Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 40, Isaiah 40 verse 31. This passage of scripture is Isaiah writing to a people who are in need of comfort. They were in captivity and Isaiah is writing to them. In fact, this portion of Isaiah is the beginning of a portion of scripture in which it's all about the comfort of the Lord. Isaiah 41 starts, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. And we see all the way at the end of the chapter, which will be our scripture this evening, Isaiah 40 31 says, 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." When I read my Bible, I read passes first just about every time, and I think about that phrase, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, and I think, that's kind of odd, but I think I get it. And then I keep on going past it. But what I want to do tonight, What I want to do tonight is I want to dig down a little bit deeper into possibly what the Lord means by that, as well as renewing strength and running and not being weary and walking and not fainting. This is a familiar passage to most of us. I grew up with the song, so every time I read it, I hear the song, it plays in my head, and I can't get it out of my head. I've been singing it all week, so it'll be good to get past this reoccurring song. It's a good song, it's a good song, but every 20 seconds is good enough for me. So, most of us know it from the song, it plays in our head when we read it, or maybe you've seen it on a plaque in someone's home. And it's a good opportunity for you to start a gospel conversation with someone, because if you know, people like, religious people like to pull portions of scripture that they have no idea what it means, and they like to put it up on plaques in their home. I've seen it on pictures in businesses where it's got the words and then an eagle soaring over the mountains. And this verse is a very common verse. It's not something that's new. But what I want to go into tonight is the promises. The promises that our God makes us when he says that they that wait upon him shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. These are promises our God makes us. First, we have to know what it means, though, to wait upon something. And, again, my whole life I've talked about waiting upon something, I've talked about waiting for something, and I mean idly sitting and waiting for that thing to happen. I have heard people say, yeah, I gave my life to the Lord. Now I'm just waiting for Him. I have said, you know, I asked the Lord to make me an evangelist. I'm just waiting on the Lord to send someone my way. But this is not what this verse means. That's not what this phrase means. To wait upon something means to attend to it, to look to it, to serve it. Let's go to Numbers 8, Numbers 8, 24 through 25. Numbers 8 is the first mention of this phrase, and we see the Levites. Numbers 8, 24, 25. says, This is it that belongeth unto the Levites. From twenty and five years old and upward, they shall go in to wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. And from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting upon the service thereof and shall serve No more. Waiting upon means an active involvement. It's not standing idly by while we're waiting for someone else to do the work for us. The Levites waited upon the service of the temple. Let's go to Psalm 123, 2. Psalm 123, 2. I was going to apologize for all the cross-references this evening, but this is all I've got. So I've got the Word of God, I've got nothing else. Psalm 123, verse 2. Psalm 123, verse 2 says, Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that He have mercy on us. Waiting upon is waiting upon as a servant waits upon their master. waiting upon is active. It is much like a waiter attends to a table at a restaurant. Well, they should attend to a table at a restaurant. That's how we should attend to God. I have a quote here. I can't contribute it to anyone because I forgot to write down the author, but I believe he words it better than I might be able to. Notice that here, in Isaiah 40, 31, we are not told to wait for God. but to wait upon Him. Like a waiter in a restaurant, we are to take an active part in pleasing Him. When we wait upon the Lord, we look to Him. We serve Him. This is not us sitting at a bus stop waiting for the bus to arrive and then we'll get on it and it'll be good. No. This is us sitting at the Lord's feet and saying, Lord, what do you want me to do? I'm looking to You. You're all I've got. I'm waiting upon you. Do you want me? I can go witness. I can go read my Bible. I can come to you in prayer. There are things that we're able to do for God, and that's what He wants us to do. When we talk about waiting upon the Lord, it is not an idle thing. God is so gracious, though. He is so gracious in allowing us to serve Him. Because He doesn't just say, wait upon me because you're supposed to. And we are. He could. He doesn't have to give us anything. But God is, if we're going to use the illustration of a waiter, and that's the title of my message this evening, is the reward of being God's waiter. God is a good tipper. He promises strength. He promises deliverance. He promises rest. And He promises power. And so I want to look at those four things this evening And I want you and I to both see God, His reward for us and our service to Him that, again, He does not have to give us but He is so gracious in doing so. I do want to say as well that if waiting upon something is attending to it or looking to it, we know that the way in which we serve God that is reasonable is by presenting our bodies a what? a living sacrifice. And if we're going to present our bodies to Him as a living sacrifice, it's going to take everything. It's going to take all that we are and all that we have, and it's all His anyhow, but He allows us to give it to Him. It's a weird thing, it's a strange thing, but when we give that to Him, He gives us these things. He promises, number one, strength to the weak. In Isaiah 40, 31, it says, He shall renew their strength. Now, why would someone need strength to be renewed? it's because at some point they've lost it. And you and I in our natural state, we know, are weak. Without God, we have nothing. And it'd be foolish to think that we are strong in and of our own power and our own might, because our strength is small without the Lord. Men have been able to achieve incredible things, but it's nothing compared to what God can do. Weakness is the lack or the removal of strength. And when you don't wait upon the Lord, your strength is gone. As believers, when we don't wait upon the Lord, we find ourselves altogether without strength. And a few ways that you and I can know that we don't have strength, and that we're spiritually weak, is if we're easily overcome by sin. If we're impatient. If we're easily provoked. Because the weak are easily broken. Let's look at a couple of scriptural examples of this. Judges 16 and 17. You probably know where I'm going. Samson had everything. Think about it. Think about what he could do. He was a superhero. I mean a literal superhero. He was the Incredible Hulk. And he gave that up. He gave up his strength. When I searched weakness, these were the two scriptures we're going to go to. These were the first two people that came up. And it really, when I looked at it, I said, God, your word is amazing. Because in Judges 16, 17, what we see is Delilah asking for the source of his strength. And verse 16 says, And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her, words and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death, that he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. That's a good thing. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man. The thing that made Samson strong was not his hair. It was his God. And he had been separated unto God. He had taken the Nazarite vow. That was a vow of separation from this world to God. And there were certain things that God said you can do and you cannot do. And Samson, because of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the pride, or the pride of life, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, he gives it all up. He looks at a woman and says, hey God, I've had your strength. I mean, I've done some amazing things. And he goes, but I've never had her. And so he turns his back on God, and he was separated to God, but all at once he separates from God to sin. And his strength is gone like that. And Samson's a perfect example of a believer who gives up their separation to God to live a life in sin. Samson rejected the Word of God. He knew exactly, I mean he told her, he knew exactly what he was not allowed to do and he was willing to give it up for the pleasures of sin which only last for a season. And he was easily overcome by sin. He was weak. He was blinded. He was at his lowest point. Let's go to 2 Samuel 3, 1. 2 Samuel 3.1. In 2 Samuel 3.1, we have the result of something that happened in the previous book, actually. 2 Samuel 3.1 says, Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. But David waxed stronger and stronger. And the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker. Why did Saul's house wax weaker and weaker? Let's go back to 1 Samuel 15. 1 Samuel 15, 26. This was a generational weakening. This took some time. And in fact, Saul was made weak personally by this, obviously, but his house was made weak. 1 Samuel 16. I'm sorry, 1 Samuel 15, 26-29. 1 Samuel 15, 26-29 says, And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee, for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou. And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should repent." Here we see Saul doing the exact same thing that Samson did, rejecting the word of the Lord, Rejecting separation to God, God had separated him to be King of Israel. He had chosen him personally. And Saul and Samson, Saul looked at man and he feared man so much that he got rid of his separation to God and separated to the world. He rejected the Word of God. Here's the thing, when you and I reject This book, we no longer wait upon the Lord. We can't. It is impossible. You cannot say, I'm waiting upon the Lord and never open the Bible. You can't. This is where you're going to find Him. You can look at creation, and I thank God for creation, and it is a witness of God. But you're not going to sit and stare at the sky and say, God, tell me what to do. You need to get your nose in the book and say, God, tell me what to do. Without this, we have nothing. And I'm telling you, when Saul rejected the Word of God, he became weak. And his house became weak. When Samson rejected the Word of God, he became weak. Like I said, a believer... that is weak is overcome by sin easily, is impatient, that describes Saul, is easily provoked, that describes Saul too. These men became weak because they rejected their separation to God. But God promises strength to the weak. We know we're weak. We know our flesh is weak. And without God we are weak, but we ought to be strong in Christ. Ephesians 6.10 says be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. And 2 Corinthians 12.9 says that the Lord's strength is made perfect in weakness. His strength should be made perfect in you, and that's only going to happen by His Word, by His Spirit. when you reject your separation to God and choose to separate yourself to the world. And here's what I mean by this, by the way. Because I think some people, I think everyone sort of thinks of something different when I say separation. What I don't mean is selling all your belongings and sitting in a field in a monk's robe and going, Lord, tell me what to do with my life. That's not separating unto God. That's weird. What separating unto God is, is separating from the world. And separating from the world is separating from sin and wickedness. These men gave in to sin. The men that we just read about gave in to sin. They separated themselves to the world. If you're going to be strong in the Lord, you have to resolve to believe His word, and separate yourself from the world. That's when you get the strength of God. So let me ask you a question. Have you lost your strength? We often lose our strength because rather than looking to Him and doing what He says, we look to this world and do what we want. And if you find yourself weak, I would encourage you, separate yourself from your sin and return to His service. For God renews strength to those that wait upon Him. but He not only renews strength to the weak. This is a blessing. God gives us four things. He doesn't just give us one. If we wait upon Him, He's not like, I'll give you something. I'll give you a little something. He gives you four things that you need to live. He doesn't have to do that, guys. He promises strength to the weak, but He promises deliverance to the afflicted. Isaiah 40, 31 says they shall mount up with wings as eagles. And again, I mentioned earlier, I always go to that passage, and I sort of like read right past that, and I'm like, I think I get the idea of what that means. What that means is I have no idea, but I don't want to look into it, okay? For this message, it really forced me to get down into what mounting up with wings as eagles means. And in Exodus 19.4, God uses this term when he's talking about delivering Israel from Egypt and their affliction in Egypt. In Revelation 12, 13 and 14, God uses this when he's talking about the woman who's given eagle's wings to flee the persecution of the dragon and find rest in the wilderness. The wings of eagles, they're used to deliver us from affliction to rest. And unfortunately, you and I as believers in the 21st century are not promised to be delivered from physical affliction. You are not promised in America where you can go out on the street and preach the gospel. You're not promised in America where you can be a Christian freely and go give out the gospel to people whenever you want. You could stand up in a McDonald's and yell out the gospel if you wanted to. Now, people might not receive it, but you could if you wanted to. You'd be a little crazy. But you're not promised that. You're not promised freedom from a jail cell when You're a Christian in a country where it's illegal to be a Christian. God doesn't promise that kind of affliction, deliverance from affliction. But what he does promise is deliverance from affliction in two ways. One, when this life is over, you're going to be delivered from all your afflictions. You're going to be with the Lord Jesus Christ forever and ever and ever and ever. And whatever you're going through, God may not heal you. He may not heal your loved one. He may not get you out of this predicament, out of this situation that you've been begging Him for again and again and again. He may not remove the thorn. But He will give you not only strength, but deliverance from the pain and the sorrow that you feel every single day. Affliction is something that causes you constant pain and sorrow. And when we fail to wait upon God, we allow afflictions of this life to sorrow us. And that's the other kind of affliction or deliverance He gives us from affliction, which is spiritual deliverance. In fact, we see in 1 Thessalonians 4.13, there are some believers that are sorrowful at the loss of fellow members of their church. And the admonition is, you shouldn't sorrow as others sorrow who have no hope. You and I do not have to sorrow when we suffer physical affliction because we have hope in the living God. Hope in the God who defeated death, who saved your soul, who's going to take you to heaven one day. You can have hope not only in the next life, but you can have hope in this life. And he will deliver you from your pain and your sorrow. Hagar, in Genesis 16, 4-11, is a perfect example of someone who suffered affliction and was given a remedy to that suffering. In Genesis 16, 4-11, we see Hagar despising her master. In fact, let's turn there together because I don't want to get this wrong. Genesis 16, 4-11. Affliction in this life is real, by the way. You may think, this shouldn't hurt. This shouldn't be hard. I shouldn't be feeling this pain or this sorrow. But it's a part of life. It's part of the curse. We live in a sin-cursed world, and we have to deal with affliction. And the Lord has given us a way in Jesus Christ to deal with that. That's incredible to me. In 16, 4 through 11, We'll read it now. Now if you know this story, you know that her mistress was Sarai. So who was despised in Hagar's eyes? It was Sarai. I always read that backwards for some reason. I don't know why, but continuing. And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee. I have given my maiden to thy bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The Lord judged between me and thee. But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand, do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. So here we see Hagar sins against Sarai by despising her master. That's something that should not happen. You should not despise your master. But then we see Sarai dealing hardly with Hagar and Hagar fleeing the scene. In verse 7, we see the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou, and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress, Sarai. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, return to thy mistress and submit thyself under her hands. And if we skip down to verse 11, at the very end of that verse, The phrase is used, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. According to the Lord, Hagar was afflicted. She was suffering actual affliction. And the remedy? The remedy was return and submit. Return and submit. Maybe you're suffering affliction. as a result of, there's many reasons why you could, one of them is as a result of our own sin. And Hagar, in this instance, is suffering affliction because of her own sin, and the mercy of God says, I'm gonna make a way of restoration for you, I'm gonna deal with your affliction. I've seen your affliction, and she gave her a son, but she also tells her what to do next, return and submit. If you are being afflicted because of your own sin in your life, Stop running from God. Return to Him and submit yourself to His hand. Return to your Master and submit yourself to Him. But we don't only suffer affliction because of our sin. We suffer affliction for other sins as well. Leah was hated by her husband. That was not her fault. Jacob was taken advantage of by his father-in-law. Some may argue that was his fault. Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers. All cases in which God says they suffered affliction. And it wasn't their fault, it was at the hand of another. So if you're suffering affliction because of someone else's sins, because the wrongs of another, and that's actually where I think most of us find ourselves. You're like, I had nothing to do with this, and now this just came into my life. Maybe you're like Job, and for no reason apparent to yourself, you're suffering affliction. The key is hoping in God. Turn to God. Submit yourself to Him. He's the only hope that you have to be delivered from your afflictions. Whether it be someone else's sin, whether it be your own sin, whether it be the no reason apparent to yourself at all, like I said with Job. Hope in God. Because our pain and sorrow can be used for God's glory. It can be used, although I don't know if we always like this, it can be used for our perfection. Our affliction can be used for our establishing, our strengthening, our settling. Our affliction can be used for others' consolation and salvation. We don't know why often we're being afflicted, but when you are afflicted, God provides a rescue from that affliction, deliverance from your affliction. Wait upon the Lord because His deliverance is coming whether in this life or the next. We know that God gives us strength and deliverance when we wait upon Him. But it doesn't stop there. Like I said, God's a good tipper. He also gives us rest. so we can run and not grow weary. Weariness is tiredness and fatigue. And although they seem similar, they're a little different. So I always read weariness, and there's a lot of overlap with all these, by the way. So I always read weariness, and I'm like, oh, I think I know. That's kind of like weakness. And it's kind of like being faint. And they all kind of are in a bundle together. But I'm splitting them up because there are some distinctions here. Weakness is lacking strength. whereas weariness is being tired or worn out. And for my example, I was trying to think of a good example for this, and this is the best I got, so bear with me. Imagine a kid walks up to a 50-pound weight, and the child tries to pick up that weight. The child is not weary. The child's not faint. That's not why he can't pick it up. It's not because he didn't get his nappy poo today, and he's just a little tired and cranky. It's because the child is weak. He lacks the strength to be able to pick up that weight. Now, let's change the scenario a little bit. A powerlifter who's been lifting all day, and he goes to pick up that 50-pound weight just to do one last set, and he can't pick it up. because he's weary, he's been fatigued, he's been tired out, he's been worn out, he can't quite lift it, he's fatigued his muscles. There's a difference between weakness and weariness because weariness seems to mean that you've been worn down by something over time. grow weary. It's a funny thing that happens. I don't know if you've seen runners who grow weary during a race. And they run by to grab that cup of water. And when they grab it, they're like, pfft. And then it goes everywhere. And it's all over them. They have nothing left in the cup. And then they throw it down. They're weary. Over time, they've got more tired and tired and tired. And they've been worn down. Weariness can come from anything that wears you down. But Isaiah 40, 31 uses a very specific example. that you run and you don't grow weary. Let's turn to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 uses this exact same example of a race. Hebrews 12, and we'll go one and two. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." This is a wonderful analogy of waiting upon the Lord. We see here the race that's set before us. Well, that is our attendance to God. That's our service to the Lord. And we see looking unto Jesus. Well, that's what we should be looking to. That's our focus. When we look to Jesus and we attend to his service, we run this race, we can run and not grow weary. Weariness in this race is common because a prerequisite for running this race is found in verse 1. we have to lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset us. But unfortunately, when we're waiting, when we lacked waiting on God, we are running our race and we're going and we start to get weary because we are picking up things along the way. And they may not be sinful, but we start grabbing these weights and we know that All things are lawful, but not all things are expedient, and we keep picking up these weights, and we're growing more weary, and more weary, and more weary. When we're waiting upon God, we can have rest during the race that God has called us to run, without wearying or growing tired. When we try to run with unnecessary weight, or without the proper focus, we begin to wear out. Many Christians, including myself, have been exhausted because they pick up things along the way that hinder their race. They lose their focus on the reason why they are running in the first place. When you lose your focus as to why you're running a race, you're about at the point of quitting. When you don't know why you're running anymore, you stop running. When you're weary, it's the next step. The next step is quitting. And we'll see that here with fainting, but what's a weight? Well, a weight is anything that hinders your run. Anything not brought into the subjection of Christ can become a weight. Like I said, all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient. And our focus can easily shift from things above to things below. So when you're running, we're all called to run the race. But what you're looking at is so important. When you're running this race of life, and this race that God has called us to run, and you start to lower your focus to the things of this world, you start to get a little more weary and a little more weary. And you're like, if I could just make it to that next family vacation we've got, it's going to be so much fun, but just got to work, work, work till we get there. Oh, if I could just make it to the next family Christmas, it's going to be so good. Everybody's going to come into town. If I could just make it to the next time I'm hanging out with my friends, if I could just make it to the weekend, got to work, you know, working for the weekends. If I could just make it to that place, then I'll find rest." And your eyes start to descend from the Lord, who's called you to run this race, to everything here below. When you start shifting your focus, you start to grow weary. When you start shifting your focus, you start to notice things that you could pick up along the way and you could take. Well, this will make me happy, surely. If I get this, this is going to make me happy. And as soon as you get it, we all know it does not make you happy. How many of us have bought things and we're like, this is going to be great. And then two months later, it's on eBay, or it's being sold, or it's sitting in a box in our garage. Why? Because you've shifted your focus from the Lord being your strength, from God being the thing that sustains you, to trying to find sustenance in this world as you're running this race, and you are growing weary, and more weary, and more weary, and as you grow weary, you get to the place where you faint. And that's why I think fainting is at the end of this list in Isaiah 40, 31. So I would ask you to sincerely search your heart before God to know why. Ask yourself the question, why is it? Why have I grown weary? Why is it that my focus has shifted from the thing that it should have been on the whole time, the one who saved me, the one that's taken me to heaven, the one who gave me everything I know? Why are my eyes all of a sudden down here on my troubles, on my trials, on my tribulations? And going back to affliction, by the way, if your eyes are on everything down here, affliction just gets worse. Because you are going to suffer affliction, and when you're not looking to God, when you're not waiting upon God, when you're not attending to His work, and you're not focused on that, all of a sudden, you start to focus on everything that's wrong in your life. Everything that's happening to you. Everything that is happening to someone you love, someone you care about. It's, I can't believe the world's this way. You see what they did? You see what they did in Washington? Let me tell you. That's wicked. Yes, it is wicked. But we, this isn't our home. We weren't called to be here for all of eternity in the world the way it is. Jesus Christ is going to make all things new. We're going to be with Him forever and ever and ever. So maybe while we're here, we could get to know Him a little more. We could serve Him a little bit and try to earn some eternal rewards. But our eyes, it's so easy to just lower your view and get weary and pick up all this weight. So again, I would ask you to search your heart. Because what's a weight to me may not be a weight to you. Now sin, yes, sin is sin, right? Sin is sin, okay? But what's a weight to you may not be a weight to me. And I can't sit up here and tell you, you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do that. If it's in the book, I can tell you that. But there's a lot of things that could be a weight in your life that I can't stand up here and tell you that it's a weight. You have to search your heart before the Lord and ask Him, have I started focusing on this more than you? Did I pick this thing up somewhere all the way back there and I've been holding it and carrying it and allowing it to wear me out and burden me down? And you get, it's weird because you don't ever connect my weariness to the thing I picked up back there. weary. I kind of feel like quitting. I don't think I have the strength to go on anymore. I don't know where my love for the Lord or His Word went. It's because you started picking up some weights, way back there, and they're just now wearing you down. And you're just now getting to the point where you're faint. If you don't seek God, you will end up fainting. That is the result that is the result of not waiting upon the Lord. But the good news is, He promises power to the fainting if you do wait upon Him. You see, fainting is the failing of strength, or the exhaustion of strength resulting in failure. Let's go to Isaiah 44, 12. Isaiah 44, 12. I hope this isn't the one that you were drinking out of, Pastor Matt. I mean, we're related, but we're not that close. Isaiah 44, 12. No, I know it's different. It's full. He was drinking it quite a bit this morning. 44, 12 is where we're going. So the Bible says, the smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals and fashioneth it with hammers. and worketh it with the strength of his arms. Yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth. He drinketh no water, and is faint." Now, when Pastor Matt was preaching this morning, I was sitting there going, uh-oh. I started talking about exactly what I was going to talk about. But the funny thing is, I had no idea he was going to preach that. And the truth is, the living water is inside of us. And it prevents us from fainting. It's not just good for salvation, although it is good for salvation. It's good for sustaining. It's good for restoration and revival. Isaiah 44.12, we see a perfect definition of what it means to faint. It means for your strength to fail. For you to be exhausted to the point where your strength is gone and it results in failure. To differentiate one more time, weakness is lacking strength. And weariness is being worn down. But fainting is the result of both of those things. It's the result of all, actually all three of the things listed before. When you're weak, when you're afflicted, and when you're weary. If you don't wait upon God, you will faint. I don't know if you've seen those videos of the guys who, I don't know why powerlifting is on my mind, maybe because I talked to Brother Dustin about this the other day, but when you see those guys who are like really, really big and they go to pick something up that's way too heavy that no human should be lifting, and they go to pick it up and they go... and they start to faint and they fall back. I don't know if you've seen those. That's terrifying. They're funny, but it's terrifying. That is what fainting looks like. It's when your strength is completely exhausted and it results in failure. We know, like the example I just used, that fainting can be physical. Esau, before he sold his birthright, said that he was faint and that he was like, I'm at the point of death. I don't know if I believe that, but that's what he said. And Gideon's men were fainting when they were pursuing the enemy. And we know that physical fainting can be healed with some food, some water, and some rest, right? Well, spiritual fainting is a little bit different. Spiritual fainting looks like Jacob, whose heart fainted when his sons said that Joseph was alive. His heart fainted because he didn't believe them. He was discouraged. His sons weren't exactly the most trustworthy people. And they said, Joseph's alive and his heart faints within him. David's soul fainted out of a desire for God. Psalm 84.2, let's turn there. Psalm 84, 2. Physical fainting is serious, but spiritual fainting is fatal. Psalm 84, 2. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Lord that I would faint for the courts of the Lord, that my heart and my flesh would cry out for the living God." He had been deprived of something to the point where he was saying, I need you. It's all I need. You're all I need. All the stuff I have is great. All the things I've been given is great. Being your anointed, your chosen, is fantastic. But God, if you stripped all those titles away, all I need is you. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. His heart fainted. His soul fainted for the courts of the Lord. It's a lot like Jonah, whose soul fainted within him when he was in the belly of the whale before God saved his life. And this brings us, full circle, back to Hebrews 12. Let's go there together again. Again, I'm not sorry for it, but I know it's a lot of turning. Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12, 3. So we read verses 1 and 2, which are talking about race and looking unto Jesus. And I think I would regret it if I didn't include verse 3 here. For consider him, talking of Jesus, that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. When you run this race, if you don't look at the one who puts you in the race, if you don't keep your eyes set on that, you're going to faint in your minds. That's the natural result. That is the end result. You have to consider someone who considered such contradiction, he considered, endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, he endured the cross. Why? Because the joy that was set before him, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. If you don't look to Him, you will faint, spiritually. There's no question about it. And when you're fainting, we can learn from Scripture, when you're fainting, when you're in that place where you're weak and you're weary and you've endured affliction, and you're about to pass out spiritually, this is what happens. You no longer think clearly. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. and it was pretty mad about it afterwards. You don't think clearly when you're in that position of fainting. You'll give up everything for what you desire. You'll give up everything to just feel something, to feel whole again, to feel, Lord, I want to feel your presence. You'll give up everything just to feel normal. It's like Pastor Matt said today about drugs. People who continue in drugs and continue in drugs, it just takes more and more and more of them until they get to the point where they're just taking it to feel like a normal human being. Where they're just taking them to feel like they sort of got it together because they are relying on that. And that's what, like he said, that's what the world will do to you. That's what faintness will do to you. You'll sell your birthright for a bowl of soup. You'll live in fear. God sent faintness into Israel's hearts, so much so that a shaken leaf would chase them like they were fleeing from a sword. When God put faintness in the hearts of Israel, they were afraid. So much so that a shaken leaf? It's fall right now. All the leaves are falling. Could you imagine a leaf falling from a tree and you run like someone's chasing you with a gun? That's what faintness in the hearts of Israel did. It caused them to fear. And in fact, fear... is contagious. In Deuteronomy 20, verses 3 and 8, we see that fear is so contagious that the officers, when they were about to go to war, the officers of the army of Israel would remove the men who were faint and afraid because they were going to infect others around them. It is possible for a church to get to a place in which its people have stopped waiting upon the Lord and they're weak, and they are suffering affliction, and they're weary, they've been worn down, and they're fainting, and their fear starts to cause other people to fear, and you find, if anyone's been afraid to the point where they have to talk to someone about it, you start instilling those fears in the people that you're talking to. And it's very possible for a group of people to start to collect that are just afraid, they are fainting, they find each other, and they cause each other to grow more and more afraid. So, when you're fainting, you no longer think clearly, you live in fear, but you also have no comfort and no rest. Let's go to Jeremiah 8.18. Jeremiah 8.18. Jeremiah says, when I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. What was preventing him from comfort? Faintness. Let's go to Jeremiah 45.3, just a few lot of chapters over. Jeremiah 45.3. A lack of comfort and rest, by the way, look like what we term depression, anxiety, discouragement. It really is a lack of comfort. You have no rest in your soul. And if you have ever been in a place where you're anxious or you do feel that depression, you know you have no rest in your soul. Sometimes it's hard to sleep. Sometimes it's hard to get up. Jeremiah 45.3 says, thou didst say, woe is me now. For the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow, I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest." When you're fainting, you end up with no comfort, no rest, you end up afraid, you don't think clearly, and then you end up quitting. There's a passage that talks about David's men that stayed behind because they were so faint they couldn't cross over the brook. That's terrifying in the Christian life. When you get to the place where you're so weak, where you are so afflicted by the things of this world and you're suffering the sorrow and the pain that comes with that affliction, when you're so weary and worn down and worn out and just done, and you faint. That's a terrifying idea in my mind. That a believer could get to that point and not even realize it. When I was in college at PCC, they had all the guys that were in college to be pastors or missionaries or whatever, they had all of us stand up. And a guy came in, and I've told this story before, I don't know if I've told it to the church, but there was a preacher that had been preaching for a very long time, and I don't know his name, but I remember what he said was very impactful. He had all of us stand. And there were hundreds of guys in that room, and he said, this section, sit down. This section, sit down. This section, sit down. And everything but the first four rows of this section, sit down. And then he pointed to the first four rows or so, and he said, this section right here that's left standing, that's statistically all that will be left of you guys in the ministry in 25 years. That terrified me. That we could get to a place where we stop waiting upon God, and stop attending to Him, stop getting in His words, stop getting on our knees in prayer, stop winning people to the Lord, stop discipling, stop loving one another. So much so, that you just quit. You're just done. But thankfully, God gives power to the faint. In Jonah 2, 7, We have a passage about Jonah and the belly of the whale, and he said he was about to faint, except he called upon the Lord. He remembered God. He remembered the Lord, and God delivered him from fainting. I would challenge you, remember the one that you've stopped waiting upon and seek him. If you're at this point of fainting, if you feel that anxiety, if you feel that fear, if you're at the place where you're like, I'm about to quit. I don't know where my love for the Lord went. I don't know where my love for his word went. I'm done. If you're at that place, remember the one that you've stopped waiting upon. Seek him once more. Believe to see his goodness. He is the only one who can bring your soul up from corruption. And if he's the only one that can bring your soul up from corruption, he's the only one that can give you strength, that can give you the ability to endure affliction, who can cause you to run and not be weary and to walk and not faint. David said, So my challenge to you this evening is when you're weak, without strength, easily overcome, easily irritated, when you're afflicted in constant pain and sorrow because of the things that happen in this life, when you're weary and you're tired, you're fatigued, you're worn out, and even when you're fainting, wait upon the Lord. He will renew your strength. You will mount up with wings as eagles. These are promises. You will run and not grow weary. You will walk and not faint.