The Wait
Notes
Transcript
Zootopia video
Anyone hate waiting?
I mean waiting is not fun, when you go to a resteraunt and it takes awhile its awful,
When you are late, and are waiting in trafic, you loose your mind, right,
And really this week we are talking about waiting on God
Because if you were here last week we ended things on a pretty sad and dark note didn’t we?
I mean anyone leave last Sunday going wow this is a little bit of a rough message?
And then you went home and watched the Lions play and things got darker right?
But with all seriusness last week we started this discussion about what do we do with these moments where we look at God and He jusst does not seem to maake sense.
I mean what do we do when our marriage falls apart
What do we do when we get the diagnosis
What do we do when things go different then planned
And really what do we do when it seems God did not come through the way we we're hoping.
And last week we looked at this guy Habakkuk (who had a really fun name)
But the time period he lived in was a very tumultuous time
In fact the king at the time was known to be cruel and wicked, and this led this nation that waas supposed to be God’s nation to be full of wickedness, corruption, and violence
And Habakkuk comes to God and just goes “What in the world is going on?!”
And then God responds by saying Another nation thats worse then them is going to take them over.
And if we had to summarize last weeks message with one word it would probably be the word “Wondering”
Because Habakkuk is just asking all of these tough questions about why God would allow this to happen.
And like I said we ended last week in this uncomfortable place of wondering “why?”
And we ended at this place where on one hand we said its important to recognize the problems and not ignore them
I mean we should be lamenting, we should mourn
But on the other hand while we are embracing our problems, we need to embrace our God.
And sometimes it looks like a wrestleing match, other times it looks like resting in Him
And so today we are going to pick up where we left off and we are covering parts of Habakkuk 2, because today we make a switch from wondering to waiting.
And so lets look at Habakkuk 2 verse 1 because Habakkuk is probably still a little angry with God, He is confused and look how he responds to what God has just told Him. Because now all of that is happening and now He is waiting on God
And he says this:
Habakkuk 2 (ESV)
2 I will take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
You know Habakkuk is confused but what I love is that He does not go this is ridiculous I am done with this,
But the very first thing he does is he goes “okay God I am listening and He actually says I am going to stand at my watch post, I am going to go on a watch tower until I understand what Your doing here”
I mean we need to be a people that are just constantly listening and looking at what God is saying and doing
But there is an issue right?
Because it can be hard to hear and see God when there is a lot of noise in our life.
I mean last Sunday when I was watching the Ravens play, whenever the Ravens were on defense there would be a message that would pop on the screen that said “make some noise” “they want it quite”
And the reason it says this is the team on offense has to be able to listen to each other to know when the play or even when the ball is getting snaped and really to know whats going on.
And to be honest I really believe that when life gets crazy or things go wrong, so often what Satan wants to to do is to use those things to make it harder to see what God is doing.
But what I love about Habakkuk is that he says “I am taking a stand at my watch post”
And you all probably know this but a watch tower is high right?
And so when your on a watch tower you have a better perspective then if you were on the ground.
Its almost like if you have ever flown into a big city.
I mean when you walk around Chicago, how far can you see?
Not very far because there are giant buildings in front of you,.
so you could be on the edge of the city you could be in the middle, but regardless what you see is a building.
But if you have seen the city on a place, its still big, but you can see everything,
I mean you can see the tallest building, you can see lake Michigan, you can see suburbs, and even a little bit of farm land on the other side if things are clear enough
And the truth is when there is a lot of noise in our lives often times our perspective changes too where we just see all the buildings in front of us,
And it does not matter how close we are to the edge of the city, or how everyone says it will get better, because all we see is the problem.
But when we start to say okay there is a lot of noise, but I am going to look for God in this, our perspective changes where we see whats happening, but we see everything else.
And often times what happens is the problem does not go away but we start to view our problem how God might see it.
Where instead of it being
I mean how can we be a people that sit at our watchpost for God to move?
And lets look at the second half of this because Habakkuk says okay God, I am going to intently be listening and look at verses 2-3. because God says:
Habakkuk 2:2–3 (ESV)
The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith
2 And the Lord answered me: (thats a really good verse isn’t it)
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
You know one thing I love about this passage is that Habakkuk says in this period of waiting, I am ready to listen, and God gives this back.
He says I have an appointed time where I will resolve things and I love the NIVs translation of the next part because it says though it linger, wait for it.
Because we mentioned this but the waiting periods are not fun, in fact when things are going bad in life they have the potential to be a time where we loose sleep, where we are anxious for weeks because of the uncertainty.
But the beautiful part of this passage is that it says these words “It will not prove false”
Meaning God is not just saying do not worry in the middle of our waiting, but He is saying I have a plan.
And its not going to disappoint.
And this is a big deal because have you ever tried the as seen on tv products
there are like 10% of those that work
And I remember as a kid wanting to buy these things like the shamwow, or the one sweep (I know I was a little different)
But like almost all of these things would never work the way the commercial said.
And I got to a point where I was going these things are garbage.
And heres the thing, because so often in the waiting we catch our selves going, maybe this is the solution, maybe its this, maybe if I do this (and I am not taking away from trying things to help your situation), but God is going I have a plan
But theres that issue right? “where it says though it linger wait for it”
But I think this is why right before this in verse 2 he says write this revelation down plain on tablets.
The Brendan Shea Version would be make this so simple that when you are going through tough times you can remember this promise that God has a plan.
What ways do we have to remember God has a plan in our life, when everything else is falling apart or when we are sitting in the pain, just waiting.
Do we have ways to remember God’s faithfulness?
(EXAMPLE OF WAYS ARIKA OR I DO THIS)
And I want to jump to verse 14 and I think this is a good place to end because if your like me you go I am glad there is a plan, I am glad that it will not disappoint, but whats the plan?! because that would be nice to know right?
And this is what God tells them about his ultimate plan in verse 14 it says:
Habakkuk 2:14 (NIV)
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
So Habakkuk is in this place where he is going life is hard and I am trying to listen but the waiting is awful.
And God comes and says I have a plan, and here is the ultimate goal, that the earth with be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
I am not a marine biologist or anything, but you know what is all over the sea, water, I mean thats was the ocean is basically right?
So God is saying my presence is coming and this is a picture where the broken pieces in our lives are put back together.
Where we are no longer in pain, or waiting but God’s fullness is here and all is made well
I mean it is aa beautiful picture
But if your like me there is still this question, of okay what about right now? Because the waiting is killing me.
And there are two parts here the first is we are on chapter 2 of this book and I mentioned each week we will have a little more resolve,
but the the other part is this we can have a taste of God’s kingdom now.
Because to often we go well this problem will get fixed when Christ comes, and your right, but often times God has given us his presence now.
And I think a great way for us to end today is by reciving communion
And if you are unfamlure with communion it is reaally a way that we remember what Christ has done for us dying on the cross,
And really as we recieve communion we get a taste of God’s glory filling the earth,
But can I tell you something it starts right now with God’s glory filling our lives.
Because if while life can be hard and the waits can be long, if we have God’s presence in our life it changes everything.
And so as we close we will have a coupe people coming forward to serve and and I would invite you during this song to come aand get the elements and bring them back to your seat and then we will recieve them together.