I'll Serve Him While I'm Waiting

“I’ll Serve Him While I’m Waiting”

Acts 1:9-26

Have you ever had to wait for something? I’m not very good at waiting, I’m not a very patient person. I don’t like waiting at the doctor’s office, I don’t like waiting for a table at the restaurant, I don’t like waiting in line at the grocery store or waiting in line to get on ride at the theme park. If I’m going to the doctor I want to schedule my appointment first thing in the morning. I will leave a restaurant if I have to wait very long. I love theme parks but refuse to go on weekends because I hate waiting in line. For me, waiting is a total waste of valuable time.

Yet, I have come to learn that there are times and periods in our lives when God says wait and through personal experience I have learned that when God is saying wait we need to wait, be still, be silent, listen, and let God do what it is that He must do. I have learned that if I will just serve Him while I’m waiting, worship Him while I’m waiting, and simply trust Him while I’m waiting; then when He has finished whatever it is He is doing in me, to me, through me, and for me is better than I ever thought or dreamed it could be.

When we come to Acts 1:9-26 we find a period of waiting in which the disciples were waiting for God to do whatever it was that God needed to do. Now understand, they didn’t know exactly what it was that they were waiting on, they didn’t know how long the waiting would be.

Being ADD myself and believing that Peter was probably ADD then I can imagine how frustrating this waiting must have been for him and the first church. They didn’t know what or when God was going to do what needed to be done. All they knew was the Lord had said to wait for what the Father had promised {Acts 1:4}.

You may be here today and God has you in a holding pattern, he has you waiting and you have no idea why he has you waiting and you have no idea what it is you are waiting for. All you know is your waiting for God to do something. I have learned that waiting on God is important. Sometimes he is doing something in me, sometimes it is something for me. I no longer question why I’m waiting or what I’m waiting for, if God has me waiting then it has to be for my good. Every time I have ever had to wait on the Lord it has turned out for good. Every time I have ever not waited when he said wait it has not turned out so good.

There are those periods of time when we must wait on God. Some of us here today are in that very place of waiting on God, some of us have been through those periods of waiting and hopefully we have learned the lessons God had for us and have learned to trust Him. And if you haven’t had to wait the time will come when you will be there waiting and waiting for God to move in your life. The question this morning is not Why does God put us in seasons of waiting? But, what do we do while we are waiting? Our Scripture this morning tells us what to do in those periods of time.

As the disciples and the first church was waiting for what the Father had promised:

1. They Practiced Obedience vs.12

They were obedient to the command of Christ to wait {4} for what the Father had promised.

Now we may say, well what else could they do but wait? There was plenty they could have done.

a. They could have went back to business as usual, back to just living out their lives.

b. They could have said there are souls to win, cities to evangelize, work to be done; we don’t have time to set around. Let’s get on with it. If they had they would’ve went in their own power and failed miserably trying to do everything Jesus every began to do and teach.

We are a people of reason and purpose and if we can’t see the reason and the purpose behind what God is telling us to do {like waiting} then we get frustrated and anxious and well, we sometimes try to move ahead of God. When we do we get ourselves in trouble, in a big ole mess.

Often times, our attitude is, “Lord, I’ll wait, if you’ll hurry.”

When you are going through a time of waiting you need to be obedient to the Lord and know that it is a time of valuable preparation for what the Lord has in store for you.