In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of waiting on God. He shares his personal experience of being in a season where all invitations and opportunities stopped, and he was forced to spend time with God. The speaker explains that waiting on God means attaching ourselves to Him and trusting in His loving kindness. He also highlights the dangers of not waiting on God and the benefits that come from patiently waiting for His guidance and direction. The sermon references the psalmist's plea to hear God's loving kindness and to know the way to walk, emphasizing the need to lift up our souls to God in trust and surrender.

Isaiah said, Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not? Neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would meet with us today. We ask that you would anoint the preaching of your word with power. I ask you, Father, to minister to the hearts of those that are listening. And I ask, Father, that you would be glorified in all that's done and said. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, it is a real privilege for me to be back with you again today on Eagles Wings. I am excited about Jesus. I am excited about what he is doing and what he is going to do. I know because of what he has done in the past that he is faithful, he is alive. In him we live and move and have our being, they say in the book of Acts. I want to share with you today on a subject that God has been burning into my bones. I was going the other day to prepare the message to get ready to record and my wife said, don't you record unless you have the message that God has given you. And I said, I got the message. It's been burning in my bones. Then the only other thing is don't record unless God has anointed with power. We don't preach unless God has anointed with power. Actually, we shouldn't get out of our prayer closet unless God has anointed us with power. Why? Because we'll go out in the energy of the flesh. I'm excited about Jesus. How about you? You know, God has been, he's been working on me. He's been working on my heart. There's been tugging on my soul. You know how it is when you get with God, like Jacob, and you wrestle with God. Jacob, the scripture says he wept. He wrestled and he wept with God. Actually, wrestling with, I believe, with the Lord Jesus pre-incarnate. Sometimes God comes into our lives and he has things for us to do. And we go through a wrestling period of God with God until we come out and we have the faith. And that's not, that's not unusual. That's not sin unless we will not get the victory. Waiting on God to me is one of the deepest or the highest levels of walking with God. One of the highest levels of walking with God is this ability, this, this, uh, encouraging, this learning how to wait on him. I was thinking about this a little bit earlier before I started. How in earlier years, God would maybe make me wait a few hours and I would wait and cry and pray and believe him and beg and plead and then God would come through. And then as he took me a little deeper with him, he would make me wait for days. I remember when I was in Bible college, sometimes I'd come back and I would, I would pray on my bed in my little apartment basement apartment for hours on God for souls. I'd say, God, make me a soul winner. Give me souls or I'll die. And I would pray and I'd pray and then I'd go off to do something and God would give me souls, but I had to pay for it. And then God took me from days to waiting on him by for weeks at a time for what he was going to lead me into. And then he went into months where I had to wait for months. And now as I am getting older and in years and, and God has taken me now to make me wait years on him. And it's not easy to go year by year waiting on God. But as I look back over the past, I see that every time that I waited on God, he was always faithful to answer and to do it. The deeper, the longer the weight, the deeper and the greater the work that God is going to do. Have you been waiting on him? You know, the scripture says they that wait upon the Lord, the Hebrew of Quava to look for patiently. It says that they wind up being the ones that Mount up on wings. It means that you'll go from a lower elevation to a higher elevation. Maybe the reason that some of you have not moved out spiritually from where you are for years is because you have not waited upon God. And you say, well, how do I wait on God? Well, I got some good news for you. That's why I'm here today to share with you some things about waiting on God. Actually, there's four aspects of waiting on God that I want to share with you. And I know that I can't get it all done today. So I'm just going to leave it up to the Lord and for the next two, three weeks, four weeks, if it takes that long, I'm going to share with you what God has taught me about waiting on him. Now, coming up this week, it's going to be September 1st as we record the tape. For me, September 1st has some deep meaning deep, significant meaning. And by the time you get this, no telling what will have happened in my life as far as September 1st means. But September 1st means a lot to me. And the deeper part of it goes back to September 1st of 1988, four years ago, four years ago in 1988 had been three years after the revival up in northwestern Nebraska, where I was pastoring a small Baptist church, where God came on the scene in such a deep way that he broke my life. He broke my heart. He broke me, began to show me that I was a bitter pastor and he did. He did different things in other lives. He went, the spirit of God worked for 18 straight days in our church in a deep way. And the moving of God's spirit went for seven months, and the results are still continuing. And even where I'm at, what started in 1985 is still continuing even today, even up to last Sunday. We are seeing God do things in relation to what we allowed him to start in 1985. It started in 84 when we began praying for God to work in the era of revival. Well, he did work. As a result of that, I've got to traveling around with an evangelist friend that came in here and God used John Musser and I got to traveling around with him and was traveling around the country doing pre-Crusade work, flying here and there. And John came back to our church in 1988 for meetings again. And during those meetings on September 1st, we were down in my office with my assistant pastor and John looked over at me and he says, pastor, you need to stop and just back off. You need to let go of everything and just get away from everything for a while. And it's like the spirit of God himself spoke to my soul and said, that's right. I want you to drop everything you're doing and to go out into the desert. I looked over at my assistant pastor, Wes, and I said, Wes, do you, do you think I need to do that? And he looked at me and he says, yeah. A little while later, I try not to make fast moves and major moves quickly. I was meeting with several of my pastor friends in a church down south of where we were that day, and I just shared my heart with them. And I said, do you think this is what I need to do? And they all agreed that that's what they thought I needed to do. Well, I had the Holy Spirit telling me that I had my good friend, John Musser, the evangelist telling me that and four or five of my closest pastor friends confirming it. What do you do? Well, I'll tell you what I did. I struggled with it. And here's why I struggled with it. I struggled with it because I'd waited for, for six years for God to get us to the point where we were at in the church. I had waited and worked and prayed and believed. And there we were coming up to the apex, to the point. It's almost like God coming to you. If you're a farmer, you've got the best crop you've ever had in your whole lifetime. You've got the best crop that you've ever had. It's the ripest, the fullest, and the prices are the best that they've ever been. And then God comes up to you and he says, I want you to walk away from your farm, give it all away, just walk away. And he says, I want you to go do this. That's what it was for me. And so for one month, I prayed and wrestled with God on this thing. And finally, after one month, October 1st, I said, okay, God, you've got me. I'm going to do it. I turned in my resignation to the church and they didn't want it. I said, you got to take it because God is in on this. And I extended it out as long as I could. I stayed the two more months according to the constitution. And even after that, I stayed a couple more months because God is not directed yet where he wanted us to go. We knew that we probably needed to leave so that the next pastor could have full freedom without people running to me. And so we waited on God and waited on God. And finally nothing opened up but one thing. We had a friend in Omaha that owned a house down near Jane, Missouri. And I knew that house was empty. And that was and finally God said, you're going to call and ask about that house. Nothing else opened up. We couldn't get a place to live anywhere. And so I finally did. And I called her up and and man, I couldn't believe it. She says, you here's what she said. I've been praying that somebody, somebody would move down in that house and help take care of my grandson. He's moved into it because of some problems. And so that's how we got down into this country. Now, I've been around in southern Missouri since 1969, but never to the extent of where we were able to move down for such a long period of time. And so we did. We moved down. And for one for 14 months, I just unwound. If you can imagine, I've been so busy traveling here and there and doing this and that. I spent the first month just walking the hills, walking the road where we were unwinding. You know, when when you're wound up tight, like a like a spring on a clock, when you try to try to take that spring out and stretch it out straight, anytime you let go of one of those ends, it's going to go back. Well, that's the way I was. I was all wound up. God wanted me to spend some time with him. And I fought it at first. He wanted me to wait on him. And so 14 months we spent down there. That was 1988, September first that God loved me and showed up and said, I want you to back off. One year later, September first, 1989, I'd come back to God a few weeks before that. And I said, God, one year ago, you asked me to give up that which I treasured the most in my life. As far as an outward appearance was my ministry. I'm going to ask you to do something significant today, September first, 1989. And that day went through just a normal day. And and I was believing God to work. And the day wore on and I sort of forgot about my prayer. And we met with some friends that evening, went out to eat pizza. And as we were some new friends that we'd met as we were eating a little bit after that, the man said to me, how would you like to have a radio ministry? And he didn't know my heart. He didn't know my prayer. He didn't know where I'd been in a lot of those details. He didn't know that God had been working on my heart for about six months about a radio ministry. God knew that I had a burden in my heart to reach as many pastors as I could in this area. He knew that's where my heart was and he had given me that burden. And that that was my burden. When I was traveling around the country with John Musser doing crusade meetings, I would meet with pastors. We would have pastors meetings. That was my thing to minister with the pastors. And I shared with them my testimony, how I was a bitter pastor, how God gave me victory, how I made restitution and how God freed me and a lot of other things. And so my goal was to reach and I had a certain number of pastors that I was to reach while I was down there. Even that's what I thought I was supposed to be doing. But God had something deeper. God wanted me to die to self more. And in the process, as I died, he he raised up this radio ministry. And, and you don't know how many times I've given, I've given up. It's all the Lord's. And God has over the last couple of years, has stripped me and kept continued stripping things out of my heart. I've dealt with you. Those of you, you that have been listening sometime how God has dealt with me on pride. And I got proud, even more proud than I was before. But as I've been traveling around the country, I had had a deep pride settlement that I was important. And so to be set aside, God began to show me some things about myself and moving me here and making me come, making me become where I'm at right now, a servant to a man that used to be under my ministry, to where he's my pastor. And he used to come to me for counsel all the time. And God told me to, to come in here and be his servant as I waited more on him. All these things keep adding up. But anyway, out of this ministry, this radio ministry, God, you don't know what he's doing, but he is working on my heart. He's working on your heart. And all of this has come out of waiting on him. Many of you do not know that, that, uh, about a year and a half ago, God was directing us to leave from where we were down near Jane, Missouri. He gave us very specific direction that we were to get out of that house where we were. Well, we didn't know where to go. And so the logical thing was, let's move up here to Joplin and let's move up here to this area where the radio ministry is. And so we tried and we couldn't find a place. And you have to understand that for 20 years, as my wife and I have walked with God, there have been, and he'll do this with you as he's done it with us. There are certain ways where you know God is leading. He's done it in the past consistently over and over and over again for 20 years. One of the ways that we've always known God's never failed, that he was in on what he was doing and moving us someplace is that he would give us a place to live. And I've got stories I could take the rest of the program and share with you just those miraculous stories on how God provided us places to live. And almost always it was to the point to where there was nothing to live in. And it was God always shutting us off so that he could supply the need. And isn't this the way he likes to do it? Don't you love him? I love him. Once you get to know him and you understand that this is the way he works, he makes it tough. So many times we're kicking at things and we're trying to undo the knots and we're trying to solve the problems, but it's God all the time doing it. And all he wants us to do is come to him. I, I, uh, I minister to people. We like people. We love people. And you may think I'm a, I'm a tough old rough goat and I may be, but we love people. We just reach out to people and wherever they're at, but we really have a burden for pastors. And so many times in churches and God just puts us where he wants us to minister. It, it drives some people crazy because God is our schedule. We show up in some town and God to have a ministry for us. It, it, it, it drives some of you crazy, especially if you're an administrator. But he's our schedule. And I see so many churches. Sometimes they're, they're struggling. They're looking for a pastor and, and, and they're wanting what God has for them and they can't get it together. And I believe many times they get anxious, they get ahead of God and they go get what they want. And if they would have just hung on. And I believe God wants us to hang on to the point to where we're looking to him for the, for the solution. And we're not looking as a church for a pastor, but we're looking to God to be our solution. You see what we do? We look off. Oh, we can get this certain pastor. He'll come in and he'll solve our problems. Or this pastor thinks if I can get into this certain church, that'll solve my problems. And that's, that's deceptive. No, that won't solve your problems. God will solve your problems. He's what you need. And so a year and a half ago, as we were needing to move, I just gone to a seminar and had been reminded by God and God had dealt with me over the past in my life. I had not gone to my father for counsel. So I went to my father. He happened to be coming up the next week or so. And, uh, we met in Bella Vista down there. And, uh, and I went over my life with my dad and, and shared with him how I'd failed to ask him for counsel, ask him to forgive me. And God really drew our hearts together on that thing. And then I said, listen, dad, God is leading this to leave. And we have, I laid out a list of different places where we could go minister and do things and, uh, several different States and different places where we had opportunities and I laid them out to him. And, and on, on that list was the least of all places I'd wrote down Joplin, Missouri. And I don't think he, I'd even told him about the radio ministry. Maybe I had, but it just wasn't nothing there as far as I could see. And these other places, I laid out the details to him where I could see that he'd probably choose this place or that one or maybe that one. But I was surprised as he picked out Joplin, Missouri out of those, that list of six or seven places on my list. I couldn't figure it out why there. And okay, well then that's what we tried to do. We tried to come up to this area and we couldn't get a place to live. We couldn't get a place that the spirit of God gave us peace on. In the meantime, we had to be someplace up in, uh, in Western Nebraska. And so we just packed up a bunch of our stuff, stored it and took off, went up here to visit, come up here and visit and minister for a couple of months. And that's been over two years ago. God hasn't let us out of here yet. And so now we're watching to see, well, God, because of the, the intense struggle that's been going over the last few weeks, you're up to something. And so what I've been doing for the last few weeks, I've been waiting on God and learning deeper things about waiting on God that I wanted to share with you today. Now, waiting on God, I believe is the highest level of walking with God and you'll grow to know him and love him. As you get to the point to where you can wait on him to solve your problems, wait on him to, to provide guidance and direction. And you'll have more peace. You'll have more power. You'll have more, more of the character of Jesus in your life than you ever had before. If you learn to wait on God for every area of your life, they that wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings as eagles. You're going to rise to a new elevation. You know, I was looking at a Psalm the other day, Psalms one forty three eight, where the Psalmist said, cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning for in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk for I lift up my soul unto thee. You see, I don't know what's going on tomorrow or next week. I don't have to know, but I do know that God is working in my life. I do know that he's working in your life. The thing is, will we let him work his perfect will? Or will we go off ahead of him and get second best? I tell you what, I don't want second best with God. I want his perfect will. I want his perfect will. I think it's a sad thing when we get God's second best, when we could have had his very best. I remember a number of years ago, I was candidating at a church and God had spoke to me about that area. Many years before, seven years before, he had spoke to my heart about that area. And as I was pastoring, God gave me, at the end of my first pastoring, he gave me, began to give me a burn. And this area is down in this area somewhere. I don't want to mention it because it's in the listening area. I don't want to get too many details, but God began to burden on my heart. And I got a phone call from this area, over 800 miles away from where I was living. And this church wanted me to come down and candidate. I figured God must surely be in this thing because seven years ago he had given me a burden for this area. And here I received a phone call from this church that wants a pastor. And so I was so sure about it. And God was leading us in the area where we were that it was finished. And so we resigned our church and we went down there. And actually we resigned our church first and then we got that call from that area. And we went down there and candidated. And I was excited because I thought God was all in this thing. I was really excited and we spent over a week there candidating. And one of the fellows there was talking with me about how he was going to get me moved down. And so we went back home and a few days later we got this phone call. And he said, I don't know how to tell you this, but you didn't get the vote. He says, I'm shocked. I'm surprised, but you just didn't get enough vote. And that was it. We were left hanging. Nothing. God showed me some things. Actually God did two things at one time right in my heart. He filled my heart with so much joy and peace and love for Him. I was just overflowing in joy. But at the other point my heart was broke because I felt like that was God's will for me. I felt like that was God's will for the church. I had not sought it. God had put the burden in my heart. God had given the phone call. God had done everything. And then to have it shut off. And God showed me that the church had some problems. They had some internal problems that actually surfaced through the candidating process. And it will. You have a building program. You make any kind of decision. You're going to find out if you've got unity in your church or not. And they didn't have unity. And that's where they come up with a split vote. And the last I heard the church was having a tough time and doing, having a tough time in growing and progressing. And I've often wondered, God, did they miss out on your best? Was I the one? And they turned it away and went and got somebody else. And I'm not saying that I'm the best. Nothing like that. But you know it's a sad thing if we will miss out on God's best. And God made, let me sit there for about four months after that or five months. And from that point on, a couple of months later, all phone calls stopped. All invitations stopped. Everything. And I was just cast on God for several months. I've learned that when God shuts down the invitations to preach and to have meetings and to go there, here and there, he wants me to spend time with him. Don't worry about it. He says, you just spend time with me, waiting on God. And so cause me, the Psalmist said, cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning. For in thee do I trust. You know what that means? That trust means to attach yourself, to feel safe, confident, to have a sense of well-being. God wants us to attach ourselves to him, to wait on him. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk. For I lift up my soul unto thee. You know what we do? We lift up our soul unto other things than God. We have not learned the art of waiting on God. And it is an art. Just like a craftsman would learn to build a certain type of building or an artist paint a beautiful painting. It's an art. It takes skill. It takes time. Waiting on God is that way. And he said, cause me to know. That word means to perceive and to understand the way wherein I should walk. For I lift up my soul unto thee. To lift up one soul means to be entirely dependent upon something. God wants you to come to the point in your life where you will be entirely dependent upon him. And if I can give you a quick reference to what this is talking about in Deuteronomy 24, 14 and 15, one of the things that God had told Israel, he said, thou shall not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy hand within thy gates. At his day thou shall give him his hire. Now listen, neither shall the sun go down upon it for he is poor and setteth his heart. That's it. Setteth his heart upon it. Lest he cry against thee unto the Lord and it be a sin unto thee. To lift up one soul means to set your heart upon it. To set your heart upon God and him alone. Have you come to that point to where you know how to wait upon God and he is all you want. You see, he's all you need. Jesus Christ is all you need. But have you come to the point to where you can wait on God and he is all you want. He's the solution to your problem. Do you want it? Whatever problem you have, he's the solution. Well, my time's gone. Next week, we'll continue on God willing on waiting on God. I'm going to share with you some things. Actually, there's four areas. I'm going to share with you why we should learn to wait on God, how to wait on God, what are the benefits of waiting and what are the dangers, what are the dangers of not waiting on God. Until next time, God bless you, my friend.