How often do we want God to take action, at once? We want to see Him bring judgment and answer our cries. But in stillness we learn HIs character. We wait and learn and we develop hearts that can be at rest. We learn His timing and mercy. (Hebrews 10:30, Exodus 14:13, Psalm 123)
Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller, Randy Rollins
Sermon 12239
6:30 AM on 1/23/2022
P. Schaller –
Wow! I love that. Everlasting, everlasting, name above all. Jesus you are everlasting, everlasting name above all.
Wow! Amazing! Wow! Alright. Three parts, four parts to our service tonight. The first part is my
message, a short good message on waiting on God. Waiting on God. That’s our theme. We had
this morning on the character of God and relating to God in his character. He will not call me
Baali; he will call me Ishi. Ishi. I thought for our marriage getaway we could have a t-shirt and it
would be on the t-shirt, “You will not call me boss or master, but you will call me husband.”
Husband. Wow! That was good. That was this morning. That will be our first part. Second part is
P. Steve and we’ll do the offering.
Third part – I think it is this way – P. Serradji and all the
teachers at the MBC&S coming up on stage and the teachers coming up and just taking a look
at them as we start our new semester and P. Serradji sharing a few words. And then P. Randy
wraps it up. P. Randy wraps it up. He says he has a message prepared one hour and ten
minutes! That’s the short version! No, so we’ll have a good time here tonight. I’m joking.
Go with me to Heb. 10 and the vengeance is mine saith the Lord, chapter 10:30. Who does
vengeance belong to but the Lord. “Vengeance is mine.” Have you ever felt driven to pay
somebody back for the evil that they have done to you. That somebody has mistreated you or
they have stolen from you. They have slandered you. They have hurt you. Does anyone have
one of those voodoo dolls under the bed? You know where it is. You know where it is and you
stick pins in it for vengeance.
They practice that in some parts of the world, like a witchcraft to
curse people. Have you ever wanted to curse your enemy or get vengeance for what they have
done? That’s very much what it means here, but the Lord says what? Who will do the
vengeance? God. Do you think he will do a better job than you? Come on. What do you think?
Some of you are slow answering! No, I want to do it! I want to do it! No, let him do it. He’ll do a
better job than you, right? So this means waiting on God is really what the psalmist said that we
should be still and know that he is God. He really is God. There are many times in life you have
to learn what this means to wait on God because we are prone to reaction. We are prone to get
it done. Like I don’t have enough time. I got to do this. There are many situations.
Turn to Exodus 14. This is just to get your attention and leave you with a few thoughts on it. I’m
excited about Bible college starting tomorrow night. Renaldo Brown, Pastor Renaldo Brown and
I are team teaching Church Planting tomorrow night from 6 to 8. Whether you can pay for it or
not, come tomorrow night 6 to 8. It’s free tomorrow night, but if you don’t pay, then vengeance is
mine! Okay. Exodus 14:13, that part “stand still.” Don’t fear. Stand still. They have not yet crossed
the Red Sea, and they don’t know how they are going to get delivered. But to practice this in life.
You know, you’re going to need it some day. You’re going to run to the drug store. You’re going
to run to the refrigerator to get a drink. Or you’re going to run to the phone or you’re going to
solve your problem on your own.
But Moses said to the people, stand still and you will see the
salvation of God. How about it. Waiting on the Lord is a very real thing. To have our life geared
not to our emotions or our worry or our fear or our revenge or our impatience or I got to get this
done my way, my time, but instead this principle of being still and waiting on the Lord. vs. 13.
They will be toast. It’s over. There’s no way. It’s the most powerful empire in the world and this
group of people are trapped, but this is what we are learning. In your spiritual life, I’m telling you
and I know you know this and you’re learning it, your quiet life with God is powerful. You can
learn to wait on God and pray and trust him and you will see again and again and again. Now
listen. In the world out there and we see it, there are so many mental problems and so many
growing – there’s a growing kind of sense of anxiety and fear in the world but not you. You have
another world. You have the life of Christ.
You have the Spirit of Christ. You have a living God. You can wait a year. You can wait two years. You can wait five years. You can wait ten years. You can watch God, God’s timing, God’s way. Wasn’t when Noah built the ark, it was 120 years. How about Moses when he’s out in the wildnerness before he even begins and goes back, he
has 40 years in the desert. He’s 80 years old when he starts his ministry, but it’s perfect timing.
It’s God and God is with him. I’d rather have God with me in his timing then to be doing it my
way in my timing. We’re almost – we’re doing it here.
Let’s go to Psalm 123:1-2, I made a short list here. I’ll just read it to you. We wait for mercy, Psalm 39:7. We wait for pardon. Remember the old man at the temple waited to see, to meet Christ.
He took the baby and said my eyes have seen my Savior, Luke 2:25. We wait for guidance, Psalm
62:1-2. That’s an important one. Wait for guidance. Sometimes when I was on the missionfield, I
was a counselor for team members and others and they would say I feel like I want to go.
Where do you want to go? I don’t know. Well, I said I think it’s better you would know where you
want to go before you go. I think it’s better to know where he wants you to go before you go. But
there’s a restlessness. I want to go. I want to go. But there’s also this principle waiting on God
and guidance. It’s not in men to direct his footsteps in Jeremiah 10:23.
I don’t know how to guide my own life but I want to be – waiting on God takes some humility. My way isn’t his way. I would take revenge or vengeance. But he said vengeance is mine so I got to give it up. I have to learn
forgiveness. I have to learn patience. I have to learn prayer. I have to learn to bless those who
hurt me. I have to learn to put on Jesus. I have to learn to be patient with God. I have to be led
by the Spirit of God to love and to forgive. As he forgave me, so I must forgive others who
trespass against me. We wait on God for protection, Psalm 33:20. We wait on God for the
fulfillment of his Word, Habakkuk 2:3. We wait on God for the fulfillment of his promises, Acts 1:4. We
wait on God with our soul, Psalm 62:1. We wait on God with desire, Psalm 130:6. We wait on God
with patience, Psalm 40:1.
I remember when I was in Bible college, I got to the place where I wanted to go, but the program
was three years. So I had to kind of get it in my mind that I am to sit patiently at the feet of Jesus
and enjoy where I am and to make something good out of where I’m at because this is God’s
plan for my life. To be patient in Bible school and also to finish it and expect God in it. When I
lived in the dorm and the dishes were piled high and very dirty and nasty and I wanted
vengeance! I had to learn to be a servant. I had to learn to wait on God and get his mind and be
corrected in my heart and be a solution instead of a problem. I had to learn to walk with God
and learn how to love. Also getting married, how to love my wife. How to serve in the Body. How
to be part of the Body of Christ. Waiting on God is really a big part of life. He will bring it about.
He will do his work in his timing and his way.
Lastly, we wait on God in our adversity, Isaiah 59. We wait on God to be heard, Psalm 40:1. We wait
on God to be blessed, Isaiah 30:18. And here’s the last one: we wait on God for our strength to be
renewed. Many of you know that verse, Isaiah 40:31. I remember years ago when Dr. Stevens
would say he’d have to take a break for a couple of days and fast and go to some hotel room
and be quiet and be refreshed. When we went to Finland, we worked very hard. There was one
day of ministry went into another day so we had seven straight days of ministry for many weeks.
I was losing my voice, and I was losing my mind! Not really. I was motivated and on fire. Very
refreshed, but I could see I needed time. My wife and I we had [name of a Finnish brother], this
Finnish brother had a cottage. He had like a log cabin out in the woods and he said you can go
there for a day on Fridays and so my wife and I would go there.
I didn’t talk cause I was talking all the time. I would just be there with her. We would be quiet for the day. We needed to be refreshed and wait on God and be renewed in our hearts. It’s a short time actually, one day, but
you’re following what I am trying to say. Maybe your schedule is so busy, and especially in
America. In Finland it was easier because we had no TV. We didn’t understand what was being
said if we did have. I’m not proud of that, but that was the way it was. I didn’t understand the
language. It was quiet and so on, but I’m saying in America, please, take note of this. You might
need a break. Take a period of time and get some sleep and quietness and turn off things and
wait on God. Get quiet before God and seek God in your heart.
Get excited about it. On Saturday, I’m going to take the whole afternoon or the whole day or whatever time you can take.
A block of four hours and wait on God and be still and know that he is God. He will answer your
prayer. He will restore your soul. He will speak to your heart. He will fill you with the Spirit. He
will lead and guide you. And as you obey God in your heart, you will find him again and again
and he will renew you and encourage you. So that’s it. Amen. Let’s ask P. Philippe, come on up
and all the teachers at MBC&S come up on the stage. We just want to take a look to see if you
dressed according to the dress code! Here we go! Praise the Lord. Amen. We love you Jesus!
Look at these people. Oh wow! I think our school is amazing. It is amazing. Honestly. Our
school is amazing.
Hey, I thought driving here, do you know how long I have been teaching the Bible? Forty-seven years. I’ve been teaching the Bible for 47 years. How much of the Bible do you think I know? How much of it do you think I know? How much of it do you think I’ve preached? What do you think? More than when I started, when I forgot most of it! This is what I want to say: I don’t know anything, but I have Jesus and he knows everything. I don’t care what
I know. The ministry isn’t what I know. The ministry is Jesus. Amen. That’s what this school is
about. That’s why I love our school. I would take our school up against any school in the
country, any school in the world. If Jesus is at the center, it’s an amazing – not comparing. I’m
just saying comparing it to the secular world I am saying it.
This school, when you learn Jesus Christ, when you are refreshed by him, when you are spoken
to by Jesus Christ and you can live based on what he said, you are good to go. God is with you.
Isn’t that amazing? I don’t care about anything I know. All the things I know it’s who is Jesus
Christ. What is he saying by his Spirit, because there is a day when it ends for me, but it doesn’t
end for God. God keeps rolling amen! He keeps rolling and he keeps talking and he keeps
speaking and I’m so happy about what we are doing and this great group of men. Thank you
guys. Praise the Lord!
Philippe Serradji –
Well, I think it’s exactly what I was going to say in a way. It’s amazing how –
on Sunday mornings with young adults we meet in the library and we decided to do a series on
the book of Proverbs. And it’s interesting when you think about wisdom. Wisdom in the Bible is
applying what you know to be true. That’s very simple. It goes with what you are saying.
The Bible college is not about knowing things or have a theory of life. It’s really a life. There is
nothing we know about God that we have received outside of the Word of God. The end goal of
the Word, of the revelation, is to know him not to know things. And the end goal of Bible college
is to know him through knowing those things. But there is no way we can know God outside the
Bible.
There is no way God has chosen to give us his revelation here and that’s what we do in
Bible college intentionally. We want to make disciples because every Christian is called to be a
disciple. This is a real privilege so we have amazing classes. (He introduced the classes and
the teachers). This is a new semester starting tomorrow. As P. Schaller said, if you want to
come to classes you’ve never been, you’re welcome to come to any classes this week. It’s open
house. If you want to audit the classes, they are all free in the morning. Here we go. P. Cannon,
do you want to pray for the semester? (Prayer).
P. Randy Rollins – Good evening. Psalm 62:5, I have a story. Psalm 62:5, my soul waits on God. My
expectation is from him. If you dedicated your life to waiting on the Lord, that was your main
goal in life to wait on God; what’s the worst thing that can happen to you? Nothing! There is no
worst. If you dedicated your life, your soul to wait upon God; that was your main goal. What is
your best case scenario?
A hero in the Bible I think is Anna in Luke 2. She waited for 80 years. I don’t know how many
years it was, for Jesus to come as a baby. If we have that determination to wait upon God, that
is a good goal. That I’m ultimately going to be filled with the character of God, filled with the
mercy of God. When I was younger, fifth or sixth grade or so, I was in the choir. Me and my
three brothers. I was soprano. I changed from soprano to baritone in one year. I couldn’t believe
it. My brothers and I would go I think because of the cute girls in the choir. It took a long time to
find the cutest one right over there!
But we would in the choir once in a while go to this infirmary. We would sing Christmas carols
and sing hymns. I went to church when I was younger and it was a dead church. Never heard
about being born again. But anyway, we would go to this infirmary and we would sing to the
people there, elderly people and disabled people. There was this lady there. Her name was
Louise Tomkins. She was a famous person in the area. She became a journalist. She had a
correspondence course that she learned how to be a journalist. She had articles in the local
paper once a week, and she did that all flat on her back.
When she was young, she was very athletic, very spunky, very witty. She would get in trouble at school because she would talk too much. You don’t know anybody like that, do you? At age 19,
she felt a pain in her hip, and it was very painful. She was very athletic. She wanted to be a
phys-ed teacher, and she saw a doctor. The doctor says you have a rare form of arthritis. And
she had twelve operations to try and fix it. Nothing helped her. A lot of pain, so the doctor
ultimately talked to her and said, you need to make a decision. You need to make a decision
what position you want to be in for the rest of your life because you’re going to stiffen up. You’re
going to freeze. She had a hard time making a decision whether to keep a hand open or closed.
But she decided to have her arms folded up in a 90 degree angle and one hand open and one
hand closed. She ultimately – very painful. And in distress. Anytime someone would visit her, all
she would do was cry. She couldn’t talk to them. She was so distraught.
The people in the infirmary said let’s send this couple that we know. They’re missionaries for
years probably. I don’t know their story. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Star. They were missionaries to
Kenya. They visited her and they witnessed to her. They said Jesus never fails. And she got
gloriously saved. We would go and sing to her and you could tell the glow on her face, the
contentment. It was unbelievable. I mean I don’t remember a lot of the details. I wasn’t a
believer that I knew of anyway, but today what an effect she had on my life or other people’s
lives.
So, she would write articles once a week. She got gloriously saved. She called the elders of the
church that she became part of to anoint her with oil. Asked them to anoint her with oil, and pray
for me. They fasted and prayed for her for four hours and ultimately her pain went away but she
was in this position. She could read a book with a little device like here.
Anyway, that is a cool story that I think somehow affected me. I’m so privileged to have met her.
I can’t wait to see her in heaven. She was in that position for 52 years. Amazing. People that
would visit her they would just – they wouldn’t even know she was disabled. She could talk a
little bit – barely write – but she could talk. She had a funny sense of humor, but talk about
waiting upon the Lord, right? So, if the doctor were to visit me and say, Randy. By the way, what
position do you want to be in for the rest of your life, you know? I would hope I would be in the
position like she had that I was able to wait upon the Lord.
Amen.
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