In this sermon, the speaker begins by praying for God to speak to the listeners through the study of the book of Acts. The sermon emphasizes the importance of seeking the Lord's guidance in making decisions and not relying on our own understanding. Impatience and impulsiveness can lead to disastrous outcomes, while waiting on God's timing can bring blessings. The sermon also highlights the need to trust in God's plan and power, rather than relying on human intellect or finding the "go-to guy" to get things done. The speaker uses the analogy of our impatience with technology to illustrate how our impatience can grow and hinder our relationship with God.

Let's turn in our Bibles tonight to the book of Acts, the first chapter. And we began, of course, our study in the book of Acts last week, and we got through about the first eight verses. So we're going to pick up tonight in verse nine, but we want to go back to verse four and just read from there. But let's go ahead and pray once again, just ask the Lord to speak to us through the study. Lord, we do pray now as we look at the word, Lord, we really are just anxious to have you speak to us tonight. So, Lord, open our hearts, give us, Lord, a great receptivity tonight and bring, Lord, by your spirit, your word to our hearts and give us understanding and speak those things to us, Lord, that would be specifically your word for our particular situations tonight. Lord, we ask for that prophetic utterance to come and just to really speak into our lives and Lord, to build us up in you through your word. That's our prayer. So bless, we ask in Jesus name. Amen. So Acts chapter one. Reading from verse four and being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you have heard of me for John, truly baptized with water. But you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Not many days hence, when they therefore were come together. They asked him, saying, Lord, will thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the father have put in his own power, but you shall receive power. After that, the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. So Luke, as he begins this history, we call the book of the Acts of the Apostles. He takes us back to the final command that Jesus gave to his disciples just prior to his ascension. And the command was specifically to wait in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the father. And then he told them about the power that they were going to receive when the Holy Spirit came upon them. And so after he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by in white apparel, which also said, You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. Then return they unto Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. So here Luke records for us the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. He ascended back up into heaven. Now, the ascension of Jesus was important because several things really occurred when he ascended. Now, remember, Jesus had died. He had risen from the dead and for 40 days he had been ministering to them. But he would just occasionally appear on the scene and they really never knew quite when he was going to show up, when he was going to vanish. He just throughout that time, sporadically, he would just come alongside and join them and minister things to them pertaining to the kingdom. But now with the ascension here really brings finality to the earthly ministry of Jesus. They will understand now that he actually ascends, that they will not be having these kinds of visitations that they had been having. They're no longer to expect the Lord just to, you know, sort of show up like he has been doing and give them some instructions and then, you know, vanish and then show up a bit later. They understand at this point of the ascension that the earthly ministry of Jesus has been completed. So the ascension brought finality to the earthly ministry of Jesus. It also was a final demonstration of his power and glory. Now, you would have to imagine yourself in the position of the apostles at this time. They were with the Lord and he's telling them about the future. He's telling them about the power that's going to come upon them. And as they're conversing with him, it says that just, you know, almost without any sort of notice or anything, he just suddenly begins to ascend up into heaven. And this would have impressed them greatly, no doubt it would have once again impressed them with the power of Jesus and with his glory. And of course, as they were going to go out and be witnesses to him, I think once again, it was good for them to have that fresh reminder of his power and of his glory. And then the third thing that occurred when Jesus ascended was that he left us a picture of what to expect when he comes again. Now, Jesus is going to come again. We all know that we talk about that. We are anticipating that we're excited about it. We're hoping that that event will come real soon. But in the ascension of Jesus, he's actually left us a picture of what to expect when he comes. Notice what it says here as the angels speak to them, they they say to them. Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? So that in and of itself, I think, you know, there's there's a little bit of a message to us, and that is that in the interim period, during this time when the Lord has gone back to heaven and we're waiting for him to return, we're not to be just gazing up into heaven. We're not to be, you know, just sitting around, just sort of, you know, doing nothing, waiting for the Lord to come back or to be active or to be busy about the Lord's business. That's the thing that he expects of us during this time. But they ask, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? And then they say this, this same Jesus. Now, you know, it's the Bible. It's important when we read our Bibles to notice small details because there's a lot said sometimes almost seemingly incidentally. But notice what it said, this same Jesus who was taken up from you shall so come in like manner, this same Jesus, it's important that that was stated because, you know, many have come since that time claiming that they were a manifest manifestation or a second coming of Christ. But yet, of course, not Jesus Christ, not Jesus of Nazareth, but they say, well, Jesus, you know, he had the Christ spirit at that particular time in history for his generation. But now there's another one coming or another one that's come. And that person is the Christ for this day and age. I'll never forget about 20 years ago, it was a Sunday morning and it was between the services here at Calvary Chapel. And I walked across the street with a friend to get some chocolate milk or something. I don't remember exactly what it was, but we picked up a newspaper. I think it was the L.A. Times. And right there on, you know, I think it was the back page. But the whole back page, you know what it said? The Christ is coming, second coming of Christ. And it was this full page advertisement for the second coming of Christ. And, you know, as we looked at it, we thought, wow, this is incredible. Look, the papers are even telling, you know, that the Lord's coming back now. The L.A. Times is advertising it. But as we sat there and read it, it was interesting because it talked about the second coming and all this. But then it went on to talk about this Lord Maitreya, Lord Maitreya. Well, he's the second coming. He's the you know, the final manifestation of the Christ. And he is the the fullness of the spirit of going all the way back to Krishna and then to Buddha and to Jesus and to Muhammad and, you know, including all of the religions and so forth. But this has been something that has occurred over and over again, trying to separate the Christ, the anointed one from the person of Jesus. It's impossible. You can't do it. There's only one Christ and that's Jesus Christ. And the one who's coming back is none other than this same Jesus that you see going into heaven. He himself, Jesus of Nazareth, the Jew of the tribe of Judah, the house of David. He's the one that's going to come again. And I want you to also notice what he said here, that he is going to come in like manner as you have seen him go. He's going to come in like manner as you have seen him go again. Anyone who comes along and says, oh, well, the Christ has returned. We're going to know that that is utter foolishness or we should know that's utter foolishness because it says that he's going to return in the same manner that he went. Revelation chapter one, verse seven, says, behold, he comes with clouds and every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of him. So when Jesus Christ comes again, he's going to come just like he went. He's going to come in the clouds and every eye is going to see him. Now, you might think, well, of course we know that that's basic. Why are you telling us this stuff? We know a lot of people, believe it or not, they fall for really lame things like, well, Jesus isn't going to come back literally in the future. He came back already several years ago. The Jehovah's Witnesses said that he came back and resides in Brooklyn, New York. Now, I know there are a lot of Jews in New York City, but I don't think it is the new Mount Zion. But, you know, I mean, to most of us, I think that kind of thing sounds ludicrous, but it's amazing the things that people will buy into. It's amazing the things that people will believe. But if we just would read our Bibles, we would know that it's the same Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, and that he's going to come back like he went. He's going to come back in the clouds. Every eye is going to see him. It's not going to be a secret coming. It's not going to be something that only a few people know about, then they go out and say, oh, guess what, did you know the Christ returned? No, every person is going to see him. And listen to this, it says here, and he shall come in like manners. You have seen him go. Where did he go up from? He went up from the Mount called Olivet. Remember that as we read it there? Well, if you read in Zechariah chapter 14, it says this. It says, behold, the day of the Lord comes and then it says, and the Lord shall gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. And then the Lord shall go forth and fight for Jerusalem as he fought in the day of battle. And he shall set his foot on the Mount of Olives and it shall cleave into Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God, the God man. He ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives. He's coming back to the earth. And guess where he's going to land. He's going to land in the Mount of Olives right from the very place he left from. He's going to come back there and the mountain is going to split in two and he's going to begin his judgment process by defeating the nations that have gathered together to battle against Jerusalem. And so after this event of the ascension, the disciples at that time then returned to Jerusalem. And so we pick up the story in verse 13, and when they were come in, they went into an upper room where both Peter and James and John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alpheus and Simon, the zealot, and Judas, the brother of James, or perhaps the son of James. So here's a list of the 11 apostles. Of course, Judas Iscariot is not among the number he is already died. So these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, with his brethren. So the 11 apostles are there, the women that. Followed Jesus and cared for them during his public ministry, they were there. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there and his brothers were there now at this point, his brothers, James and Joseph and Jude, those that are mentioned occasionally in the Gospels, they have now embraced him where during his public ministry they had not really believed in him. But now that he's risen from the dead and appeared to them, he appeared personally to James, as Paul tells us in first Corinthians 15, his brothers have now embraced him as the Messiah, and they're all gathered together there. Now, just a quick note. This is the last. Mentioning of Mary. In the book of Acts, it's the last time Mary is referred to in the Bible, so we have brief references to Mary throughout the Gospels, and now we have a final reference to her here, but she's never mentioned again in the history of Acts. And of course, there's no teaching that refers to her whatsoever in any of the epistles. Now, if that tells us anything, it tells us that Mary did not play any kind of a major role in the early history of the church and therefore to, you know, somehow take her and elevate her to some sort of position of mediation between us and Christ or something like that just is really without any biblical warrant whatsoever. She's mentioned here as being part of this group, and now she fades from the picture. And so here they are. They're all gathered together. They're praying together in this room. And it says in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said. Men and brethren, this scripture needed to have been fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit by the mouth of David spoke before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus, for he was numbered with us and had obtained part of this ministry. Now, this man, Judas, purchased a field with the reward of iniquity and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst and all of his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem in so much as that field is called in their proper tongue, Akkodama, that is to say, the field of blood, for it is written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein. And his office, let another take. Wherefore, of these men which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. So you get the picture. They're all gathered in this room. They're spending time in prayer. It seems to imply that a few days have probably passed since the ascension. And remember, Jesus ascended on the 40th day and there was there's a 10 day gap between the ascension of Jesus and the day of Pentecost that we'll get to in our next study. So during this 10 day period, they're gathered together, they're praying, they're seeking God. And in the midst of their time together, Peter suddenly stands up and he begins to lead this process of finding a replacement for Judas. And Peter says basically that the scriptures really demand that we find a replacement for Judas. Now, there were about 120 disciples that were gathered together. And so Peter stands up in the midst of this group and then he presents his case. And so as he finishes up, evidently everyone there was in agreement with him. And so it says in verse 23, and they appointed to Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justice and Matthias, and they prayed and said, Thou Lord, who knows the hearts of all men, show which of these two thou has chosen that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas, by transgression, felt that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots and the lot fell upon Matthias. And he was numbered with the 11 apostles. Now, here's the question. What do we make of this event here? Peter takes charge of the meeting. And he comes forth with this suggestion, the suggestion for a replacement. Was Matthias truly the one to become the twelfth apostle, or should that place have been held for Paul? That is the question that has been debated and is still, I guess, debated. And, you know, on the one hand, it is somewhat of a fruitless debate, I guess. It's just one of those things that there's a bit of controversy over. But yet, perhaps on the other hand, there can be some lessons learned from this particular event, depending on how you look at it. I think if you look at it as though it was something that should have happened, there probably aren't a whole lot of lessons. But if you look at it as something that maybe shouldn't have happened, then I think there are some lessons in it. But do we have any basis for looking at it that way? Let's look, first of all, at the things in favor of the choice of Matthias. So what are the things that would seem to indicate that this was probably the right thing to do? Well, I would say, first of all, it was initiated by Peter himself and Peter, of course, was an apostle. He was destined to be definitely one of the leaders in the church, one of the pillars, as Paul referred to him as later. And in a sense, one who was sort of head over the other. So the fact that it was initiated by Peter could indicate that it was the right thing to do. There does seem to have been a need. Jesus chose 12 apostles, but now there was a vacancy, there were only 11. So Peter initiates the process that seems to be in favor of it being the right thing to do. There was a need which, of course, could indicate it was the right thing to do. There seemed to even be a scriptural basis for it. Peter's quoting from the Psalms, he's quoting from Psalm 69, let his habitation be desolate, let no man dwell therein. And so it seems that maybe there was a scriptural basis for Peter's action. And there were those among them who met the proposed requirements. Both Barsabbas and Matthias met the requirements that might be something to support this being the right thing to do. And then they prayed about it. And of course, praying about something is always a very good thing to do. Then it says they cast lots to determine. Now, at first glance, you think, all right, well, that's where they really blew it. Rolling dice to decide who the next apostle is. I mean, give me a break or drawing straws. I mean, that's pretty much what it was. But you've got to remember that that was a means of determining God's will in the Old Testament. God used that to determine or the people used that and it was actually something that God had initiated. So it's not as bizarre as it sounds. But then finally, scripture never says anything negative about this event. So as we would sort of analyze it ourselves, there's nothing in the scripture that that indicates that Peter made a mistake or this was the wrong thing to do. So. There are many things that are in favor of Matthias being the right choice, but. There are some things opposing the choice of Matthias as well. The number one thing that's put forth is that after Matthias is chosen, you never hear about him again. And quite often, those who take the position that Matthias was the wrong man, that is the basis really for their argument. They say, look, you know, they pick the guy and then you never hear another thing about him. Surely was the wrong guy, but not necessarily. Because eight of the apostles that spent three years with Jesus, those that were handpicked by him, we hear nothing about beyond their gathering together in the upper room on that particular day. Nothing is mentioned of them again throughout the remainder of the book of Acts. So to say because Matthias is not mentioned beyond his being chosen doesn't necessarily mean that it was the wrong choice. And then, of course, the other thing opposing the choice of Matthias is that Paul becomes the dominant figure in the book of Acts. And so there are those who really do feel like it was a mistake on Peter's part and Paul was really the man for the job. Now, what is the truth? I am going to. Solve the mystery. Thousands of years old right here tonight, all I can do is give you my opinion and, you know, it's interesting. You really could, I think, in some ways build a case in either direction. I guess it just depends on the direction you want to go with your sermon. So the direction I want to go, it will be better if I build my case for Peter having blown it, Peter having made a mistake. Now, listen and think with me about this whole thing. First of all, we've got to get. A good picture of Peter, Peter is definitely a possible an apostle, no question about it. He's a great man, but Peter is a man. And one of the things that Peter was notorious for was being sort of a self-sufficient, take charge kind of a guy. Now, as you look at Peter through the Gospels, that's the kind of person that he appears to be. He's always trying to take charge. But the interesting thing is every time he tries to take charge, he gets himself in trouble. You can find it read through the Gospels and you'll see it. Peter was what they call today a go to guy. You know, they talk about people today who are to take the bull by the horn, sort of a hey, you know, here's the go to guy and he'll get it done. And, you know, Peter was sort of a go to guy. He was the guy who was going to get the job done. Peter was impatient. And Peter was impulsive, and that is a fact that's borne out in the biography that we have of him in the New Testament, he was an impatient guy. And remember, this is all prior to the day of Pentecost as well. And that's another argument that is often brought forth that this all happened before the Holy Spirit was poured out. So, you know, it was obviously a mistake. Peter was a different guy once the baptism of the spirit came. We'll see that when we get to it in the account. But even after Peter was baptized in the spirit, he still had his struggles. He still had his difficulties. And we find later on in the history, although we don't read about it in Acts, Paul tells us in Galatians that there was a time in Antioch where Peter was compromising and being a hypocrite. And Paul had to confront him to his face. He had to rebuke him publicly. So, Peter, I think it was perhaps part of his personality and his character flaws that led him to even suggest such a thing. He was an impulsive guy. You remember, it was there on the Mount of Transfiguration, that holy moment where. Jesus was. Transfigured before Peter, James and John, it's a moment where Christ's glory is being manifest and and the voice of the father is speaking in this, the glory of God surrounds them. And it's this holy, holy moment. And Peter suddenly interrupts it. And it says, because he didn't know what to say, he said, let us make three tabernacles. So Peter was that kind of a guy, and there's an example of his impulsiveness. Remember when they came to arrest Jesus in the garden, who was the one who sliced off the ear of the high priest servant? It was Peter. He was impulsive during that 40 day period. After Jesus had resurrected from the dead, we read that they were back in the area of Galilee and Peter one day just said, oh, I'm going fishing. Forget this. Where's Jesus? I don't know where he's at. That's the that's the implication. I'm going fishing. The others. OK, we'll go with you. He was. Impulsive. And I think possibly that Peter, like many of us, waiting on the Lord, wasn't something that he was really acclimated toward because he was a take charge guy. There they were. They're in that upper room. They're praying. Some days have passed. And it's like, all right, we got to get this show on the road. Jesus told us to get the gospel out to people. There was only 11 of us. We need another one. Hey, we've got to pick somebody. And you know what? I've been reading the scriptures and I can build my case scripturally. Now, you might think I'm being sacrilegious here talking about St. Peter this way, but let me remind you, St. Peter was just a man like us. And he had these kinds of deficiencies. He had these kind of character flaws. So even the scriptural basis. That you might point to could be questioned. Yes, the scriptures did foretell what would happen to Judas, but nowhere did the scriptures say, OK, now you guys get together and find a replacement for me because I'm not able to do that. There was no scriptural mandate to find a replacement. That was Peter's suggestion. He was the one who came up with a bright idea to help God out. Oh, we're missing one. And right here it says, let another one take his office. That must mean that we're supposed to form a committee and choose the other person. Now, they did pray. But. Notice their prayer, Lord, which of these two have you chosen? Don't you think they kind of limited God? In the possibility of a choice, they had already narrowed it down to two people. And then they prayed, Lord, show us which of these two you have chosen. It could have been possible that neither one of them were God's choice. And then finally, they cast lots. Now, as I said, that's not as bad as it seems, because it was something that was practiced in the Old Testament. But that's the whole point. It was an Old Testament practice. This is New Covenant era. The New Covenant has been established and Jesus never cast lots for anything, nor do we have any record at all in the gospels of him giving any instruction. On making decisions by the casting of lots, and that's where I think Peter made the mistake, I think Peter made the mistake in impatiently trying to get things rolling and not waiting for the mind of the Lord on the matter. You see, Jesus told him to do one thing. He said, wait in Jerusalem until you've been endued with power from on high. I want you to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature, but the first thing I want you to do is wait. And what I think that meant was wait. I think it meant don't do anything, just be there, just gather together as you're doing in prayer, in anticipation, but don't make any decisions. But yet, Peter, in his impatience and in his impulsiveness, I think that he just took things into his own hands and. He then made the decision to go in this direction, so. The question is, then, what is the lesson for us? And I think it's a really important lesson, really. You see, Peter's take charge mentality. Led to a wrong choice that resulted in less than God's best, and that's what happens so many times when we try to take charge of something. When we become impatient. With waiting on the Lord and we say, all right, I've got to take the bull by the horns, I've got to step in and solve this problem. Or I've got to get this ministry rolling or whatever the case. When we do that. What we end up doing is. Making decisions that hinder us from experiencing God's best, you see, this is a lesson that we all need to grasp. God does not do things the way they're done in the world. Guess what? God does not need it. Take charge. Go to guy. As a matter of fact, if you are a take charge, go to guy. Guess what? You're not going to take charge or go anywhere until you get the point that that is not what God is interested in. That might be great in business. That might be great in politics. That might be great out there in the world. You might have, you know, incredible charisma and ability to really get the job done. But when you bring that into the church. What you potentially do is really mess things up. You get in the way of what God wants to do and the way God works. And that is something that I think we really need to be aware of today, because that is happening in the church today. Like you can't believe. That is kind of the new model for ministry that is becoming dominant. At the current time, it's the model of the take charge, go to guy. We want him out in front leading the way he's got all of his degrees, he's got all of his, you know, experience and business and background and marketing and all of that, he's got a vision and he's going to take us and we're going to go with this church. And, you know, success is our next stop. And that's where a lot of churches are at tonight. But, you know, people are settling for far less than what God wants to do. They're settling for far less than God's best, because basically what it comes down to is they've got a man in charge instead of the Lord. And that, I think, is a great curse on the church, but we can take it out of the realm of the church and just bring it down into our own personal lives. And apply it there because we can be tempted to do the same thing in our own personal lives, in our own marriages, perhaps, or families or in our own business endeavors or whatever that we're seeking to do these things for the Lord. But we're not really waiting on the Lord. We're not really seeking his mind. We're not really asking him for his heart or his wisdom. But we're just figuring because I'm a go to guy, because, you know, I'm the take the bull by the horn sort of a fellow that no matter what I do, it's just going to be great, just going to be blessed because I've got the Midas touch. But that doesn't work in the kingdom of God. That's not the way God operates. And Peter is a man who is in an educational process as we read the story here tonight, and he spent a lot of years in that educational process. And what Peter was basically learning. Was to become dependent on the Lord and not dependent on himself, and that's the lesson that all of us need to learn, because that is the big struggle that we have, isn't it? We have been taught from childhood, self-sufficiency and independence and all of those kinds of things. But when we come to Christ and we begin to live for Christ and we serve Christ, it's a whole nother ballgame, so to speak. It's not about that. It's about his work, it's about his leading. It's about the spirit. Giving guidance and instruction, we have a great illustration of this whole principle back in the life of Abraham, perhaps you remember the story God had promised to Abraham that he was going to give him a child. And after some waiting, that promise had not been fulfilled. And Abraham and his wife, they became impatient, and so one day the wife of Abraham, she said to him, take my. Handmade Hagar. And go in and have a relationship with her and perhaps she will conceive and then we will take that child, I will adopt that child and that will be the fulfillment of God's promise and. Abraham said, OK, he did it and she did conceive a child and she did bear a child and his name was Ishmael and Ishmael was Abraham's son. And yet Ishmael was not a fulfillment of the promise that God had given to Abraham to give him a son. And. When the Lord appeared to him again, he said, walk before me and be perfect and. I will make my covenant with you. And Abraham said, oh, Lord, thank you, that's great, I know what a wonderful thing to be in covenant relationship with you and and now I have a son, Ishmael. And God said, no, I'm sorry, Ishmael is not the promise. Oh, Lord, let Ishmael live before you. God said, no. That's not what I was talking about, Abraham. He said, because Ishmael is your son. I will bless him. But my covenant shall be with Isaac. Now, you see, here's something that I see in that sometimes we're in the flesh in the sense that we're making the decisions based upon what we think and we're not in the flesh in a bad way. We're not doing it necessarily with the wrong motive, but we're just, you know, using our own human understanding to make decisions. And sometimes God even blesses those things to some extent. But you know what his covenant is seen only in that which he's inspiring and in that which he's really leading in. And there's a vast difference there. He said there will be a blessing to Ishmael, but my covenant is with Isaac, an everlasting covenant. And that's the difference between, you know, just a sense that, OK, you know, God's God's hand is on this versus just that outpouring of the spirit upon it. And that's potentially what's there. That's what we want to see. And if you draw the conclusion that Peter made the wrong choice and then you do a contrast between Matthias and Paul. I mean, look at the vast difference. Matthias fades off the pages of history and Paul comes on and becomes the one who labors more than anyone else, the one who expands the kingdom far beyond any of the other apostles ever did. And I can't help but feel in the New Jerusalem when the apostles names are written in the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem, that Paul's name is going to be there. I can't help but feel that. Because he like Isaac, the covenant was with him, the blessing is there now going back to Abraham and Ishmael for a moment. God did agree that there would be an element of blessing, but there was also a major element of sorrow and suffering attached to the life and history of Ishmael. There came a time when Isaac was born and had been weaned and Ishmael was mocking Isaac and Sarah comes to Abraham and says, get rid of the the bond woman and her son. The son of the bond woman will not be heir with my son and Abraham. He's heartbroken because he loves Ishmael and he's pleading and he doesn't want that to happen. But the Lord speaks to him and says, obey your wife. She's right. Because the son of the bond woman will not be heir with Isaac. And whenever we step out in the flesh, whenever we become impatient, whenever we take it into our own hands, there's also the possibility that we're going to suffer for it further down the road. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people make decisions because it looked like the right thing to do, but not really thoroughly seeking the Lord through it. I can tell you a story after story of people that moved off out into that new community they were building out there where they could get a house, a house of their own. They could own a house and not have to pay the outrageous Orange County prices. And they went out because it looked like such a good deal. And then they found that they got there in their life spiritually withered and they had the house. But the marriage started to suffer because there was no good fellowship, the family started to fall apart because their relationship with the Lord wasn't what it used to be because they didn't have that fellowship that they once had. And but it all looked like the right thing. It looks so good. And, you know, using our own human understanding and all, we made the decision and we went out. But it turned out to be disastrous sometimes in a relationship, all this relationship. But it looks so good and she seems so right for me and all that. But are you using your own evaluation system rather than really seeking the Lord to be leading? You see, that's the difference here. And I think the big lesson in this whole thing is that if we act out of impatience and impulse, then we rob ourselves of God's best. I know it's not easy to wait. That is probably the most difficult thing we have to do as people, isn't it? And especially in the day that we live in when everything is instant. And you know how it is. We want everything just like that. Remember when the computer first became, you know, a common thing within the home, all the computer, what a wonderful. Tool, how quickly I can have access to all this information and. It's great. And then after a while, you know, this computer is slow. It takes a whole minute to download. Man, I got to get something faster. And so we go out and we get something faster, and then after a while, that's not fast enough. And now, you know. It's just unbelievable the speed at which you can surf the Internet or, you know, get information or whatever. And yet it even, you know, that which is the fastest, we're still like, come on, slap on the computer, hurry up. But our nature and it's like the more you feed it, the worse it gets and our impatience just grows and grows and grows. And we used to have, you know, we called these drive throughs in and out or what we called it fast food, but it's really slow food, isn't it? I mean, comparatively, we're always complaining sitting in the line in and out. I'm always griping. Oh, man, look at this line. I got to sit here for 10 minutes. I can't believe that. Or, you know, I'm always looking for a shortcut home. I'm always driving recklessly because I'm driving along. All of a sudden I see I see, you know, these taillights in front of me writing up. So, you know, all of a sudden I turn without putting on my signal because, oh, I don't want to get behind them. They're stopping. I want to keep going and trying to find a new route. But it's all about this impatient thing that I have. That's part of human nature. And we're just adding insult to injury by our advancements in technology. But here's my point, because that's the way things are around us. We also expect it to be that way in our relationship with God. And get this. God is operating on his time schedule, not ours. And you can't speed up the process. You can't do it the modern way. It just doesn't work. We're still called to wait upon the Lord to give him time to work out his plan. And Peter's mistake, I think, was that he didn't wait to 10 days. He might have waited eight, seven, nine, who knows? But he didn't wait the 10 days. And so he takes it into his own hands. He makes the decision and the decision was made. And what became of it? It doesn't seem like a whole lot became of it. But then as the day appointed comes, we find that, oh, here's all the blessing. And what Peter finds, I would think to his own amazement is, you know what? We're not drawing straws anymore. We're not rolling dice. We're not putting our great intellect to work here to find out how to expand God's kingdom. We're just sitting here and the Lord, well, he's in charge. That's a lesson Peter was going to learn real quickly. But you see, that's a lesson that we've got to learn ourselves right now today. At this time in history, God still works in the same way, and it's not a matter of drawing straws, it's not a matter of rolling the dice, it's not a matter of finding the go to guy to get the job done for us. It's not a matter of me putting my great intellect to the task. It's a matter of, Lord, we want your power. And, Lord, you have a plan, so, Lord, you lead. And here's the thing that you will find that's absolutely amazing. Again, it's a difference between a mere blessing and a covenant. You can do it, and because you're a child of God and he loves you, there could be a blessing there. Oh, but the covenant, that's where you find fruit abounding. You just sense that, yeah, this is all part of the covenant. This is all a part of that overflowing goodness of God. It's a difference between God's best and settling for something less, and I want to encourage you tonight not to settle for anything less than God's best, but in order to get his best, you might have to wait. But be patient. The Lord spoke to me this past couple of days as I was reading through Habakkuk, and let me close by reading this to you from Habakkuk. As I was reading it, I felt very much akin to Habakkuk in this situation, and I identified to some degree with his frustration in chapter one, verse two, he cries out, Oh, Lord, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear. And, you know, sometimes we feel like that, don't we, because we're crying out to God and we're waiting and but it just it doesn't seem to be coming through. But again, that part of it is just our impatience, isn't it? But then, as I continue to read and the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain, chapter two, verse two, that he may run that reads it for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie, though it tarry. Wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry. God is faithful and he's promised. To bless abundantly and whatever area. There is in your life tonight. Where God's got you on hold. Where the Lord has called you to wait. Don't let impatience get the best of you. Don't react by impulse. Don't reason. Hey, I'm a. Take charge kind of a guy, let me just get in there and fix this thing. Wait. Wait for the Lord, because you might end up with less than God's best. You might even end up causing difficulty or creating a problem. Bringing unnecessary sorrow or affliction upon yourself. Or again, back with Ishmael. An ongoing struggle that exists, even perhaps to this very day between the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac. It could create a problem that will never go away. Because you didn't wait on the Lord, so wait, wait for God's best. It will come, it will not tarry. God has the appointed time. Trust him for it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we can trust you. Lord, that. Your ways are different than ours, you said that, and Lord, we see that you have. A plan. A plan, Lord, where you want to do a great thing by your spirit. And so, Lord, help us not to try to take charge of things ourself. But help us, Lord, whether it be in the church, whether it be in our personal lives or families or. Wherever we are, whatever we're doing. Help us, Lord. To be waiting upon you. To be waiting for you to act. And we thank you that we have the promise that you will. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.