Sermon Week Two
Waiting
Sermon notes for “Devoted” sermon series.
Sermon Week Two
Waiting
Do you have a hard time being patient?
Janette Oke once wrote, “Impatience can cause wise people to do foolish things.”
(Sermon Note: Tell a story about when you were impatient and something bad happened.)
We once rented a house in the country and had a riding lawn mower we kept in the patio garage
under a tarp held in place by four red paint cans.
To mow the yard I'd remove the paint cans. Take off the tarp. Fold it up. Set it aside. And then,
back up the mower.
One day I was in a hurry to mow the yard so I only moved two cans on one side, pulled up half
the tarp, and hopped on the mower to back it up.
Boom!
I ran over one of the paint cans and red oil-based paint splattered all over the carport, the
mower, and me.
In a panic I grabbed the garden hose.
Did I tell you I was renting that house?
That water only served to magnify the impact of the red paint and spread it everywhere.
Did I tell you it was oil-based paint?
My impatience caused a huge mess.
Janette is correct. Impatience is icky…and by “icky” I really mean:
I.C.K.Y.
I read about a recurring conversation a father had with his teenaged daughter. While driving her
to her dance & tennis lessons she would always ask, “Why are you driving so slow?” Her Dad
replied, “I’m doing the speed limit and there is no reason to speed, we’ll get there in time.” Then
she would ask, “Why do I have to wear this seat belt, it’s extremely uncomfortable and it
wrinkles my uniform?” Dad answered, ” I love you very much and I don’t want you hurt if we
have a collision.”
These conversations went on for years until at 16 she received her driver’s license. Dad bought
her a small used car in excellent condition. Before handing her the keys he gave her a small
bear that could be attached to the shaft of the rear view mirror. With a stern look on his face he
told her, “This bears’ name is ICKY.” “Why did you name the bear ICKY?” she promptly asked. Dad told her, I C K Y stands for Impatience Can Kill You.” She understood, gave her dad a hug,
attached the bear to the mirror shaft, put her seat belt on and drove off.
(Source: http://mammasgotsomethingtosay.com/drive-safe-teach-quiz-your-kids/impatiencecan-kill-you/)
I—Impatience
C—Can
K—Kill
Y—You
Impatience can kill you.
It can also kill a relationship before it starts.
The slogan is true: True Love Waits.
Are you familiar with that slogan?
It's a slogan used to promote teen abstinence.
I believe it's true when discussing teen abstinence, but I believe it's also true of relationships.
If you truly love someone you'll patiently wait...
For your kids as they walk slowly behind you while shopping at the mall.
While they are serving our country in a foreign land.
You wait up for them when they come home after working late.
You wait until just the right time to "pop the question."
Until you are married to have sex.
Until you're both ready to have kids.
Until your spouse has peace that it's time to take that new job and move.
In the waiting room--all night--to make sure the heart surgery went well.
While the other person contemplates whether to check the "yes" box on your "Do you love me?"
note.
Did you ever send or receive one of those notes? (This is a picture of the actual note from the
Sermon Intro Video.)
I sent one of those notes one time to a girl named Ashley and waited and waited and waited for
a response that eventually came and it was…wait for it…wait for it…”Yes”!
True love waits.
As you’re going to read this week in Devoted,
The Bible is replete with faithful people who had to wait faithfully.
God promised Noah, “I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark,
you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you” (Genesis 6:18). But Noah had to wait
probably twenty to forty years for this promise to be realized.
Abraham was seventy-five years old when God first promised him, “And I will make of you a
great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will
bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of
the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3). But Abraham and Sarah had to wait twenty-five
more years for the birth of Isaac.
Joseph was only seventeen when God gave him a dream revealing that his brothers would bow
down before him (see Genesis 37:1-11). But he had to wait about twenty-four years, enduring
thirteen years in Potiphar’s house and in prison and seven years of famine, before his prophetic
dreams were fulfilled.
The children of Israel waited in the silence of God for about four hundred years in Egypt before
he responded and sent Moses to deliver them. They then waited for forty years in the
wilderness before finally being released into the Promised Land.
King David, while waiting under the threat of adversaries and “false witnesses,” testified, “Wait
for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14).
Hannah desperately wanted a son, so she prayed and waited faithfully for years and years
before God finally answered her prayer “in due time” with Samuel (1 Samuel 1:20).
When the people of God were waiting for deliverance during a time of intense trials during the
reign of King Ahaz, the prophet Micah testified, “But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait
for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me” (Micah 7:7).
Prophesying of the time when God’s people would be held captive in Babylon, Isaiah promised,
“Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but
they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with
wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not
faint” (Isaiah 40:30-31).
Isaiah also said, “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye
has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4).
The author of Lamentations (probably Jeremiah the prophet) reminded the people of God, after
the fall of Jerusalem, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It
is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:25-26).
Rewards, strength, and salvation are all promises tied to waiting on the Lord, so we should not
be surprised that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into a forty-day period of waiting before
beginning his ministry. And we should not be surprised that before the apostles began their
ministry in Jerusalem, Jesus appeared to them for a period of about forty days and ordered
them to stay in Jerusalem “to wait for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4)
Acts 1:1-4
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and
teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands
through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented
himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them
during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the promise of the Father.”
Tom Petty was right, “Waiting is the hardest part.”
Why?
Hold that thought.
Are you willing to wait for Jesus?
As a Christian you are in a relationship with Jesus and, when you love someone, you’re willing
to wait for them.
I don’t want you to rush this relationship-with-Jesus thing. Let’s take it slowly. Let’s be patient. I
don’t want you to start working for the Lord right now; I want you to start waiting on the Lord
right now.
Which is not the course of action we preachers most often encourage in new Christians. What
we most often encourage new Christians to do is nothing. You give your life to the Way, and we
give you no direction on how best to follow Christ for the next week, let alone for the rest of your
life.
Typically, we preachers just let you start doing whatever it is you think new Christians do after
their conversion, which typically looks like reading through the Bible from beginning to end,
praying twenty-four hours a day, giving all of your money to starving kids in Kenya, joining a
small group, and going to church every time the doors are open. In my experience, these
activities by new Christians rarely last very long because they are a lot of work.
And, if we do “do something” to give you some direction after your conversion, it usually looks
like this. Before you’ve even dried off the waters of the baptistery, we hand you a Bible, a
Certificate of Baptism (a document necessary for admission to heaven), a schedule of our
Sunday school classes, and a directory of our small groups—and if we’re really on the ball, we
hand you a copy of The Purpose Driven Life, pat you on the back appropriately, and send you
on your way down the uneventful and completely trouble-free road to eternal glory.
As I’ve fallen more and more in love with Jesus and become more devoted to him, I’ve become
more convicted that the best thing to do at the beginning of a relationship with Jesus is to do
what Jesus did at the beginning of his ministry and what the disciples were commanded to do at
the beginning of their ministries: Wait.
After his baptism in the Jordan River, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into a wilderness for forty
days. Jesus waited forty days after his baptism to begin his ministry. During this time he fasted,
prayed (fasting was always accompanied by prayer), and was tempted by the Devil.
This is so atypical of what we preachers model and expect of new Christians. If we’d been
running the show (so to speak), we would have had Jesus get right to work as soon as he dried
off and changed clothes after his baptism.
“The clock is ticking!”
“You gotta make hay while the sun is shining!”
“You’ve got to strike while the iron’s hot!”
“Today is the day of salvation!”
“The salvation of a lost world is at stake, so we’ll have none of this taking forty days off to wait
upon your Father right after your baptism.”
Which is why so many new Christians flame out too often and too soon.
Do you know what Jesus didn’t do after his baptism?
He didn’t go to the synagogue for over a month. He didn’t pay a single tithe.
He didn’t take a new believers’ class.
He didn’t read from the Torah.
He just followed the Holy Spirit into a time of waiting.
The salvation of a lost world is at stake, so you better take forty days to wait upon the Lord after
your baptism.
Do you see how bizarre this is, in light of what we typically expect from new Christ-followers?
This is the opposite of what we consider to be true discipleship. I think there’d be considerable
resistance in the typical church if the pastor expected people to follow Christ’s example.
“Congratulations on giving your life to Christ and being baptized! Now, here’s what we want you
to do. We want you to not go to church for the next forty days. We don’t want you to pay a dime
toward your tithe. We don’t want you to sign up for our New Believers’ Class. We don’t want you
to read your Bible. We just want you to follow the Holy Spirit into a season of waiting.”
For so many of us—and by “us” I mean Christian leaders and people who have spent decades
in the church—this does not fit into the paradigm we call “discipleship.”
We Christians, convicted that “now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2), have convinced
ourselves that, in most situations, waiting is a waste of time, and when it comes to our faith
walk, waiting is almost sinful. But these beliefs are nonsense, unbiblical, and toxic to developing
a healthy and lasting relationship with Jesus.
But, I’m convinced, true love does wait.
Why wait?
Why did Jesus make the disciples wait?
Learning
In these last moments before launching the church, Jesus is teaching the apostles.
During these 40 days, Jesus shared commands with the apostles (Acts 1:2), He gave them
many proofs as to who He is (Acts 1:3), and He taught them about the kingdom of God (Acts
1:3).
To do what He was going to want them to do, it was crucial that they learn as much as they
could about Him, His character, His will, and His work.
In those first few moments of launching into a new relationship with someone, we try to learn as
much as we can about the other person.
Where were you born?
What do you want to be when you get older?
What’s your favorite color?
Candy?
Movie?
Song?
Denver Bronco Quarterback? (Sermon Note: Use your local team.)
Beatle?
or member of One Direction?
We just want to know all we can know about the other person.
As we begin this journey together, I want you to wait and learn as much as you can about
Jesus.
I’m not asking you to take another step.
I’m not asking you to sign up for a 101 class. I’m not asking you to start reading through the
Bible so you can finish by the end of the year. I’m not asking you to take a spiritual-gifts
inventory. I’m not asking you to join a small group. I’m not asking you to sign up for the next
mission trip to Mexico. I’m not asking you to volunteer for the third shift in the nursery.
Over the next forty days, God may ask you to do some, or all, of these things—but I won’t.
It’s like a honeymoon. The honeymoon is an important time in a marriage relationship. It’s where
a couple starts to really get to know each other in an emotional, physical, spiri- tual, and biblical
sense.
Yes, I just said “biblical” sense.
Let me remind you about this verse from Genesis: “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she
conceived and bore Cain” (Genesis 4:1).
The word knew in this verse (yada in Hebrew) means “to have sexual intercourse.”
During the honeymoon period of a marriage, a couple takes their relationship to a new level by
getting to “know” each other. Intimacy breeds strong relationships.
I’m asking you to view this stage of your relationship with Jesus as a honeymoon period.
I’m asking you to enter into a God-ordained opportunity to strengthen your new relationship with
Christ with the hopes that this time of waiting will guarantee future fruitfulness.
Loyalty
When you are willing to wait for someone, it proves your loyalty.
Let me tell you about Peggy Harris of Vernon, Texas.
Six weeks after their wedding, Peggy Harris’s husband Billie was shot down over France in July
1944. Because of a series of mistakes she never knew what happened to him, so she waiting
for him to come home…for 68 years she waited. She eventually realized he wasn’t coming
home but she never remarried just in case he came home. It wasn’t until this year that she
found out what really happened to him and how extraordinary his last moments were.
In the town of Les Ventes, Normandy France Billie Davis is a hero. The main road is named
after him.
Three times a year they walk down the road to publicly thank Billie and they put flowers on his
grave in Normandy each year on the anniversary of his death.
Billie was badly injured over the town, but—according to witnesses—he flew his plane into the
woods past the town, sparing what would have been major destruction in this small town.
In the story I watched on Peggy and Billie Harris, the last quote was, “Friends do not forget.”
(Source: https://sfglobe.com/?id=178&src=home_articlexpromo)
Friends are loyal.
Spouses should be loyal.
True love is loyal.
Jesus wants the apostles to wait for Him because—in waiting—they will learn that Jesus is loyal
to them and keeps his promises.
Acts 1:4,5
4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me;
5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not
many days from now.”
Jesus wants them to know that He will be loyal to them…that the Father keeps His promises.
In my experience, it’s almost impossible to wait for someone you don’t trust—to be loyal to
someone who has not been loyal to you.
One of the interesting things that happened when Jesus was in the wilderness was that His
loyalty to God was tested.
Would He follow God’s Holy Spirit into the wilderness?
Would He trust in the power of God’s word to deliver Him from temptation?
Would He be loyal to God or Satan?
He was loyal to God the Father.
He will be loyal to us.
Will you be loyal to Him.
Why did Jesus ask His disciples to wait?
Longing
Waiting creates longing, when what you are waiting for is something or someone you love.
You’ve heard, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Well, I’ve found that to be true.
(Sermon Note: Use an illustration of when you had to wait for something or someone you
longed for.)
This poem by Ogden Nash reflects how I feel when my wife is not around:
TIN WEDDING WHISTLE
By Ogden Nash
Though you know it anyhow
Listen to me, darling, now,
Proving what I need not prove How I know I love you, love.
Near and far, near and far, I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never larnt How to be it where you aren’t.
Far and wide, far and wide, I can walk with you beside;
Furthermore, I tell you what, I sit and sulk where you are not.
Visitors remark my frown Where you're upstairs and I am down,
Yes, and I'm afraid I pout When I'm indoors and you are out;
But how contentedly I view Any room containing you.
In fact I care not where you be, Just as long as it's with me.
In all your absences I glimpse Fire and flood and trolls and imps.
Is your train a minute slothful? I goad the stationmaster wrothful.
When with friends to bridge you drive I never know if you're alive,
And when you linger late in shops I long to telephone the cops.
Yet how worth the waiting for, To see you coming through the door.
Somehow, I can be complacent Never but with you adjacent.
Near and far, near and far, I am happy where you are;
Likewise I have never larnt How to be it where you aren’t.
Then grudge me not my fond endeavor, To hold you in my sight forever;
Let none, not even you, disparage such a valid reason for a marriage.
(Source: http://gonemild.com/2008/10/19/sunday-poetry-tin-wedding-whistle-by-ogden-nash/)
When you love someone you’ll wait for them and long for them to return.
Acts 1:6-11
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time
restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times
or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive
power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And
when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a
cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as
he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of
Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up
from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into
heaven.”
The apostles loved Jesus and didn't want to see Him leave, so they stood staring at the sky.
Now, as you see in this passage, there’s a time to stop waiting and start working, but—for us—
now is not that time.
They’ll be plenty of time for that.
For now, let’s just wait on the Lord as we long for His return.
The next 40-Days may rush by, but we want you to focus on taking your time.
Let The Lord lead you wherever it is He wants to lead you...even if it's into the wilderness.
And, wait for Him.
Why?
When you love someone, you wait for them.
In college, when Rhonda and I were dating, I had a job where I’d have to work until 1 or 2 a.m.
on Monday morning. Rhonda was traveling each weekend on a college recruiting team. We
didn’t see each other all weekend most weekends, so my heart would leap when I’d round the
corner as I drove onto campus and I’d see a candle lit in her window. She’d light the candle in
her window to let me know that she was up and waiting to see me.
Sometimes we’d stay up for hours talking on porch in front of her room.
Today, as we begin this 40-Day Devoted Experience, I want us to “light the candle” of our soul to
let Jesus know that we are up and we are waiting for Him.
(When I delivered this sermon at Journey, I ended the sermon by lighting a candle on a stand in
front of the church. We kept it burning through the remainder of the service.)
Let’s Pray.
©2014 Arron Chambers
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®)
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ESV Text Edition: 2011
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