God With Us
Week 4 // In The Waiting Do you know what’s one of the most miserable places you can find yourself in? The DMV! The reason no one finds a trip to the DMV joyful is because the lines are ridiculous! If you have to go to the DMV, you better pack your patience because you’re going to be there for a long time. No one likes waiting. Especially here in NYC. We’re in arguably the fastest pace city in the universe. Everyone’s always in a rush. No one wants to wait. How do I know? If you’re waiting at a red light, what happens the millisecond the light turns green? You get honked at! The millisecond after! Especially now, during this time of year, with all the hustle and bustle of Christmas, it can be extremely hectic, rushed, and hurried. Nobody has time to waste. Nobody has time to wait. If you order your food at McDonald’s, it better be in front of you in less than 5 minutes. If you pull up to the gas station, there better be a pump available. If you’re taking the train to work, it better be on time. Do you consider yourself a patient person? For many people, if their patience were a gas tank, it’d be on empty. The best way to know whether or not you’re patient is to remember the last time you had to wait for something or someone. Did you pace back and forth? How often did you look at your phone for the time? How about this. How many times did you roll your eyes and suck your teeth? Waiting sucks, doesn’t it? But these are all light hearted examples of times we’ve been stuck waiting. But what those more intense and difficult moments in life? How about when you’re waiting for that medical report to come through? How about when you’re waiting to hear news from that loved one that is really ill? How about when you’re waiting for answers to some of your toughest questions about life? “God, what did you put on earth for? What’s my purpose? What career should I pursue? Who should I marry?” When you’re asking those questions or when you’re in the middle of waiting, seconds can feel like minutes. Minutes like hours. Hours like days. Those seasons of waiting can drag. I remember a time when I was stuck waiting. Another place it feels like we waste a third of our life is in the waiting room of the hospital. Have you ever had to go to the ER for something? How was that experience in the waiting room? Sucked right? Melissa was pregnant with Jr, our first born. I’m not a hundred percent sure about this, but they say that women become more clumsy during their pregnancy. Melissa was in her third trimester of pregnancy and we decided to walk around at a park with some friends and family. Well, at the time we lived on the second floor of an apartment building with no elevator. So we were taking the stairs when all of a sudden Melissa trips from about the third or fourth step and lands right on her belly and slides a few feet. We jumped in the car and ran to the hospital. Because she was already in her last trimester of pregnancy they sent us directly to labor and delivery. We go up there and we explain the situation and they tell us to have a seat. As you can imagine, we were panicked. We didn’t know if the baby was ok. Was she going to go into labor? We had no idea. So we sat patiently in the waiting room. Seconds turned to minutes. Minutes to hours. Hours to an eternity. We were freaking out because she had taken such a hard fall, we thought that if there was any chance of saving the baby or whatever, it was gone. Can you imagine that moment? It was scary. It was nerve wracking. We felt so hopeless. Some of you feel like that right now. You’re in a season of waiting. You have more questions than answers. You may feel scared, worried, nervous, or anxious. Your season of waiting can lead you to be frustrated, angry, disgruntled, or stressed. In your season of waiting you might be asking God, “When are you going to restore this relationship? When are you going to bless me with some finances? When are you going to heal me from this pain? When are you going to remove this addiction?” You know who else felt like that? Actually, it wasn’t just one person, but a whole people. The Israelites had received a promise that a Messiah was coming. They were waiting for someone to rescue and deliver them. In fact, Matthew 1:23 has been our key verse for this entire series. I’d love if we could read it together. In Matthew 1, an angel appears to Joseph to confirm for him that the child Mary is to give birth to none other than Jesus, the one who would take away the sins of the world. See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.” {Matthew 1:23 CSB} This is a direct quote from from the book of Isaiah where it was prophesied that this would happen. When was Isaiah written? About 700 years before the birth of Jesus! It’s 700 years after this prophecy that we see it’s fulfillment. Talk about waiting! We don’t see this promise come to fruition until 700 years later. That’s generations and generations of people waiting...waiting...waiting. Is that where you find yourself this Christmas season? Do you find yourself in a time of waiting?
IN THE WAITING So what do you do when you find yourself in a season of waiting? For the rest of our time I want to look at one verse. It’s found in the book of Romans. Just to give you a little context, Romans is a letter written to a church by the apostle Paul. Many of you know the story of Paul. He was a guy who once upon a time used to persecute and murder Christians. But he experiences a radical transformation and goes from a persecutor of Christians to leading people to Christ and starting churches all over the middle east and Europe. In this part of his letter, he mentions what the attitude of a Christian person should be. In other words, if a person has genuinely been transformed by the power of God, they would begin to demonstrate these qualities. This is important for us to note because a Christian will have a different perspective and take on affliction, difficulties, and a season of waiting. A person without Christ might respond to a season of waiting by…
But as followers of Jesus, what can we do? Let’s read this verse out loud together. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. {Romans 12:12 CSB} I’d like to do something a little different today. I want to work through this verse backwards. Here’s the first thing in your notes… 1: BE PERSISTENT IN PRAYER In a season of waiting it’s so important that we be persistent in prayer. One of the first things that happens when we enter a season of waiting is our relationship with God tends to squander. Prayer keeps us rooted and connected in Him. What is prayer? Prayer is simply talking and listening to God. It’s our opportunity to communicate to God. Why do we pray? We pray because God hears our prayers. 1 I love the Lord because he has heard my appeal for mercy. 2 Because he has turned his ear to me, I will call out to him as long as I live. {Psalm 116:1-2 CSB} How is God with us in our waiting? He hears your prayer. He answers prayer. Sometimes it’s a yes. Sometimes it’s a no. Sometimes it’s a maybe later. But God turns his ear to us and listens to our prayer. Another translation of the Bible says that, “he bends down to listen.” Picture the God of the universe in all his revealed majesty and glory, stooping down to listen to your prayer. As a father kneels to listen to his child speak to him, God inclines his ear to hear your prayer. One of the first things we are quick to let go of when we enter a season of waiting is prayer. Be persistent in prayer. Do not give up. There is power in prayer because of who you’re praying to. 2: BE PATIENT IN AFFLICTION Often times, in your season of waiting, God is doing something in you before he can do something through you. Many times in a season of waiting there is a refinement and purification process going on. The way the Bible often talks about this is the refinement of gold or other precious metals. You see, to have the purest form of gold, to remove all of its impurities you have to put it through fire. Only then can you melt it down and remove the impurities to have the purest gold. For us, so often we want to rush through our season of waiting. When we do so, we bypass what God may be teaching us in the process. We bypass the what God is doing in us. In our season of waiting, could there be a blessing in disguise? These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. {1 Peter 1:7 NLT} Be patient in your season of waiting. God is often time doing something in you so that he could do something through you. In the fire, your faith is getting stronger. It’s growing. 3: REJOICE IN HOPE The last thing we can do during our season of waiting is to rejoice in hope. As followers of Jesus we have hope. We have hope because Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. We are not alone. We are not abandoned. We are not left to our own waywardness. We are not left to our folly. We have hope. You can be in the middle of the waiting. You can be in the desert. You can be in the valley, yet ave hope. We have hope and his name is Jesus. 700 years after that prophetic word in the book of Isaiah, the promise finally comes. Hope arrives. This is why we celebrate Christmas. I love the decorations. I love the food, family, gifts, and Christmas music. But ultimately we celebrate that Jesus was born. That he is Immanuel, God with us. That he is our hope. I went to my sisters building the other day and they had the whole lobby decorated. It looked like Santa and all the reindeer threw up on the wall. There were trees, decorations, presents, red and green everywhere. They also had HUGE letters on the wall that spelled out “hope, joy, peace.” And in my mind I was like, “YES!” That is Christmas. Hope. Peace. Joy. And they are all found in Jesus. 5 Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from him. 6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken. {Psalm 62:5-6 CSB} My hope comes from him. In your season of waiting, in the middle of your affliction, your hope comes from him. He is our rock and salvation. Why did Jesus have to come down? Because of love. You and I are sinful by nature and choice. It’s not a little sin. It’s not a little white lie. It’s a huge, massive, gigantic, enormous, astronomical chasm between you and God. The Bible teaches us that the wages of your sin is death and eternal separation from a holy and righteous God. But God in his infinite love for you and me came down. Love came down. Jesus had to be born so that he could die. Because the price is death, Jesus came to pay your ransom. That baby that we see on the manger on top of fireplaces and window sills all over the world, did not remain a baby. He grew up to be the sinless and perfect Messiah. The only one righteous to pay the penalty for our sin. You cannot have the manger scene without the crucifixion scene. Because the only reason he was on a manger was so that he could hang on a cross. A crown of thorns was impaled into his scalp. Nine inch nails were driven through his wrists and feet. He was beaten, bruised, and battered. Isaiah says that the chastisement of our sin was upon his back. He hung his head and died. He did it all for love. He did it all for you. Jesus died so that you wouldn’t have to be eternally separated from God. In his death you receive the forgiveness of sin. But it doesn’t finish there because three days later he rose from the grave. He conquered Satan, sin, and death. And in his life we receive newness of life. Why is is important that he conquered death. Because Jesus was not just any man. He was God in flesh. So when you put your faith and trust in him, you can know that he is trustworthy. The same power that conquered the grave lives within us. And as you were dead in your sin and trespasses, the power of the cross has the power to raise you from your spiritual death and give you life. All you have to do to experience this forgiveness and new life is accept it. As later tonight or tomorrow you will be opening up gifts, all you have to do is accept His free gift of grace. Accept it. Trust in him. Not yourself. You make a poor god. You can’t even control when you hiccup or cough. Put your faith in him. He is mighty to save. In the waiting be persistent in prayer, patient in affliction, and rejoice in hope.
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