Sermon Cloud

Waiting On God Luke 2:21-40

Do you enjoy waiting? Do you look forward to grocery store lines? Do you get excited when you traveling down the freeway at 65mph and you notice up hundreds of red lights shining from the back of parked cars up ahead?

How good are you at waiting?

When you were young and wanted to snack before dinner and your parents told you to wait how did you feel?   Or later when you wanted to drive and you had to wait, how much did you complain? Were you like me in school in the weeks before summer break you found yourself captivated by the approaching vacation.

Or Have you ever felt that a driver was really slow in pulling out of a parking space for which you were waiting? It turns out your imagination may not be playing tricks on you. A recent study of 400 drivers in a shopping mall found that drivers took longer to pull out of a space if someone was waiting than if nobody was waiting there to claim the space. On average, if nobody was waiting for the space, drivers took 32.2 seconds to pull out of a spot after opening a car door. If someone was waiting, drivers took about 39 seconds. Drivers took 43 seconds to pull out of a space when the waiting driver honked!

But then there is the more serious waiting many of us go through

There’s the waiting of a single person to see if God has marriage in store for him or her. There’s the waiting of a childless couple who desperately wants to start a family but day after day, week after week, their prayer goes unanswered. There’s the waiting of someone who longs to have work that’s meaningful and significant and seems to matter, but it doesn't happen. There’s the waiting of a spouse that’s trapped in a hurting marriage that seems unable to change.

Or What About Some Examples From Scripture

God comes to Abraham. Abraham is 75 years old and God says, “Abraham, you’re going to become a father. You’ll be the ancestor of a great nation.” But you know how long it was before that promise came true? Twenty-four years.

God told Israel, his people, that they’d be a nation, able to leave the slavery of Egypt and be independent, but they had to wait 400 years.

And then God told Moses he would lead the people to the Promised Land, but they had to go to the wilderness and wait 40 years.

Then came the great promise that the Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer from God, would come. God’s people waited. They waited generation after generation, century after century, even when God seemed silent.

Then, strangest of all, when the Messiah came, he was only recognized by a few. He wasn’t at all what they thought they were waiting for. In fact, he was only recognized by those who were waiting for him.

Biblical waiting is not passively waiting around for something or someone to come along that will allow you to escape from your trouble. Sometimes we say “I’m just waiting on the Lord” as an excuse not to face up to reality, take appropriate action, or own up to our responsibility. That is not what waiting on the Lord is.

John Ortberg - Waiting on the Lord is a confident, disciplined, expectant, active, sometimes painful clinging to God. Waiting on the Lord is the continual, daily decision to say, “God, I will trust you and I will obey you even though the circumstances of my life are not turning out the way I want them to, and they may never turn out the way I want them to. I’m betting everything on you, God, and there is no Plan B.” That’s waiting on the Lord. It’s the hardest work of hoping.

I. (21-24) Mary And Joseph Waited

Patient Waiting is often the highest form of doing God's will.

A. (21) For Jesus To Be Born

1. The Trip To Bethlehem

2. The Birth In The Stable

3. Being Away From Home W/Infant

B. (22-24) For Jesus To Be Presented Before The Lord

1. "According To The Law"

2. Circumcision, Firstborn Offering, Purification

Numbers 18 - Five shekels of silver for the Firstborn Males

3. Sin And Burnt Offering

Leviticus 12:8  ‘And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’ ”

C. (40) For Jesus To Grow Up

1. Teaching Him To Be A Carpenter But He Was Destined To Be A Teacher

II. (25-35) Simeon Waited

(2 Peter 3:8-9): “But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise as some think of slowness but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.”

A. (25) For The Consolation Of Israel

1. "Waiting For"        Waiting can be translated either “waiting for” or “looking forward to.”

2. Just And Devout

Webster's:devoted to a pursuit, belief, or mode of behavior : serious, earnest áa devout baseball fanñ

He was actively waiting for Christ!  Waiting is not a passive, non-responsive, position.

3. Consolation Mean Comfort

B. (26-28) For The Christ Child

1. His Waiting Brought The Spirit Of God

2. His Waiting Brought Word From God

3. His Waiting Brought Expectation From God

C. (29-32) For The Salvation Of The World

1. (31-32) Both Gentiles And Jews

D. (33-35) For Whatever God's Plan Included

1. The Fall And Rising Of Many

2. For A Sign Spoken Against

3. (A Sword Will Pierce Mary's Heart)

4. The Thoughts Of Many Hearts May Be Revealed

III. (36-40) Anna Waited

Isaiah 40:27-31  Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just claim is passed over by my God”? ²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹ He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. ³⁰ Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, ³¹ But those who wait on 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.

Does This Sound Like Passively Sitting Around Waiting For God To Move?

A. (36-37) In The Presence Of God

1. She Was Of Great Age - 84

2. Practiced The Presence Of God

B. (37) With Prayer And Fasting

C. (38) And Shared God's Answer With Others