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- track of the number of days since all of our pandemic virus crisis stuff started and we're stuck.
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- Well, I don't know about you, but it seems sometimes like time flies, it's a blur, and then there are other times when it's going along at a snail's pace.
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- Lately for me, it's been kind of a blur. It seems like just yesterday, I turned the calendar page to April, and here we are.
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- We're past the midway point in May, and it's downhill for the rest of the month of May, and before you know it, it'll be
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- June. Well, I learned this morning that this virus isn't the only thing that's in the air.
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- I had a wedding Saturday, a wedding for our church, a couple in our church, a nice small wedding.
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- Not very well attended publicly, but a lot of people watched online, and it was a good thing they could do that.
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- But anyway, after that wedding on Saturday, the wedding bug hit another couple.
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- It bit them, and bit them good. And so the bride -to -be, the new bride -to -be, posted an announcement on Facebook this morning proudly flashing the rock like this so all the world could see it.
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- And so, congratulations to Allie and Max, and see what the
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- Lord has for them. Well, have you been to the grocery store lately? I'm staying away from there as much as possible, and in fact,
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- I think I've been to a grocery store locally once since we've had that you -gotta -wear -a -mask thing put in place.
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- And beyond that grocery store, I think I've been to Walmart once, and maybe to Menards once, and that's about it.
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- I have a little bit of a problem wearing this mask thing when I go shopping. I can't legitimately say
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- I've got a health problem that keeps me from wearing one, but I do have to wear these cheaters.
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- I don't need them for distance viewing or anything like that, but if I'm reading something,
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- I've got to have these glasses on. So when I go to the grocery store,
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- I've got to read the labels. I've got to know whether there's any of that red coloring number 40 or the yellow coloring number 5 or something like that, because if I bring something like that home, that would not be a good thing.
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- So I've got to have my glasses to read the labels. Well, you have a mask on, at least for me,
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- I wear a mask and then I've got the glasses on and then the glasses fog up and then
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- I can't see. So I either have to take the glasses off or pull the mask down or something so I can get some air circulation to clear up the glasses.
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- And of course that kind of defeats the supposed purpose of it all, doesn't it? Well anyway, so I pull that thing down.
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- I usually end up pulling it below my nose so I can breathe anyway. So you do that and then you head to the checkout and you stand the obligatory six feet behind the person in front of you so no germs float through the air and attack you.
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- And then you put your stuff on the belt where the previous customer put their stuff on the belt using their hands after they'd adjusted their mask about 20 times or so while they're shopping.
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- And then finally the cashier, she gets to handle all your stuff and scan it across the scanner and then pass it down to the bagger, unless you're
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- I guess at Aldi's or a store where you have to bag your own. And then of course you punch the pin thing in for your debit card just after a hundred other people have punched the pin in for their debit card.
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- You know, honestly, until a few weeks ago, I never gave a second's thought to any of this stuff.
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- Have you? I mean you just go in the grocery store, you get your stuff, you go to the counter and you check out or the self counter.
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- Well anyway, I got to say this though, I am so grateful for that plexiglass barrier that stands between me and the cashier who's got her mask on so that I don't get any of those germs.
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- So I'm sure you're grateful for it too. Well anyway, yesterday in the morning message
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- I mentioned at one point in the message that before Jesus's ascension, he was with his disciples in Jerusalem, and this is from Acts chapter 1, the first few verses.
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- He's with his disciples in Jerusalem and he gave them two directives. One of them was they were to stay where they were, stay in Jerusalem, and they were to wait and wait for the promise of the
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- Holy Spirit who was to come. How are you doing with the waiting game that we're living in?
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- You know, at least the disciples had a little bit of an advantage over us in the waiting game in that Jesus told them, wait for not many days from now.
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- So they certainly didn't know how many not many was, if it was, you know, like five days or 15 days.
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- They didn't know exactly how many not many days was, but they did know that it would be a matter of days and not a lot of days.
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- It wasn't going to be a matter of weeks or months or who knows when. Jesus didn't leave them hanging out there in limbo and say,
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- I want you to stay here in Jerusalem and wait until the Holy Spirit is given.
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- Well, when is that going to be? I'm not going to tell you, you just have to wait and leave them very unopened, an unended, open -ended waiting time.
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- Well, have you ever considered how much waiting is involved in the
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- Christian life? I was reflecting on that when I was studying out that passage and preparing for Sunday, and you know, the idea, the concept of waiting, the exhortation to wait occurs oftentimes in the
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- Scriptures. The psalmists speak of it a lot. Take Psalm 25, for example, where the primary emphasis here is the psalmist is waiting for the
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- Lord to show up, to intervene against those who would destroy him. He says this, he says,
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- Oh my God, in you I trust. Let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exult over me.
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- Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame. Make me to know your ways,
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- O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me. For you are the
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- God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day long.
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- And then a little while later he says, Oh, guard my soul and deliver me. Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
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- May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you. And then in Psalm 27, verse 14, he says,
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- Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Wait for the
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- Lord. So in a time of great challenge, a time of being threatened by some enemy known or unknown, the exhortation is to wait for the
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- Lord to intervene and to deliver from that enemy. By the way, this concept of waiting doesn't mean sitting on the hands and doing nothing.
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- And you can see that later on in the book of Acts, because as the disciples were in Jerusalem waiting for the coming of the
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- Holy Spirit, they actually did some things and some important things. But anyway, that seems to be a dominant theme in the book of Acts, to wait for the
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- Lord. When you move to the New Testament, the earliest examples of waiting involve that of those two elderly folks,
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- Simeon and Anna. You remember them at the temple when Jesus was presented?
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- Both of these elderly saints, we're told, were waiting for the consolation of Israel.
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- In other words, they were waiting for the promised Messiah, and they saw the
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- Messiah in that infant Jesus. They saw that He was the promised
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- Messiah. Their wait was finally over. But then when we move into the epistles, that is those letters written by the apostles to the
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- Christians, the different churches, they mention a few things that we're waiting for.
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- One of them is we wait for the final adoption as sons, that is the redemption of our bodies, when we will never, ever again be plagued with a virus of any kind.
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- And we're not alone. All creation, Paul tells us, is waiting for that glorious day.
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- He says this in Romans 8 .23. He says, And then we also wait for the revealing of the
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- Lord Jesus, His second coming. And hopefully this is in the not -too -distant future.
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- And the way things are going in this world right now, boy, the longing for that second coming is deepening, isn't it?
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- But in 1 Corinthians 1 .7, Paul says, so that you're not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of the
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- Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about the using of the different gifts that God has given us, and that we have by His grace, and as we have those gifts, we wait for the revealing of the
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- Lord Jesus Christ. In Titus 2, 11 -13, it's a great passage about our salvation and the grace of God in saving us.
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- He says, Again, you notice in that passage how while we're waiting, we're not just sitting on our hands, or we're not sitting up on the rooftop waiting for the
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- Lord to come, but we're living self -controlled, upright, godly lives.
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- Why do we wait so eagerly for this? 1 Thessalonians 1 .10 gives us the answer to that.
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- We wait eagerly for the coming of Jesus because His coming is going to mean our deliverance from a wrath that is to come.
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- Hebrews 9 .28 also gives us reason for our waiting so eagerly. It says,
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- This is talking about that future culmination of our salvation in Christ Jesus.
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- We were saved from the penalty of our sin in the past. We're being saved from the power of sin as we live out this
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- Christian life, and we shall be saved from the presence of sin for all eternity. That's what we're waiting for.
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- And we wait for all that is messed up in this world to finally be made new and right.
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- 2 Peter 3 .13 tells us that. Well, I'll tell you what.
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- The more I read about the corruption and the junk going on in the political world and the governments and the so forth of this world, the unrighteousness that is just everywhere, how eagerly we wait for the new heavens and the new earth.
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- And the thing is, what we're waiting for now should affect how we wait.
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- Here is the challenge, isn't it? Our theology, our head knowledge, needs to inform our heart and our behavior.
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- Peter brings this out in the next verse in 2 Peter 3. He says, Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these things, be diligent to be found in him without spot or blemish and at peace.
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- So let's be sure we're waiting for the right person to save us. Not the government, not some other person, but the
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- Lord Jesus. Let's be sure we're waiting for the right kind of salvation as well. And let's be sure we're waiting with the right heart and life.
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- So may God give us the grace to wait for him.
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- Let's pray together, shall we? Our Father and our God, waiting is so hard sometimes.
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- We go through periods like this and we want them to be over. We want things to get back to quote -unquote normal.
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- Father, give us patience to wait and let us wait especially for you, for your timing, for your purposes to be accomplished.
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- Give us that grace, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your
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- Monday, and I trust this new week will go well for you. God will bless you richly in all that you endeavor to do for him.
