Intro: How many of you like to wait? I will just be honest I don’t like it at all. In fact I do everything I can to keep from waiting. I try to calculate in my non-mathematical head which Wal-Mart line will be the quickest and in my hurry I end up choosing the wrong one. I don’t like waiting for items I order to come in so I often pay much more to ship them as quickly to my door as possible. We don’t like waiting for our food so some brilliant person invented fast food. Which so many people try to get all at once we all end up waiting.
So I want you to think through a couple scenarios with me to get started. (Used and adapted from John Ortberg)
Scenario 1: You are waiting at a tollbooth and the car in front of you is having a long conversation with the tollbooth attendant. How do you respond? 1) You are happy. Maybe one of them is sharing the gospel and you see an opportunity to form a small group. 2) You think of what you want to say to the tollbooth operator like invite Him to our Easter Service: Hope Rising. 3) You attempt to drive your vehicle between the tollbooth and the other person’s car.
Scenario 2: You have been sitting in the waiting room of the Drs. Office for an hour.
1) You are grateful for the chance to catch up on your Bible reading and the 1990 farmer’s almanac.
2) You tell the other patients you have a very contagious and fatal disease in order to empty the waiting room. 3) If you like the more dramatic you hyperventilate in order to get immediate attention.
These are casual daily kinds of waiting. There are more serious kinds of waiting. The single person waiting and wondering if God will ever send them a Godly spouse to spend their life with. The waiting of a couple that longs for a child. The waiting of a spouse caught in hurting marriage that seems impossible to change. The waiting of God’s call on your life to be fulfilled.
Why on earth does God make us wait? Let me ask you a question. Do things that happen fast or slow settle in the best. If 3 inches of rain comes in an hour or 3 inches of rain come in a day or two which settles and sinks in better? The slow and constant rain that comes over days and maybe even a week.
The same is true with the best things from God. The character we have the things we talk about the things we practice are those that have sunk deeply into our souls as Jesus has consistently and patiently taught them to us again and again. Why do we have to wait for so many things? Because in God’s infinite wisdom He knows when we are or are not ready to either carry a burden or enjoy a blessing.
Psalm 37:7 “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” This is in the context of those that do evil and wicked things seeming to get away with them. We are called to obey by waiting on God. This is a waiting with anticipation. The word literally means to twirl. Like you kids do right before Christmas.
Why does hope wait? Why does God make us wait for so many things? He has the power to zap into us all that we need to be right?!! Because what the Bible reveals to us is that the Journey is just as important as the destination! God’s design for our waiting is our development.
Jesus is dead and now the disciples believe that their hope is dead. Then Jesus appears to them first to the women and then to the men and big groups of the disciples. So we think that Jesus will tell them to get moving but what does He say? Acts 1:4 “wait for the promise of the father.”
So what do the disciples do? Acts 1:6 Jesus how much longer do we have to wait? Are you kidding? Jesus just told them to wait for the promise of the father. It is terribly obvious that all of us disciples need development. We must learn to wait.
I. Waiting on God is designed to develop us as believers
A) Our vertical relationship – Heavenward (Isaiah 40:8)
The word translated trust is better translated wait. What a full word it is too. If is full of truth and power. This Hebrew word Qavah here means to collect and bind together.
God’s clear design in our waiting for answered prayer, promised provision, healing, restored relationships etc is to develop our relationship with Him!
1) Waiting on the Lord is first desiring God
Psalm 62:1 “I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him.”
David wrote this in a time of stress and distress. Do you long for God? We often long for the things of God. We must learn to long for God. This is why He allows us to wait. He is trying to transform our desires! If all we ever want is for God to get us out of our messes then we don’t want Him. There is a great difference between desiring to be free from the hell you are in and desiring God! Ask yourself do you want to be free from the penalty of sin but have no desire to be in the presence of God. If you are not desiring God you are not waiting on Him.
2) Waiting on the Lord means listening to Him
Our hopes can be easily shattered by deaf ears. Throughout the Gospels and the letters to the churches in Revelation Jesus says he who has an ear hear what the Spirit says. He is really saying, are you willing to wait on me, are you willing to wait for a word from me?
Proverbs 8:34 “Anyone who listens to me is happy, watching at my doors every day, waiting by the posts of my doorway.”
This is a call from God to spend time listening to Him. How? The Bible is the place we learn God’s voice and listen to His instruction. We can learn that God’s voice is never panicky or pushy. Do you have a personal daily time and a place that you sit expectantly looking for God’s instruction?
3) Waiting on the Lord means looking to Him
What is the first place you look to for your needs? Do you go to the bank, your family, or the church? Listen to Psalm 104:2 “All of them wait for You to give them their food at the right time.”
When we long for, listen to and look to God we discover the confidence and trust of waiting and abiding. You will never discover the strength God is promising unless you are willing to wait!
B) Our horizontal relationships – earthward
Did you notice an important pronoun? But those (HCSB), But They (KJV)
I have heard so many times, “I don’t need to go to church to worship God.” However, you do need a church in order to wait on God. They that wait on the Lord. The power of the early church was found in the unity of their community. God makes us wait while grippers, complainers, gossipers and other sinners cause strife and division in the body of Christ so we will learn to wait on Him together.
According to a traditional Hebrew story, Abraham was sitting outside his tent one evening when he saw an old man, weary from age and journey, coming toward him. Abraham rushed out, greeted him, and then invited him into his tent. There he washed the old man's feet and gave him food and drink.
The old man immediately began eating without saying any prayer or blessing. So Abraham asked him, "Don't you worship God?"
The old traveler replied, "I worship fire only and reverence no other god."
When he heard this, Abraham became incensed, grabbed the old man by the shoulders, and threw him out his tent into the cold night air.
When the old man had departed, God called to his friend Abraham and asked where the stranger was. Abraham replied, "I forced him out because he did not worship you."
God answered, "I have suffered him these eighty years although he dishonors me. Could you not endure him one night?" Thomas Lindberg.
God wants us to learn to wait for His transformation power and promise to change lives.
Hebrews 10:24, 25 “And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, 25 not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Why do you need to wait on God with the rest of us in corporate worship? You may be the one that needs to be transformed!
The more we develop in our desire of God and our dependence on each other the more we want to wait for God’s perfect will and timing. (Remember this is a growth process.)
II. Waiting on God is designed to develop our spiritual sight
Unless we learn to wait on the Lord we will never see things the way He does.
Listen to Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
This is a new power of perception for those that learn to wait on the Lord!! It is not just a new way of seeing but a new way of approving God’s will. This gives us the spiritual perception to test and approve that which is well pleasing to God. If we do what God says we will discover that His plans and purpose are good!! This never happens if we are not allowing Him to develop our spiritual sight by waiting and trusting by doing what He says!
The will of God is too often thought of as specific directions at specific times. That leads us to look for God’s direction only when we are in trouble. God’s will is that we will do what His revealed will is. He will give directions when we face disaster but He has already given us direction for daily living. Pr 3:5, 6, 1 Thess 5, John 13:34-35,
Dedication to waiting in God’s presence leads to discernment of God’s will and way which leads to delight in God’s goodness. We learn to move from complaining and grumbling to praise and celebration of God in every moment. If you are down in the mouth as a Christian it is probably because you have not discovered how good God’s ways are!
IV. Waiting on God is designed to develop our spiritual service (Isaiah 40:31)
The goal of waiting is to develop a trusting spirit and a serving soul.
A) The promise for waiting
The Hebrew word for renew here means to exchange or change. As we develop waiting and trusting we exchange our weakness for His strength. The secret of our strength to face the stress and frustration of this life is to wait on the Lord and exchange our weakness for His strength. This speaks about who we are our being in the mundane and monotonous things of life. We will run and not be weary. Because we are running the race He has set out for us. We will walk and not faint because he energizes us to be faithful.
B) The service of waiting
Waiting does not mean sitting and doing nothing. I believe this is what so many Christians believe. I am doing such a service to God by just showing up and listening to Bro Bill preach. Qavah deals with our being so that we exchange our life for Jesus.
But it doesn’t stop there. Sanctification is the active part of waiting.
We too often associate waiting or patience with lying down. We are called in Hebrews 12:1 to “run with endurance the race set before us.”
Proverbs 27:18 “Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and whoever looks after his (waits on) master will be honored.”
Waiting doesn’t just involve being it also ultimately involves doing. The idea of a waiter or waitress is involved. Excellent waiters are constantly watching and waiting for a chance to act.
Proverbs 16:27 “A worthless man digs up evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.” HCSB
Proverbs 16:27 “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.” TLB
God promises strength to those willing to trust him with waiting watchfulness. His strength is promised to us so that we can serve Him! It involves running in the broken and chaotic world. It involves faithfully walking in service in the everyday mundane monotony of life.
If we would do this we would find limitless strength to face everything life and the devil throw at us. We miss God’s miracles because they are often in the mundane activity of waiting on God.
Hope waits in order to develop us!
