Joy in the Waiting

WELCOME

Pastor Chris Paavola:

Thank you so much Ms. Lisa for that reading, and thank you guys so much for being here. Good morning. My name is Chris Paavola. I get the joy of being the senior pastor here at St. Mark, and it is wonderful to be with you guys today. We are, I mean, days away from Christmas, man, and we’ve been in a series called Comfort and Joy, so you can experience exactly that this Christmas season. And for the last three weeks we’ve been looking at this word comfort, and today we’re going to kind of shift gears and look at the other half of that, the joy part of it, and the joy associated with this season of Christmas. But really though today and more specifically, we’re going to talk about joy. There’s a lot of different scenarios where we could find joy or where we need to find joy, but today we’re going to talk about finding joy in the waiting and Christmas.

WAITING IN CHRISTMAS

It’s a season of waiting. And by the way, kids, if you want to play a game today while you’re listening to my message, you can do a tally mark for every time you hear the word waiting. That would be a good way to occupy your minds. But anyway, so joy in the waiting, because Christmas we have like Ms. Ashley was talking about waiting in line for Santa. How many of you guys have an advent calendar at home of any kind where you open it? My kids have one where they get chocolate, so they’re very excited all the time for our advent readings and stuff like that. And then our dog has one too. The dog gets a bone or a treat every time the kids do. I don’t know, didn’t even want the dog in the first place. All right, so anyway, but yeah, there’s a ton of weight.

And then when it comes to Christmas Eve, right, kids will hardly be able to sleep with the anticipation and the waiting is visions of sugar, plums dancing their heads, right? Waiting is definitely a part of Christmas. But then there’s the not fun part of waiting for Christmas. It’s the traffic waiting in traffic on Beckley or waiting in lines at the department store, waiting in lines at Meyer, whatever it might be, or waiting for a package to arrive and you’re like, is it going to get here? And then you’re tracking its progress and you’re terrified on, what was it? Was it Thursday? What day did we have the Mingus Brook Elementary School program? Thursday? Yeah. So on Thursday, the Mingus Brook Elementary School had their winter program, Christmas program thing, and they had the parents and grandparents and families form a queue outside the school, and it was like 25 degrees, and there was a wind blowing and there was confusion because kids couldn’t be in the hallways when they let the parents in and they didn’t realize whatever.

So we stood out in that line outside for 45 minutes, you guys, and I am telling you people were going to riot if you were at the Mingus line, tell someone about it. It was awful, man, because it just highlights that waiting. We hate it. We are an impatient people. Wait is a four letter word in our culture, especially when you get outside the Christmas season waiting on holds. My wife took a screenshot this week of she was on hold with the pharmacy for like 35 minutes and she took a screenshot of it. We just hate waiting. We are so impatient. If our phone doesn’t load, its screen magically from a satellite in space. We’re like, it’s taking too long. We hate to wait and think about how many businesses and organizations are built on the promise of hurry. We have Jiffy Lube and QuickBooks and Express Scripts, and because we are a people who value so much expediency because we are so opposed to waiting and patience.

 WAITING IN FAITH

And the problem is, is that waiting is not just this thing that happens in the Christmas season, but when it comes to faith, waiting is a part of faith. It’s like inheritance in faith in the Old Testament, right? Adam and Eve are banished from the garden even, and all of creation is waiting to be returned to God’s glory. Then you have the people of Israel and Egypt waiting for delivery. You have the people of Israel wandering the desert, waiting for the promised land. You have the people of Israel and Babylon waiting for the return from the exile. Waiting is a part of scripture all over. That’s why one of the most common refrains in scripture or a common refrain in the poems, the Psalms, is this phrase, how long, oh Lord, how long will we be waiting? How long will the wicked prosper? How long will you hear our prayers and do nothing? And it’s this lament all throughout the Psalms, how long and when we are people of faith, or once you begin following Jesus, waiting just becomes part of faith, man. It’s not just contained to scripture. And I am looking at a room full of people that are asking right now, in this season right now, how long before I get a job or how long before we have a child, how long before our house sells? How long before I get healing from this ailment, how long before I find a spouse? How long? Oh Lord.

WAITING IN ELIZABETH

And that’s where we need to look at this Christmas story because there is joy in the waiting, waiting for us. There’s joy in the waiting. And we see it in the story of this kind of an obscure character, an obscure person. In the Christmas story, this lady named Elizabeth. So Elizabeth, when she was younger, she married this guy named Zacharia, and he’s a priest in Jerusalem. That’s what we know about them. And they settled down and this area that’s called the Hill country of Judea. So they settled down south of Jerusalem and lived there. And they find out very early on in life that they are infertile. And back in the day, they would just say, well, the woman is barren. It was never the guy’s fault. But we know today, obviously a lot of factors can go into that, but it says that they were barren.

And Elizabeth wore this as a personal disgrace. And it wasn’t just like this personal pain for her because she wanted a child, but it was a public disgrace, kind of a scarlet letter A, because in that culture, if you suffered, if you had any type of ailment, well, obviously it was because you were a sinner and God was punishing you for your sin.

6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.

            Luke 1

And the problem is that in Luke, very early on in the Book of Luke, he tells us about Mary or about Zacharia and Elizabeth, and he tells us that both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. They were good people. And yet God seemingly punished them with this barrenness. And so publicly they’re thinking, well, there must be. The people in the community are thinking, well, there must be some kind of unconfessed sin or unrepentant lifestyle that God is smiting them with this barrenness. But that’s not the case. They were blameless, they were righteous, they were just, and so Elizabeth carries this for decades, both a personal pain that she wanted a child, but then this very public pain, everyone looked at her a little side eyed, what did she do?

And then we get this moment where the angel Gabriel visits Zacharia and says, you’re going to have a son even in your old age, and you’re going to name him John, and he will prepare the way for Jesus.

 BLESSED IS SHE

And when Elizabeth hears this news, look at the way, I mean, look at the heartache. Look at the way that she responds to the news from Gabriel. After she finds out she’s going to have a child, she says, “the Lord has done this for me. And these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

25 “The Lord has done this to me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people”.

Luke 1

How heart wrenching is that for years she’s carrying this. And the moment God intervenes with this miraculous message, her first response is finally, finally, I don’t have this public scorn and shame anymore. My heart breaks for her man. And then we have this moment where, okay, so about five months later she’s pregnant. And then there’s this moment that you just heard about in our reading, and it is just fascinating. Mary is pregnant with Jesus. Elizabeth is pregnant with John, and Mary leaves Nazareth presumably to flee the drama and potentially the danger in Nazareth because she could be stoned for adultery and for having a child out of wedlock. And so she left Nazareth to go stay with Elizabeth. At least that’s the dots that we can connect. And she gets close to Elizabeth, and this amazing moment happens where there’s not two people meeting each other.

 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit

            Luke 1

There’s four people meeting each other. Because we read that “when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” And I just paused there because this is an important verse. It’s not the only verse, but this is an important verse of why Christians and why the church holds its views, that it does, that there is life and faith in her womb. Notice that he has faith. He is celebrating the arrival of Jesus. And that’s why we have baptisms for babies. Or one of the reasons we have baptisms for babies is because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. And faith is more than intellectual ascent. It’s this belief in your hearts. And here we see it in John. And by the way, this morning we had another baptism at our eight o’clock service. It was our first baptism we’ve ever had at eight o’clock.

You guys, that’s 31 baptisms this year we’ve had here at St. Mark. Isn’t that amazing? Praise God. Just so, I mean, it’s just awesome. I, and it is not about the numbers, it’s just that every number has a name, every name has a story, and every story matters to God. And I just rejoice that he’s touching so many lives through us. And so we rejoice in that.

45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.

            Luke 1

So anyway, Elizabeth has this moment that she rejoices and she’s filled with the Holy Spirit and now she’s filled with the Holy Spirit and she’s about to give an utter, it proclaims something filled with the Holy Spirit and take a look at what she says. “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.” And finally, we get to what we can focus on. This is what we’re going to zoom in on.

So if I’ve lost you, if you’re being distracted, it just kind of come back here. This is what we’re going to look at to find joy in the waiting. And it starts with that word blessed. Okay?

45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.

            Luke 1

So Elizabeth is saying this and she says, blessed is she that word blessed. It’s a Greek word that means like blessed of course, but it also is used for the word like happy. They were happy, I am happy or joy rejoicing. So happy. Are those joyful? Are those rejoicing? Are those who believe that the Lord would fulfill their promises or his promises? And then we get to the next word that I think is kind of clunky of imagine the scene. Elizabeth is standing there with Mary and she said, blessed is she, she’s talking to Mary and she just referred to her in the third person. Blessed is she who has believed.

And so it’s kind of like our idea of the royal we. She’s obviously referring to Mary, but she’s giving, she’s speaking filled with the Holy Spirit, something beyond just Mary. So it’s more of an idea of like blessed is the one blessed, are those blessed? Are we who has believed?

45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.

            Luke 1

And then that’s the next word we’re going to look at believed. You guys know what faith is, you know what belief is. But notice that it’s past tense and actually it’s a passive past tense, has believed, blessed is the one who has believed not that this moment has arrived, but you’ve been in this process of believing. And now look at us. Who would’ve thought, look at us. Who would’ve thought you? Me? No. Look at us. And who blessed is the one who has believed this thing would happen to quote Romans eight, who has hope for what they already have.

You don’t hope for what you have. You hope for what is yet to come. And so it’s not belief finalized. There was this belief before this moment arrived. It’s independent and we’ll get to this in a moment. It’s independent of the answer.

45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.

            Luke 1

And then we get to one more word we need to look at so we can apply this as the word promises. Which promise is she referring to? Yes, promises. Notice it’s plural. She’s not saying blessed as she has believed the Lord would fulfill the promise too, that she would be pregnant. It’s the promises. It’s not just the promise that God would send Jesus and that Mary would be pregnant with Jesus. Not just the promise that Elizabeth would be pregnant even in our old age. With John, it’s the promises of God. All of the promises of God promises to be with us, promises to guide us, promises to protect us, promises to deliver us promises to forgive our sins, promises to send a savior, all of the promises.

And there it’s blessed is the one who would fulfill. Bless is the one who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises. And we can now apply this to our situation, to us as we sit there in our waiting. Blessed is the one who believes the Lord’s promises. Blessed is the one who believes the Lord’s promises. Now if you’ll notice, promises are different than answers. And this is an important distinction to make. And this is kind of heady, but I think it’s important, especially if you’re struggling in your faith right now, struggling in a season of waiting.

PROMISES VERSUS ANSWERS

Promises are different than answers. God’s promises are in this book right here, okay? This is the word of God. It is contained, it is finished. There is no addendum or amendment that will be added onto this book. It’s the word of God written by the prophets in the apostles circulated in the church. This is the Bible. There will not be like if you’re looking and you’re waiting in a season, there’s not going to be like, I’m going to get a job at Duncan Aviation. It’s not in here. This is the word of God and it contains the promises of God.

But that’s different than God’s answers. God’s promises are different than God’s answers. God’s promises are his word and God’s answers is his spirits, his leading, his guiding, and his direction in your life. So God’s promises is his covenant for all people, but God’s answers are distinct and unique to you and who you are. It’s the holy spirit’s, holy spirit’s, guidance and leading and direction in your life confirmed through his people and confirmed through his word. And so you’re waiting on God’s answers. How long? Oh Lord.

BLESSED IS THE ONE WHO BELIEVES THE LORD’S PROMISES

But his promises are sure in spite of your waiting. And so now we can add to this. Blessed is the one who believes the Lord’s promises while they wait for the Lord’s answers. Joyful is the one who believes God’s promises while they wait for God’s answers. And they’re different. It’s independence of one another.

And this brings incredible joy in our waiting. So I want to talk to the people in this room right now who are dealing with a season of waiting for the Lord to do something. And you’re looking up at the ceiling at night going, how long? Oh Lord, how long? When will I get a spouse? When will we sell this house? When will I get a job? How long? Oh Lord. And I want you to hear today that there is joy in the waiting because blessed are you. When you believe God’s promises, while you wait for God’s answers, God’s direction, God’s guidance, but they’re different.

And recognizing that they’re different brings joy, peace because it is not dependent on how God comes through for you. Lemme you thinking that’s wishy washy, that’s kumbaya. Like, okay, God’s promises. That doesn’t really help me. You don’t know how lonely I am, Chris, I’m do a little game with you, a little thought exercise. We are in such a Christian culture, even not outside the church, we don’t even realize the influence of Christianity on the way we think our worldview. We don’t. But in the ancient world, the Gods plural we’re angry, vindictive. They could be bribed. They were moody and the gods. It was not a good thing to be at odds with them to have struggles with the gods or to disapprove them or disappoint them. That meant doom. It was just this pervasive fear. And we are so like, okay, we think okay, if there’s a God, he’s good and God loves everybody. That is not a thought in the ancient world. And so I want to do thought exercise with you, okay? To show you the power of God’s promises, I want you to imagine for a moment, this is what we knew of God. Imagine for a moment, God said, I am against you. I will ignore you. I’m out to get you. I don’t have a plan. I won’t help you. I will avoid you. I hate you and I don’t forgive you.

I am with you.

Isaiah 41:10

I will protect you.

            Psalm 46:1

I will guide you.

Psalm 32:8

I have a plan for you.

Jeremiah 29:11

I will provide for you.

Psalm 145:16

I hear your prayers.

Psalm 4:3

I will forgive you.

Psalm 130:4

Sit in the terror of that for just a moment. It’s horrifying the thoughts on top of your waiting. So you’re in a season of waiting and you look to the heavens and that’s now feel the thrill of hope as the weary world rejoices feel the rush of this thing called joy. When you realize that God says to you, I will guide you and give you direction, I will hear you when you pray and you wonder if it’s making its way through the ceiling and into my ears. Yes, I hear you. I will protect you from all these things that are trying to harm you. I have a plan for you. You are not a mistake. You are not meaningless. You are not causeless. I am not careless with you. I have a plan that’s bigger and better than you could ever possibly imagine. I will save you. I promise I am sending my son to deliver you from this weary world cursed with sin. I will be with you. You are not alone. In spite of all appearances, in spite of the evidence, I am with you. I love you. I am for you. I am kind and I forgive you of all of your sins. Everything you’ve done, the slate is wiped clean. You and I we’re good.

That’s called joy. When those promises become real to your life, even in your waiting, those promises are sure they are not changed. Blessed is the one. Joyful is the one happy is the one who believes God’s promises while they wait for God’s answers. And that’s what I want for you this morning. And in this season, in just a moment, we’re going to celebrate communion. And I thought about it at the first service.

CHRISTMAS

I realized that everything on that screen he promises to give us in this meal when he gives us his body and blood and the bread and wine of communion, everything on that screen is conferred to us in this meal. And in a couple days, we’re going to celebrate Christmas. I hope to see every one of you here and every one of your neighbors and your friends and the person who walks your dog, and I hope to see you guys here because on Christmas we gaze into the cradle when the embodiments of every one of those promises is found in Jesus, Emmanuel God with us, the word of God, the promises of God made flesh and dwelling with us this Christmas.

When you look in the cradle, it’s God’s promise fulfilled. I will guide you, I will hear you. I will protect you. I have a plan for you. I will save you. I will be with you. I love you. I forgive you.

And that my friends, brings us great comfort and joy.

PRAYER

Lemme pray for you Heavenly Father. First of all, we confess that we undervalue and underappreciate your promises to us. They’re just so familiar and we look at them and we yawn forgive us of this Lord and impress on our hearts by your Holy Spirit right now, the weight, the gravity, and the magnitude of your promises for us embodied in Jesus that we might experience this Christmas joy and your promises. While we wait for your answers for anyone in this room, God who’s asking how long? A Lord, with very specific and painful question, I pray that, Lord, you would continue to let this message give them comfort and joy in this moment and in this place, but also this day and this season is they leave here and you just continue to bring it to mind when they’re sitting at the stoplights or at the dinner table or at work or wherever it might be. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray this. Amen.