I want to start this morning by making a confession. I hope that's okay. I'm a very competitive person. Those of you who know me know that about me. And there are times in life where I have let competition get the best of me and I have done some less than honest things to win. Because I have to win. I have to win. My home group was going to go bowling a few months ago. And so I don't really bowl, but I went bowling every day for two weeks to prepare for our home group going bowling because I refuse, I just can't lose at anything. And sometimes there'll be these competitions that aren't even real competitions. A few years ago, my wife and I were watching Top Chef. Some of you may have seen that show or shows like that where people compete, there's these crazy challenges with a twist, and then every week someone goes home, someone gets eliminated. We were watching this show. That doesn't sound like a competition, but it was because every week we each guessed who was gonna go home, and Megan was right all the time. And I was never right. I could not guess the right person. And it's not like we were keeping score, but I was keeping score. I knew exactly how many she had right. I knew exactly how many I had. That was easy, I had none. And so I decided to even the odds a little bit. And I decided to even the odds by watching the show before she did. Right? See, we couldn't watch it live because of our schedule, so we recorded it, and then like two nights later, when we had some time, we'd watch it together. But I started watching it in secret first. And I have to say that once I did that, I took a commanding lead in guessing the eliminated contestants correctly. I mean, I I won that season handedly. It was a little awkward, though, having to watch the show with Megan pretending like I was seeing it for the first time. It was strange because there were moments that were big shocking twists, and she'd look at me and go, Can you believe that? And I'd say, no. Wow. That's who saw that coming, right? What a crazy thing. I had to, I had to pretend like I was having the same experience that she was having when in reality they were completely different. And it's interesting because sometimes I think about Jesus in that context. I wonder sometimes if Jesus really had the same experience that we have. I mean, Jesus lived life, he was a human being. But but often I think about Jesus and I think to myself, okay, he was just pretending to have the same experience we had. He'd been given the script ahead of time. He knew everything that was gonna happen to him before it happened. So he didn't have to live life like you and I have. We have no idea what's gonna happen to us every single day, but he's God, so surely he had a leg up. Surely when he acted surprised, he was just acting surprised. There were moments in scripture where you actually see Jesus get surprised. He gets caught off guard. But I would read those and go, ah, he's just he's faking. He's going, oh wow, didn't realize this would happen. Jeez, what am I gonna do? I mean, you think about Jesus praying, telling his disciples they need to go pray. Was he in a corner going, dear me, um, show me what to do, and I already know what to do, but just make my disciples think I need to do this. And he's got one eye open. And no, no, Jesus, he lived life. He didn't cheat. In fact, Philippians 2 says this. I love this verse. Though he was God, though he was God, I mean, think about that, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges, he took the humble position of a slave, and he was born as a human being. In other words, Jesus didn't fake it. He laid his divinity aside and he lived life like you and me. He lived a real life. He got irritated, he got upset. I've never really thought about this in detail. Jesus had to think. He had to spend mental energy to figure out what to do. There were moments in life where Jesus had to stop and think. He had to weigh his options. Just like we do. He had to make, he had to make tough choices and live with the consequences. His life was not some pre-recorded show. His life was determined and shaped the same way our lives are shaped by the decisions that Jesus made. We're starting a new series today called Defined. This is one that's been in the back of our minds for years. I've had it in a notebook for a long, long time. And the idea behind it is really simple. Our lives are defined by the decisions that we make. Sometimes we think life defines us, that our circumstances shape us, but that's not true. God says to us that we have the power to shape, to define our lives based on what we choose to do, how we choose to respond to our circumstances. That's what defines our lives. Every day we face life-defining decisions. Choices that we have to make that have great consequence for the rest of our lives. But here's what's amazing: we don't have to make those choices blindly. We don't have to make shots in the dark because we have a model to follow. We have an example. We have Jesus. We can follow in his footsteps because his life was defined the same way by the decisions that he made. In Ephesians 5, verses 1 and 2. The Bible says, imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. Jesus gives us the example to follow. If we search scripture, we see the life-defining decisions that Jesus made, and we can follow suit. Because his life was defined by passion. His life was defined by wisdom. His life was defined by the power of God. And if you desire a life that's defined in the same way, all you have to do is learn from Jesus and live like he did. I'm so excited about this series. We're going to start this morning with one of the very first decisions that we see Jesus make in Scripture. It's a decision that's summed up in one verse. At the very end of Luke chapter 2. And just to give it some context, Luke chapter 3, the next chapter, tells the story of Jesus getting baptized. He was 30 years old when he got baptized, when he first went public and told the world who he was. Luke chapters 1 and 2, give us a little bit of his backstory, his childhood. We don't have a lot of details. We have enough to see that even at a young age, Jesus. Yep. Someone's got their microphone on. That Jesus knew who he was, he knew he was special, and that other people were taking notice. We have enough to go on to figure that out, but we don't have many details. And there's actually this 20-year gap where we know nothing. The 20-year period of his life, from about age 10 to age 30, when he gets baptized, where we really don't have any details to fill in the blanks for what he did in life. We can infer a few things from other details we get in Scripture. We know he had other siblings. The only thing that fills in that gap for us is this one verse. It's Luke 252. It says, Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people. He grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor. And we might read that and say, okay, what's the decision there? I thought this was a decision that he made, and it is, because here's what this verse is telling us. It's telling us that for 30 years. He decided to wait. He decided to wait. For 30 years, Jesus waited to tell the world that he is the answer the world has been searching for. For 30 years, Jesus waited to step out and start accomplishing the mission that God gave him. He waited for 30 years to do that. And for me, for someone that is not a very patient person, that's hard for me to grab hold of because I wonder sometimes why not a little sooner? Jesus was crucified at 33. So all we have in his life, all the details, all the miracles, all the teachings, all of it happened in three years. What if he had come forward at 25? We could have had eight years of Jesus. Eight years of miracles, eight years of teachings, but all we get is three. Would not five more years of Jesus be a good thing? I would think so. That's the timing I would have chosen, but Jesus decided to wait. Our lives are defined by so many decisions, but the decisions we choose surrounding the timing, the timing of the decisions we make, those affect us as much as any. What we do in life is so important, but when we do it is equally so. Timing really is everything. And I hate to wait. I'm not a patient person. And my impatience costs me dearly certain times in life. I mean, it's little things like cell phone messages. I don't listen to those ever. If someone calls me and leaves me a seven-second voicemail, I just call them right back. I don't have time to listen to a seven-second voicemail, but they always ask me the same question. Did you listen to my voicemail? Did you get my message? And I have to say, no, I did not. I ignored it. And so they have to tell me what they said again, and it takes more time than if I would have just listened to it the first time. We wasted both of our times because of my decision to be impatient, to not wait. I have big regrets in my life because of my impatience. Moments I can't get back, but I wish I could. One that still stings is when I proposed to Megan. We dated very young. I bought our engagement ring when I was 19 years old. Took me a year to pay it off. And I had this very elaborate proposal planned. It was it was awesome. Guys, it was so good. It was so good. It was oh, it was good. But it required that I wait three months until after I'd purchased this ring. The only way for this proposal that I'd planned for a year to work was for me to wait three months with this ring in hand. Let Megan go back home where she lived, a thousand miles away, and I was gonna drive and surprise her and have this whole thing. It was awesome, guys. It was so good. But I couldn't wait three months. So one day, just on a whim, I said, you know what? I'm proposing today. And I threw some things together very hastily, and I proposed, and she said, Yes, thank God. But but it was it was not a good proposal at all. I proposed in a men's dorm room. In my college dorm room. Now, ladies, try to think of a place more romantic than a men's dorm. McDonald's is more romantic than a men's dorm. I mean, had I put the ring in a happy meal, that would have been ten times better than what I did. Have you ever been in a men's dorm? 300 guys, 18 to 20, living away from home for the very first time? The smell alone, if you wanted to bottle it and sell it as a fragrance, it would be sweat and ramen noodles combined. And that's that's where I chose to propose to my wife. And I love Megan and she loves me. I've never heard Megan say to anyone, let me tell you how Justin proposed. Because wow. But had I waited, had I waited, I know that would be the case. I can't get that moment back. Impatience is always costly. If you search scripture, you have a hard time finding examples of people frustrated, people struggling because they can't catch up to God's pace. You don't find examples of people saying, God, you're moving way too fast. Can you slow down? Can you let me catch up? Those don't exist. What you do find are example after example of people getting impatient, people having a hard time waiting on God because God seems to be moving way too slow. If you read 1 Samuel 13, you'll read the story of King Saul, the very first king of Israel, ruining his kingdom, ruining his place and his right to be king because he would not wait on God. God gave him specific instructions wait until this moment, don't do this. And he just got antsy. It seemed like God was taking way too long, so he went ahead and did it himself, and it cost him. If you read Genesis 16, you read the story of Abraham and Sarah, they were given this great promise by God. God was going to give them a son, that son was gonna grow into a nation, the nation of Israel, which Jesus would come through, but they they had a hard time waiting. It took God a long time to come through on that promise, so they they took matters into their own hands, they got impatient, and the results of that cost them dearly for generations to come, even to this day, in all honesty. Impatience is always costly. And if anyone ever had a legitimate reason to be impatient, it was Jesus. I mean, he had three years. Three years to change the world, three years to change the course of history, three years to redefine the way people see God, three years to set a new standard for the way that people interact with one another, the way people treat one another, three years to start freeing people from religious oppression, three years to save the world from the power of sin and death. That is an aggressive three-year plan. I mean, if anyone had a right or a or an excuse to say, I don't have time for this conversation, I've got stuff to do, I don't have time to think this through, I don't have time to pray about it and wait. It was Jesus, but Jesus was a man constantly mindful of the time, of the right time to act. We see so many examples in the Gospels. In John chapter 12, verse 23, Jesus replied, Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. In other words, the time has come, now is the right time. In John 17, after saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son so he can give glory back to you. It's the right time. Matthew 26, 18, Jesus told his disciples, as you go into the city, you'll see a certain man. Tell him, the teacher says, My time has come, and I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples at your house. Time and time again, he is mindful of the right time to act. He says, Now is the time. Other situations, he says, now is not the time. Jesus often waited. He moved at a pace that frustrated his own friends. They try to push him. They're trying to tell him, you need to start doing new things, you need to go to new places, you need to get some exposure, Jesus. And he says, No, now is not the right time. Jesus decided to be a person who trusted the timing of God. He decided to be a person who placed his faith and his trust in the timing that God the Father set. And that decision defined his life. It really does boil down to trust. And just a few minutes ago, we sang a song called You'll Come. Katie, who's standing right here, she sang that. She rocks that song, by the way. Jeez, Katie has a good voice. Nathan and Katie, if you know, yeah, you can clap for that. If you didn't know this, Katie who is here, Nathan here, they're married, and they already have a child, they're having another, and uh like I don't even want to know how good those kids are gonna be musically. It's just not fair, right? But we sang that song together, and one of the lines we sang was, I have decided, I have resolved to wait upon the Lord. That phrase, wait upon the Lord, it appears often in the Bible. Maybe the most famous example is Isaiah 40, 31. Isaiah 40, 31 says, Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. It's those who wait upon the Lord. Now, if you look that up in whatever translation you might use, you probably won't see the word wait. You'll see the word trust. Or you might see the word hope. Those who hope in the Lord, those who trust in the Lord, and that's that's an accurate translation. You see, in the Hebrew language, the the word for hope, the word for trust, and the word for wait, it's the same word. The idea is really simple that to hope in God and to trust in God and to wait on God's timing, they're all the same thing. I cannot be a person who trusts the timing of God. I cannot be a person who does not trust the timing of God and still put my hope in God if that makes sense. In other words, I can't say, God, my hope is in you, God, I trust you. I just can't, I can't wait on you. It doesn't work. I can't say, God, yeah, you're the one I put my faith in, you're the one I'm I'm really holding on to, but you're taking a little too long, so I'm just gonna do this instead. Because to trust in God, to hope in God, to wait in God, on God, it's the same thing. And it's those who trust in him, it's those who hope in him, it's those who wait on him, they're the ones who thrive. They're the ones who mount up like eagles, who soar. They're the ones who who run without getting faint. They're the ones who go the distance, those who wait on God. Our decisions define us, and I tell you this morning that the decision to trust God's timing and be willing, to simply be willing to wait, that decision will define your life like few other will. That decision will lead to less regrets than you can imagine. That decision will lead to less mistakes because when we move fast, things get sloppy. The number of emails, the number of text messages, I wish I would have proofread for five seconds. Five seconds. I asked my friend Brian this week for a rodeo. I text him, I need a rodeo. What I actually text him was, I need a ride, but I must have put one key wrong and it autocorrect made it rodeo, and he was very confused. He brought a horse, it was weird. Um, didn't really happen. Two seconds of me looking at that would have saved that. When we go fast, we get sloppy. Are we willing to be people who wait on God? I mean, let's be honest, waiting is hard. Patience is not, it's not easy. We live in a world that speeds us up. We live in a world that says we need it now. We have to act now. And that's how I'm wired. I'm not an indecisive person. I don't like to procrastinate. I don't do that. I'm not talking about the fact that we don't need to be people that take action. No, we need to be people of action. I'm not talking about situations in life where we know we need to do something, but we just don't want to do it because it's gonna be awkward. So we're looking for any excuse we can think of to put it off. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about those moments in life where we want to act, we want to move, we want to make a decision. We're aching to do it, but we haven't stopped to consider whether or not now is the right time. Those who wait on the Lord, they are the ones who thrive. God desires that your life thrives. And it's only possible if you will be a person who waits on the Lord. Now, I don't know you, I don't know what decisions are on the forefront of your mind today, but I imagine there are many that are pressing, that are important. And all I ask this morning is that you consider adding one question. One question to your mental filter, one question to the way you think, the way you approach every decision that you make, one question that will allow you to be a person who waits on God. It's the question, is this the best time? It's not, is this the right time? Because we don't always know what the right time is. We're not God, we don't have his perspective, but but his timing is perfect. And so the best time is the right time. And if you can think of a time that's not the best time, it's not the right time. Seriously, if you can think of any situation, any decision you're making, if you can think of a better time to do it, it can't be the best time. It's not even the better time. And God's timing for you is so good that He wants He wants to bless you, but He loves you so much that He refuses to ruin a blessing with poor timing. He refuses to do it. Well, we wait on God. I don't know what decision you're facing. Maybe it's a job change. Maybe you're so sick of your job, and maybe you have a right to be sick of your job, and you're about to choose another job because it's the one that showed up. It's the one that that made itself known, and you're so tired of this one that you want to run to the next, but have you stopped long enough to ask yourself and to ask God, is this the best time to make this decision? Is this the best time, God? Because I'm not gonna move until you let me know it's the best time. And if I can think of a better time, it's not the best time. Maybe it's a relationship. You're single, you want to start a relationship, you're so tired of waiting for the right person. You're so tired of waiting on God to bring that person into your life that that now is about to cause you to settle. And you're gonna settle for the person who's here. They're available right now. That is not the standard God has for you. Here, right now, is so much less than what God wants to give you. We move fast, we settle. It may be a major financial purchase. It might be a conversation you need to have with someone. You need to have it out. You need to get everything on the table. It could be a new business that you want to start, it could be some big pitch you want to make it work, but have you stopped to consider the timing? Have you asked God and yourself, is this the best time? That is a filter that Jesus lived by. He decided to be someone that considered the time. If we do that, if we do that, all we experience are blessings. Less regret, less mistakes. And just practically that means more money because who knows how much we waste on rushed purchasing decisions. It means more credibility because I'm the type of person that will commit to something without really thinking through what I'm committing to, even checking my schedule to see if I have the time to do it, and then that leads to me breaking trust with people. We'll have more credibility if we wait on God. We'll have more time. That's the ironic thing. We waste time being rushed. Because we have to go back and spend more time fixing it. I mean, the benefits are endless. Let's be people that wait on the Lord. Now, I say this knowing that there are certain times where you cannot wait. If you need prayer, do not wait. Get prayer today. We have people in the prayer room who will pray for you today. If you fill out a prayer request and put it in the back, in the back four columns, you will get prayed for today by multiple people because we don't leave here so those prayer requests go out. If you need Jesus, if you do not know Jesus, if he's not in your life, you do not need to wait. Now is the right time. He's actually been waiting on you. And he's so patient. And you can wait till there's an emergency, you can wait till there's a crisis to bring him into your life. And the great news is when you have a crisis, he is there. And he accepts you and he loves you exactly as you are where you are. But you don't have to wait for a crisis to know Jesus. Accept him now. All it means is in your heart, you say, Jesus, I need you, I want you. I commit my life to you. I'm yours. You tell me what to do, I'll do it. If you do that, we're so excited for you today. We want to celebrate that. Only thing I'd ask you to do is get baptized. Next week we have baptism. Just go sign up and get baptized. Go all in. Don't dip your toe in the water with Jesus. Just jump in. He's awesome. But in so many situations in life, now is not the right time. I read a quote a few days ago. I wish I would have read it the day I proposed to Megan. Probably would have changed things. I love it. Really simple. Our impatience must learn to wait on God's wisdom. Our impatience must learn to wait on God's wisdom. Will you be one of the rare people who's willing to wait on God? And we can all be one of the many that has to have it now. That's willing to sacrifice the long term for the short term. Or we can be one of those rare people that says, God, I will wait. But please hurry up. He's okay with that. He loves you. He has plans for you. And just like we sang, as surely as the dawn will rise, he will come. He will give you what you need. Waiting on God does not mean that we wait as if it's never going to happen, that we're giving up hope. It means trust. It means hope. It means we wait with eager anticipation. We expect God to move because we know he loves us. We know that he is not late. He is right on time. That he will not ruin a blessing with poor timing. Let's be people who wait on the Lord. Is this the best time? Ask yourself that question this week and see what happens. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you so much for this amazing group of people. God, you are so good to us. You love us so much. We're so thankful to have a God who is so patient because you are so patient with us. And we do get impatient with you, God. Sometimes you seem like you have all the time in the world. It's weird. But we don't, we don't. We don't feel like we do anyway. And so we want to be people who hurry up and wait. We want to be people who wait on your timing, who trust in your timing, who put our hope in you because they're the same thing. We cannot hope in you, we cannot trust in you if we're not willing to wait on you. Give us the discipline to do that. Help us ask the right question in our prayers to you. As we go through our week, help us ask is this the best time? And give us the courage to wait when we know it's not. We pray all this in your name, Jesus. Amen.