“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.
It may be that God is preparing you, preparing your heart, preparing your spirit for the most important work you have ever done. It may be that God is preparing someone, someplace, or something special for you and if you don’t wait in patient obedience you will make the biggest mistake of your life. The first action taken while waiting is obedience to the Lord.
2. They Practiced Fellowship vs.13-14
One of the most important actions to take while waiting is to surround yourself with other believers in a fellowship of love.
Waiting is tough, especially if you are a driven, goal oriented person. “There is work to do, I can’t afford to wait.” I call it the “Tammy Complex”. My wife is the most godly, righteous, and holy woman I have ever met. I love her with all my heart. She is my precious till I grow old, and other than Christ she is God’s greatest gift to me, but the thought of her sitting and waiting for anything is difficult and at times impossible for her.
Luke 10:38-42; 38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a certain village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord's word, seated at His feet. 40 But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him, and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me." 41 But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; 42 but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. " NASB
Now understand, it wasn’t just Mary that was sitting at the feet of Jesus, so were the disciples and there may have been others. They were also gathered for a meal {sounds like Baptist to me}. My point is they were fellowshipping with each other and together with the Lord, while Martha was busying herself with work.
Nothing wrong with work, it’s a good thing, but when we are waiting on the Lord we need to make sure we fellowship with other like-minded believers so we don’t become frustrated and just give up. People need people and believers need believers around them or else they will stray while their waiting.
3. They Practiced Constant Prayer 14
“ACTS” can be used as an acrostic for prayer. Adoration, Confession, Thankfulness, and Supplication.
When we are in the waiting mode, waiting for God to do what God had to do in us and through us, it is a great time to give to dedicated and continuous prayer.
I don’t know that the disciples used the acrostic I just mentioned but it would be a good one for us.
a. I can believe that as they prayed they gave God and Christ the adoration and praise He deserved. There was much to praise Him for, they had seen, heard, and experienced so much over the last forty days. There was the Resurrection of Christ and His appearances to them and they had stood and watched as he ascended into heaven. They knew he was God’s Son and they must have praised him.
b. As they prayed they would’ve confessed their sin. They were about to take on the world for Christ and any known sin had to be confessed and forgiven if they were going to go forward. Peter had denied Christ three times and the rest of the disciples had deserted him back in the garden of Gethsemane. They had to confess their cowardice if they were going to preach to the all the world.
c. As they prayed they would’ve offered thanksgiving. Thankful for forgiveness, thankful for restoration, thankful for God’s love, thankful for God’s grace, thankful for God’s mercy and kindness, thankful for God’s provision, and protection, and peace. They had much to be thankful for, thankful for each other.
d. As they prayed they would’ve offered supplication. They would have prayed for strength, courage, wisdom, and discernment for the task ahead.
I can see them huddled in the upper room praying for and over each other, a wonderful picture of the love of Christ as they love each other in prayer.
They would’ve prayed for faithfulness and the coming of the Holy Spirit that had been promised. They would’ve prayed that they would not fail in preaching and teaching everything that Jesus ever began to do and teach.
Some people, I think mistakenly, think that God is sovereign and he is going do whatever he is going to do and it doesn’t matter much if we pray much. That’s not just misunderstanding, it’s stinking thinking, when it comes to prayer.
God is sovereign and God is going to accomplish his purposes and he will do with us or without us, but God always works in and through his church. When God is ready to save a poor soul, he almost always sends the Christian who has prayed for souls. When God needs to encourage one of his children, he almost always sends the Christian who has prayed that they might be an encourager of the brethren. When God wants one of his disciples to be discipled he sends them to a person who has prayed and has a heart for discipleship.
When God sends revival, he almost always does it by first sending a burden of prayer for revival in the hearts of a few committed Christians. When we study the history of revival in the church we see that almost every revival was started in the pray meeting of few people.
Prayer, for the disciples, was not some superfluous act or pomp and ceremony. Jesus had commanded, taught, and practiced prayer before his disciples. They knew that if they did nothing else while waiting they had to pray.
My friend if God has you waiting, the quickest and surest way past it is to come before God and pray and stay there until he answers.
4. They Practiced Bible Study 15-20
From these verses it is obvious that Peter and most likely the others were studying the Scriptures.
Two things in the Christian life go hand in hand, Prayer and the Word of God. Through prayer we talk to God and through the Scripture God talks to us. Someone once said, “I think it wise, that when talking with God we should let him do most of the talking.” In other words, when waiting on God we should spend most of our time reading and studying and listening to the Word of God.
There have been those times in my life when I was desparate to hear from God and then I would open up my Bible and there the answer would be and I wished I had started there instead of ended there. I would’ve gotten through my waiting a lot quicker.
5. They Practiced Faith
They simply obeyed, fellowshipped, prayed, studied the word, and then put their faith in the promise of God. They believed that if they simply obeyed, fellowshipped, prayed, and studied the Scripture while they waited then God would do all he ever said he would do, in them and through them. They practiced faith.
They may have been waiting but they were not idle. They were busying themselves with the things that were important to God.
Finally, there is one thing they didn’t do. They refused to move until they had a clear revelation from God. When that revelation came {Acts 2:1-4} the promise of the Holy Spirit, they went out and preached with the power and presence of God and God moved in awesome power in the hearts and souls of men and 3000 were saved and baptized.
If God has you waiting it is for Good reason and it is for your good. Be patient and let God do what only God can do in you, to you, through you, and for you. As you wait be obedient, surround yourself with the fellowship of other believers, be prayerful, search the Scriptures, and trust God to do exceedingly abundantly more in you and for you than you have ever dreamed he could do.
If God has you waiting this morning then you should simply say, “Lord, I’ll serve while I’m waiting, Lord, I’ll worship you while I’m waiting, Lord, I’ll trust you while I’m waiting. Lord, I don’t know exactly what I’m waiting on but I know it is for my good and your glory therefore I will wait upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised.”
