AMONG US: in our Waiting
Pastor Steven Osborne
Transcribed by PulpitAI (with edits)
I want to teach you a Hebrew word, and so we’re gonna do a little Hebrew class here, and the Hebrew word is kavah. Can everyone say kavah? What does it mean? Who knows? Kavah? What does it mean? It means “to wait.” And not just to wait, but it is waiting with expectation, right? And it’s a hopeful waiting.
Now, I don’t know about you, as we look at our topic today, it is about God among us in our waiting. Who likes to wait? Anybody? I hate to wait. It is not my favorite thing. I’m still working on the Fruit of Spirit, in a sense, as we look about patience—it is not one of my biggest fruits. And so I was just kind of thinking about areas—it seems like we get to practice waiting.
Why are you smiling, Hailey? She wants to affirm that. No, you can’t affirm anything. No.
Waiting in Our Lives
There’s practical areas in our lives where it seems like we get to practice waiting. Several things, maybe you can relate with those this morning:
I was thinking about the lines at Disney. Anybody been there, waiting in those lines, and you see that little sign that says, “120 minutes from this point.” It’s like, “Ugh, why did I do this to myself,” right? Waiting.
Boarding a plane. That can sometimes feel like hours and hours as you’re waiting.
A doctor appointment.
Especially this next one: I don’t know if you’ve recently been to the ER. Waiting, right?
Traffic jams. We don’t have to deal with that really here in Duluth, but just go to the Twin Cities and you’ll get to experience that.
Another one that I’m grateful for that I don’t have to experience a whole lot is bathroom lines for the women restroom. I usually walk by and I say, “Praise the Lord I’m a guy,” right?
Another one, a software update. I don’t know if you’ve experienced this on your phone or on the computer, and it seems like those software updates are never at the right time, right? It’s like, when you have to make that phone call, or you have to respond to that email, and suddenly it’s like, you can’t do anything.
So small little reminders of waiting in our day-to-day life.
Maybe a little bit more intense in the area of waiting is:
When it comes to healing. Maybe it is physical healing. Maybe it is emotional or spiritual restoration for ourselves or loved ones. Right? That can be really hard.
Waiting on the right friendships.
Reconciliation.
Or waiting for a future spouse, for all of the single people waiting, right? That can be tough. I remember being single and you’re like, “Man, Lord, please soon,” right?
I can imagine in Minnesota in the winter times, you might be really crying out like, “Lord, please soon,” right?
Maybe waiting for freedom from debt or provision for needs or achieving certain financial goals.
But waiting is all around us.
I was reading about the invention—or kind of the beginning days—of the Advent Wreath. So back in the early 1800s or mid-1800s, there was a German Protestant pastor. He was teaching in a school, and the kids would constantly ask him and say, “When is it Christmas? How many more days?” Right? It was like, “Are we there yet?” type of moment. And so he came up with the Advent Wreath idea, and he had 24 candles, and then the four candles that represents each Sunday. And it was just kind of a hit, and that kind of grew into our Western culture as well. But just kind of that waiting. And the kids can’t wait for Christmas.
Waiting in Scripture
Now even as we look at Scripture, there’s a lot of stories in Scripture that reminds us of people that have been waiting. Waiting isn’t anything new; we see this throughout Scripture.
We see it in the story of Abraham and Sarah. They waited 25 years for God’s promise of a son, the promise of Isaac to be fulfilled. Twenty-five years.
Or then you think about the story of Joseph. He waited over 13 years, enduring slavery and imprisonment, before God elevated him to second in command in Egypt. Now again, you know, it’s for us in the natural, when we sometimes just wait for 60 minutes at the Starbucks line, that can feel forever. But to actually be in prison—and you have to wait on God’s promises—13 years, that’s a long time. Or to wait 25 years for the promise of a son.
Or what about David, as he was anointed as a young shepherd boy to be the next king. And he had to wait over 15 years, enduring persecution, hiding in caves. You know, you can imagine as a young boy, you’re kind of eager. It’s like, “Lord, when can I go into that palace,” right? “When can I have all my servants and have those amazing meals?” And instead, you’re running for your life and sleeping in caves.
Same thing, even as we think about the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, waiting to enter the Promised Land.
Or even as we think about the story of Hannah, waiting for years to have a child, going to the Temple to pray and to seek the Lord.
So waiting is all around us.
Even when we think about the story in Genesis chapter 24, where Jacob falls in love. I don’t know if anybody of you have had these extreme dating stories, right? You find the perfect one; you can see spending your whole life with them, and then you find, okay, now you have to work for seven years before you can get married. And then after seven years, you’re all excited—I mean, to do the work for seven years with excitement, right? And then, surprise, on the wedding night that you were deceived, and now you ended up with the sister, right? And now you have to be faithful and work for another seven years. That’s intense.
I don’t know if I would have worked for 14 years for Venessa. She’s good. Maybe seven and a half years, right? I’m just kidding, just kidding. She is a cutie. I would have worked 24 years.
But then as we think about the Christmas story—I mean, it’s a long wait from Genesis to the gospels. When we think about the first promise that we kind of discover about this promise of a Messiah, of the one coming, right, in Genesis, and then you have to wait for hundreds and hundreds of years. I mean, just look at your Bible. Just look at all of the different stories that happens, the things that you read from Genesis to Matthew. I mean, a lot of events, a lot of kingdoms that fall, a lot of stories. I mean, it is amazing. And through it all, people are waiting. They’re excited for the promise of this Messiah, this promise that they’ve heard about in Genesis and constantly wondering, “When is he coming?” Right? And they go through hardships, and they go through trials, and wondering, “Well, is this maybe the year?”
Waiting in the Christmas Story
And then we have this amazing story of the birth of Jesus Christ. And if you have your Bible with me this morning, we can read in Luke chapter 2. This is after the birth, and now Mary and Joseph is taking Jesus to the temple to be blessed. And there’s kind of this amazing, short little stories that we read about. And the first one is in verse 25.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
So just kind of imagine this moment. Here’s this person. Somehow he ends up at the Temple, right time, and here’s a moment that the Holy Spirit revealed to him, prophesied to him, and says, “Before you die, you will see the Messiah. You will see this person that people have been prophesying since the beginning,” like right in from Genesis.
And you can imagine in his life, he’s like, “Well, I’m not getting any younger.” And he waits. And then there’s this amazing and powerful moment, and this is what he shares. He says:
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”
Finally, his wait is over. The Lord was faithful to his word.
And then you have this, again, amazing little story about Anna. She’s working, she’s a prophetess in the Temple. It says that she is working there and worshiping and praying day and night and fasting, right? And finally, she gets to see the Messiah in that moment. Again, after all of that waiting, after all of those years being faithful and waiting for the Messiah, and suddenly here it is right in front of you. It’s like, “Wow, how amazing is this,” right? “I’ve been waiting and praying, and I thought in my mind, ‘Maybe God is sleeping. Maybe this moment will never happen.’ And here it is.”
It is kind of exciting for us that we’re in that same boat, that we’re not waiting for the first coming of Jesus Christ, but that we’re waiting for the Second Coming, right? And a lot of times it’s easy for us to think, “Well, maybe he’s not gonna come,” right? “Maybe it is all a lie.” We get to experience the same thing where we are kavah-ing, where we’re waiting with expectation. We’re not just sitting and saying with no expectation; we’re having an expectation in our waiting that he’s coming, that God is doing something and preparing this world for his Second Coming.
So he’s coming. God is coming. God was faithful in his promises as we look at the Old Testament, and God will be faithful again in his Word as we wait on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
Now, as we think about just, again, even the story of Jesus and his ministry, we have this beautiful story in John chapter 11, and you can read the whole story with Lazarus and, you know, Mary and Martha is calling out on Jesus, and they’re like, “Well, Lazarus is dying. You know, you love him. Come quickly.” And then Jesus waits, right? And you know the story. And again, then Jesus shows up later, and everyone is crying. It’s like, “Okay, Jesus, why did you wait so long? You could have saved Lazarus.” And then there is this miracle moment, and we see Lazarus coming to life, and Jesus had to wait for that moment, right? It was a specific time and things that he wanted to reveal in his disciples’ lives and those that were witnessing this incredible story.
Why Wait?
Now this morning as we think about our own lives and just some of these stories that we read in Scripture, we wonder, “Why do we have to wait?” Right? And it’s a hard one. And again, we only get to wait a lot of times just for a short period of time, and that can even be overwhelming for us. Even in those moments when we’re waiting and maybe it’s just a year or maybe it’s two years for whatever that might be that you’re waiting for in your life, it’s easy to fall into the temptation to think, “Well, maybe God is asleep. Maybe God just doesn’t care about my life.”
And many times when we look at all of the stories in Scripture, a lot of times, when it comes to God’s timing, he allows us to wait because he wants to form character in our lives. God is interested in your character, right? God is interested in developing your faith and you seeking him.
And again, that doesn’t make it easy. Waiting is not easy, right? It is hard to wait, especially when it comes to hard things and areas where we have to really rely on God. But waiting on the Lord requires patient trust. Patient trust, right? That kavah moment, for us to wait with expectation. God wants us to wake up in the morning and as we wait on these things and as we trust him to say, “I don’t know what you are doing, God. I don’t understand exactly your timing, but guess what? I know that you are alive, that you are among us, that your Spirit is with me, and I know that you are busy with something. You’re up to something.” Right?
And so we don’t want to wake up in the morning and just think, “Oh, God is busy with just all of the big issues and challenges in the world.” No, God is busy with your plan. And he’s working behind the scenes, right? It is hard. It’s hard for us to try and figure that all out with our minds. It’s like, how is he doing that? Well, I don’t know. I don’t know. But all I know is that he has been faithful in my life over the years. And I’m sure that if I ask this morning for testimonies, a lot of you will agree and will have stories to share about how God showed up in your life after a period of waiting.
Waiting means that we give God the benefit of the doubt that he knows what he is doing. Can I hear an amen? It is good to know that God is in control, and we’ve got to give him the benefit of the doubt to say, “God, man, you figured out this whole story, all of these events that we read from Genesis to Revelation. You got this. You will make this work for your good.”
Waiting on God reminds us that God is in control, and waiting reminds me that I am not in charge. Can I hear an amen? I am grateful that I am not in charge when it comes to these big things, right? It is way easier, but not always easy for us to let go and to actually live this out.
Waiting on the Lord allows God to do his work. God’s timing is best. Every time that we look at these stories, we see that God’s timing is perfect in all of these situations. A lot of times, when stories in the Old Testament, the New Testament, we see it’s when people try and do things in their own wisdom and in their own strength and their own timing that they mess things up, instead of just allowing God to do his thing and to trust him and to say, “God, I’m gonna trust your timing.” Not always easy, but that is what he wants for us.
And then I add this one: just kind of as I think about my own life, and it is to avoid fear and worry. When we are waiting, when we’re waiting on the Lord, and when things are quiet and we don’t always hear God’s voice and we maybe don’t always see the evidence of the Holy Spirit working in a specific situation, the way that we want him to work, it can be easy to be fearful and to be anxious and to worry. And in Psalm 56 it reminds us:
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?
But just that reminder this morning for us, like, “Man, I’m not gonna be afraid. I trust that God’s got this in my waiting. Doesn’t matter what I’m facing; doesn’t matter what I’m dealing with; God is among us. His Spirit is in me this morning.”
God’s Timing
Henry Blackaby, great quote, says:
“God’s timing is always right. Waiting is hard, but it helps us learn to trust him in ways we never would otherwise.”
And then Dallas Willard says:
“Sometimes we must wait on the Lord, not because he is slow to act, but because he is working something greater than what we can see.”
And so even for you this morning, as you’re waiting, God is at work. He’s doing something. And so for us to just create that, to wait patiently on him, and to trust him to work things out, and not to be anxious, not to be fearful. Allow him. Allow him. Give him the time.
I wish I had more time this morning just to talk about kronos time, and we think about God’s timing in our life.
Somebody gave me a book this week as a gift at one of the meetings that was for Youth For Christ. And I just started with chapter one, so I’m not in that deep, but immediately the author is—the whole book is really about Matthew chapter 11, verse 29. It says:
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Right? And so the whole book is about this one part of this verse where Jesus is actually revealing his heart. I mean, just think through the gospels. In how many of those verses or chapters in the gospel do Jesus actually reveals something about his heart? And this is what Jesus reveals to us. It says, “I am gentle and humble in heart.” And so the book is about just God’s gentleness and how God really cares for you and me. Right? That is part of who he is. That’s who he is. So he cares. God cares about your waiting. God cares about your purpose. God cares about your future. And so we don’t have to worry and to be concerned and to be anxious. He is with us in all of this.
