen to stop.
- 38:13The plan to build the ark for Noah would have ceased.
- 38:20He couldn't halfway prepare until the very last nail was driven and the very
- 38:28last piece of the ark was put into place.
- 38:32The ark would not have saved him because we're either all in or we're all out.
- 38:41And Noah was all in from the first board to the last, from the first floor to the top floor.
- 38:50And Noah entered the ark with his family and the animals at the precise time God said, go in.
- 39:01And that time, my friend, was when Noah had reached the spiritual maturity necessary
- 39:09for God to unleash the call on his life in the arc of the safety.
- 39:18Some things just take some time.
- 39:24But we could help ourselves if we would simply allow God to mold us and make
- 39:32us without us putting up such a fight.
- 39:36The other thing we can learn while we wait is the ability to let God just refine our character.
- 39:44James 1.4 says, But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect
- 39:51and entire, wanting nothing.
- 39:54If we're honest with ourselves, patience isn't the thing that we want.
- 39:59We don't pray for it. Tribulation work is patience.
- 40:03But patience has a place in all of our lives.
- 40:07Remember the spiritual maturity that gives us quiet restraint?
- 40:11The consistent, correct choices based on the Holy Spirit's leading and your one desire to follow.
- 40:22That's what gets us to the demonstration of the relationship we made during the preparation.
- 40:30That's what the flood was. see it's a picture of salvation through the ark of
- 40:37safety that there's only one way and Noah and his family were the only people who entered the ark,
- 40:46who followed what God said as a result they're the only ones that survived.
- 40:52Today, there's one way. John 14, 6 says, I am the way, the truth,
- 40:57and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me.
- 40:59And that one way, we all have to come, just like the woman at the well did,
- 41:06empty-handed, humbled before him, acknowledging our sin, and asking him to save us.
- 41:14And when we do, he's faithful and just to forgive us of all of our sins and
- 41:21to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
- 41:23And then in that moment, revealed in front of all of the world,
- 41:29is a new creation who loves and follows the one true God.
- 41:36Another thing we learn from waiting, from Noah, is that patience guards us from
- 41:45making bad decisions that sabotage God's best for us.
- 41:51It's a very simple analogy, but we've all gone to eat with our friends.
- 41:57And we quickly look at the menu and we order what we want.
- 42:01And some good friends order something else that we didn't look at, we didn't wait for.
- 42:07And when the food comes, you got food envy.
- 42:12Because you were so impetuous, so used to doing what you did.
- 42:17Not listening for anything around you, not entertaining another thought.
- 42:26So they eat joyously, and you're about half miserable.
- 42:32Well, that's okay, because you can always order that, or you can remedy that the next time.
- 42:38But choosing to not listen to the Lord speak to you and lead you and guide you
- 42:43and direct you, that's a whole different story.
- 42:48That will cost you. Remember the ones that scoffed at him?
- 42:54They didn't make it because they chose incorrectly. Be patient.
- 43:00Had Noah changed the plans from the Lord, Noah wouldn't have been ready,
- 43:06and he too would have perished.
- 43:08He has a plan for you to prosper you and to give you a hope,
- 43:11and his end is what works.
- 43:15Psalm 37, 7 says, Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.
- 43:19Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way.
- 43:24Because of the wicked man who bring us wicked devices to pass.
- 43:29It is important that we rest in the Lord, that we find our strength,
- 43:34our joy, our desires in Him, and that we wait expectantly in a ready position.
- 43:42It's important to realize that
- 43:44the length of the wait does not negate the certainty of God's promise.
- 43:48Some of us are good for a day, a week, maybe a couple months,
- 43:54as time goes on we begin to wonder has god forgotten me did he forget the promise
- 44:00he made to me is he not watching me anymore what did i do to get discarded why am i not,
- 44:09in his eyes those are all lies straight from the pits of hell.
- 44:14Our God never sleeps or slumbers. He never takes his eyes off of you.
- 44:18He never leaves you or forsakes you.
- 44:22And spiritual maturity, depending on the tremendous amount of it that is required,
- 44:29or how much work it requires you to get there, or how much pushback you give,
- 44:36it's variable, but we don't know.
- 44:39But when we are like Noah, who for decades continued to work on a project because
- 44:48God told him to do it in the way God told him to do it when he had never even seen it rain.
- 44:54Approximately 100 years later, all of that is revealed in the flood.
- 45:00The length of the wait does not negate the certainty of God's promise.
- 45:05Let us, therefore, hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for
- 45:12he is faithful that promised here are some ways to develop that God-centered
- 45:19patience we watch Noah exhibit,
- 45:23Daily anchor your heart and mind in the scriptures. Thy word is a lamp unto
- 45:28my feet and a light unto my path. Psalms 119, 105.
- 45:33Keep track of God's faithfulness. If you remember back when we were reading
- 45:39Genesis 8, 1 through 20, verse 20 said, and Noah gets out and he builds an altar.
- 45:44It's important that you keep track of God's faithfulness. Journal it, write it, plant a tree.
- 45:51But have something so that as you see it frequently, you remember God's faithfulness.
- 45:58Serve actively while you wait.
- 46:01The whole time he was in that ark, he fed the animals. He led his family.
- 46:08You can serve the Lord by serving church, family, and community.
- 46:12The whole time he was preparing, he continued to do what God said,
- 46:17even when it couldn't have made any sense, and earnestly surrender to God through prayer.
- 46:23Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
- 46:29let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God shall keep your
- 46:34hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
- 46:37Philippians 4, 6, and 7.
- 46:40Let God strengthen you with his constant communication.
- 46:46And finally, surround yourself with God-fearing, God-seeking people.
- 46:51Hebrews 10.25 tells us not to forsake ourselves, the assembling with one another,
- 46:56but we're to exhort, encourage one another.
- 47:01And the closer we see the day coming, the more we're to do that.
- 47:05Have accountability, buddies. Have people who will watch you.
- 47:08But my friend, most of all, when you look at the accounts in Genesis 6,
- 47:167, and 8, and you walk away from this message,
- 47:20it is my prayer that you are inspired,
- 47:24motivated, and determined to prepare like Noah.
- 47:31Remember, you are loved. Jesus loves you.
- 47:34Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
- 47:39references from this episode in the show notes.
- 47:42We pray today's message has been a blessing.
- 47:45If it has, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast platform.
- 47:50Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's word.
- 47:55You can connect with Women at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org
- 48:00and on Facebook and Instagram.
- 48:02While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits, Kim's daily devotional delivered
- 48:07Monday through Friday by text message, and the Bible Bit Podcast.
- 48:11Thank you for your prayers and support. Remember, Jesus loves you. You are loved.