THE GO-GETTERS, THE SLOBS, AND THE WAITERS

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:30-31

We are part of a culture where it seems we have the choice of two roles we can play:

- we're either going to be go-getters,

- or, we're going to be slobs.

If we have enough ambition and drive and savvy to make it in the rat race we can be go-getters. We can go out there and make ourselves a living or carve out a career. If we don't have the drive or the nerve or the skill to stay in the race there are seats all along the side of the track where the slobs sit and criticize the go-getters.

If you're a go-getter you're pretty much an optimist and you have very little patience with people who sit around and cry in their beer. If you're a slob you tend to be a cynic.

"Why should I get in there and try when the cards of fate are stacked against me anyhow .... nothing ever works."

When we come to know Jesus and enter into the Kingdom of God we tend to bring our former approach to life with us. If we're go-getter types we grab our five talents and start making them multiply into ten. We achieve and build and hustle and connive ... scheme for the Kingdom of God. At least we think we're taking our five talents and turning them into ten. It may take us years to realize that our go-getter achievements are really not achievements at all in the Kingdom economy, but wood, hay and stubble of our own flesh. And we're going to fall down exhausted in the end.

If we come into the Kingdom as slobs we now clothe our idleness in

religious garb.

- We think we're meditating.

- We think we're praying.

But all we're ever doing is spiritual daydreaming. We've taken our talent, wrapped it in a napkin and tucked it away ... we're weary of even trying.

When we enter the Kingdom of Heaven our old role, whether it was that of a go-getter or that of a slob, has to be left behind. There is a new way of living we never learned in our culture but now we have to learn it..... the way of a servant, the way of a waiter. We are now like a waiter in a restaurant who, instead of having many customers, has only one person to wait upon – one master. We watch our master as he sits and eats and we bring him everything he needs. We answer every time he calls.

- We wait upon him.

- We serve him.

- We obey him.

- We're not go-getters in the rat race anymore.

- We're not slobs sitting on the side lines criticizing

anymore.

- We are waiters whose eyes are ever toward the Master.

When our master promises that he's going to do something for us we trust that he will, even if we have to wait a long time for the promise to be fulfilled. When our master asks us to do something for him we do it ....

serving him is our joy.

Throughout the scriptures we have this expression, "wait on the Lord ... wait on the Lord." The go-getters who rush ahead and take things into their own hands go down in defeat. The slobs who give up and expect nothing go down in defeat. But those who wait on the Lord are always renewed and strengthened.

Wait on the Lord, be of good courage

and he shall strengthen thine heart.

They that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.....

Abraham was promised a son by the Lord. When Abraham fixed his heart on God and waited for him to fulfil this promise he was strengthened. But when Abraham became impatient and took things into his own hands he faltered. You could say that Abraham's entire life was a lesson in waiting

on God. Although Abraham stumbled a few times, he kept building altars to the Lord. He kept lifting up his heart in faith to the Lord. He kept stepping out and doing what he was called to do until the day he was willing to offer Isaac, the very gift of promise, in obedience to the call of God. By this time Abraham's whole being was absorbed in waiting on God.

Our Lord waited on his Father .... every move Jesus made, every word Jesus spoke, came to him from the Father. Beneath the surface of that life of miracles was a heart committed to doing nothing but waiting on the Father. Jesus was neither a "go-getter" nor a "slob"..... he was a waiter.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Psalm 23:1-3

How can the Lord be my shepherd unless I'm waiting upon him? How can he make me to lie down in green pastures unless I'm waiting on him?

How can he lead me beside the still waters or restore my soul unless I'm waiting on him?

The lesson of lessons we need to learn in order to translate the words of Jesus into life, in order to become the sons and daughters of God he empowers us to be, is to wait on the Lord all the time ... to wait on him the way he waited on the Father.

1. To wait on the Lord is to turn away from our fears to the Lord.

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.

Psalm 27:13-14

There are things we're afraid of…

fear about the future,

fear of our enemies,

fear of our own weakness … in the face of problems.

What we've been doing is

waiting on our fears.... serving our fears.

Fear is sitting at the table and we're feeding him. Now we turn from fear and all the things we fear, fix our minds on Jesus and start serving him.

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after;

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

Psalm 27:4

2. To wait on the Lord is to turn away from all the false help to the only true help we have: the Lord.

We've been putting our trust in people as if they were gods .... or in money .... or in our own brains... false help.

One of the multitude said to him, "Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?" And he said to them, "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." Luke 12:13-21

Our money can't give us any strength.

We may feel stronger when our pockets are full, but it's a false strength.

Our powerful friends can't give us any strength.

We may feel stronger when we're around them.... but it's a false strength.

"I am the vine, you are the branches," says Jesus. "When you abide in me, my strength is made perfect in your weakness and becomes your strength."

3. To wait on the Lord is to turn away from serving ourselves to serving him.

.....but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

And to wait for the Lord, in this passage, means more than sitting in a chair and waiting for a vision. To wait for the Lord is to wait on the Lord, like a waiter waits on his master .... to serve him.

As we come into his presence with worship, and as we go out into

the world to do his will of mercy as we…

wash feet,

feed the hungry,

comfort the mourners,

heal the brokenhearted.....

He renews our strength