Waiting for Strength Isaiah 40:29-31

Waiting for StrengthIsaiah 40:29-31

GOD

Agape Growth Chart- Abiding Stage

Me

NeighborsWorldRVCC

GOD

Agape Growth Chart- Abiding Stage

Me

Words that describe

John 15 Abiding in ChristRomans 8 Life in the SpiritGalatians 5 Fruit of the SpiritOld Test. Wait on the Lord

Lamentations 3:25 The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,To the soul who seeks Him.

Lamentations 3:22-24 Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning;Great is Your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,“Therefore I hope in Him!”

Lamentations 3:25-26The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,To the soul who seeks Him.  

It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD.

Great is Thy Faithfulness

1) Strength for today

2) Bright hope for tomorrow

I. Strength for today

A. Comfort

Isaiah 40:1,8

“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”Says your God.

The grass withers, the flower fades,But the word of our God stands forever.”

B. Behold!

Behold!

Vs. 9 “Behold your God!”Vs. 10 “Behold the Lord God!”Vs. 10 “Behold His reward is with Him”Vs. 15 “Behold the nations are as a drop in a bucket”Vs. 15 “Look! He lifts the isles as a very little thing”Vs. 26 “Lift up your eyes”

C. Questions

Questions

1) Challenging us to calculate the greatness of God

2) Challenging us to evaluate our understanding of God

3) Challenging us to realize nothing can compare to the God of the Bible.

Isaiah 40

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,Measured heaven with a spanAnd calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?Weighed the mountains in scalesAnd the hills in a balance?

Isaiah 40:29

Why do you say, O Jacob,And speak, O Israel:“My way is hidden from the LORD,And my just claim is passed over by my God”?

D. Renewed strength

Isaiah 40:28Have you not known?Have you not heard?The everlasting God, the LORD,The Creator of the ends of the earth,Neither faints nor is weary.His understanding is unsearchable.

Isaiah 40:29He gives power to the weak,And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Isaiah 40:30-31Even the youths shall faint and be weary,And the young men shall utterly fall,But those who wait on the LORDShall renew their strength;They shall mount up with wings like eagles,They shall run and not be weary,They shall walk and not faint

II. Leanness of the soul

Psalm 106:13-15They soon forgot His works;They did not wait for His counsel,But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,And tested God in the desert.And He gave them their request,But sent leanness into their soul

A. They forgot

B. They didn’t wait

C. They gave in to their desires

Numbers 11Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat?  We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”

Numbers 11Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat.  You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,  but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the LORD who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?” ’ ”

D. Leanness

Psalm 106:13-15 (The Message)But it wasn’t long before they forgot the whole thing,wouldn’t wait to be told what to do. They only cared about pleasing themselves in that desert,provoked God with their insistent demands.He gave them exactly what they asked for—but along with it they got an empty heart.

III. Enough grace

2 Corinthians 12:8-10Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

A. Pleading

B. Sufficient

C. Strength