WAITING ON GOD
Communion Message ❧ Part 1 of 1
Hebrews 11:8-16 ❧ Pastor, Dr. John Denney
I don’t know about you, but I’ve found I’m typically not very good at waiting. Especially when you’re in a hurry or when it comes to stoplights. Like it or not, life is filled with a lot of stoplights that say: Wait! Wait!… Not yet, wait! Life also seems to be filled with a lot of long checkout lines. In fact, it seems I have an unusual knack for picking the lines that take the longest to get through. I was just reminded of this the other day. Waiting seems to be the rule rather than the exception in life. Have you noticed that as well?
Probably the hardest kind of waiting though is waiting on God. Waiting for His guidance. Waiting for Him to show us the right spouse. Waiting for Him to heal a broken marriage. Waiting for a job. Waiting for better job. Waiting for recovery. Waiting for retirement. Waiting… We might tell others, “I’m waiting on God.” On the outside we may sound convincing but, on the inside, we’re stewing with frustration. Our face says, “I patiently waiting.” But our hearts are churning with irritation.
Sometime ago, I came across a story that captures this well. During the Korean war some American soldiers hired a local boy to do their housekeeping and cooking. It was an easy-come, easy-go, easy-pay set up. They soon discovered the little Korean boy had an unbelievably positive attitude – he was always smiling. So, they played one trick after the other on him. They nailed his shoes to the floor. He’d pull up the nails with pliers, slip on his shoes and keep on smiling. They put grease on the stove handles, and he’d wipe each one off, smiling and singing his way through the day. They balanced buckets of water over the door, and he’d get drenched. But he would dry off and never fuss, time after time.
Finally, they became so ashamed of themselves they called him in one day and promised: “We want you to know that we’re never going to trick you again. Your attitude has been outstanding.” He said, “You mean no more nail shoes to floor?” “No more.” “You mean no more sticky stove knobs?” “No more.” “You mean no more water buckets on door?” “No more.” “Okay then,” he responded with a smile and a shrug, “No more spit in soup.” We may say with our faces we’re waiting patiently, but we’re fretting on the inside! We’re spitting in the soup more than we let on!
With Communion in mind I want to push the pause button on our series “Unchanging Faith” and talk to you about waiting – WAITING ON GOD, in particular. Turn with me to Hebrews 11. This is the great Hall of Faith chapter in the Bible. Its opening verses give us a brief description of what faith is: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval (Hebrews 11:1-2, NAS). These verses tell us something about what a waiting faith looks like: It is being confident of the things we hope for that are still in the distant future. It’s knowing the future we hope for is certain even if we do not see it right now. It was this kind of waiting faith that the men of old gained God’s approval. Several verses later the author echoes a similar thought: Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). A God-approving faith always has an element of waiting built into it. In the next number of verses the author gives a number of notable examples of what a God-approving faith looks like. He mentions Abel (v.4), Enoch (v.5), then Noah (v. 7). Each one was in his own right was a giant of faith. Then, in verse eight the author draws our attention to the Mt. Everest of faith – Abraham.
Read: Heb. 11:8-16 in New Living Translation. These nine verses are going to give us some hard but essential lessons Abraham learned about a God-approving faith: 1) Faith is goes without knowing, 2) Faith trusts without understanding, 3) Faith finishes without quitting.
- Faith goes without knowing. It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him toleave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going(Hebrews 11:8, NLT). Like it or not, walking with God sometimes means going without knowing. As followers of Jesus Christ, we know He has a specific plan for our lives. But we don’t always know what it is. He does though, and most importantly, we know we can trust Him. So, God says: “Go!” and we go. We pack our bags, pull up roots, give our two-week notice, say farewell to the old life and head out. We leave our friends and family behind and strike out. That’s what Abraham did. God called him, and he went. The sense of the original language here is that Abraham’s obedience was so prompt that before the sound of God’s voice could fade, Abraham was already packing his bags (the word “called” is καλούμενος, kaloumenos, could be translated, while he was still being called). While Abraham could still hear the ringing of God’s voice in his ears he shut the door of his old life behind him and began following God.
Not much is known about Abraham during the first 75 years of his life. We know he was a native of the city of Ur in Chaldea, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Mesopotamia, the oldest place of civilization). Today, this is southern Iraq, a fertile land about 140 miles from where the famous city of Babylon would one day be built. As a young man growing up in Ur, Abraham was surrounded by a highly sophisticated city that boasted of an elaborate system of writing, mathematics, education, extensive businesses, and religious beliefs that were as disturbing as they were dark. The city itself was dominated by a massive three-stage Ziggurat – pyramidal shaped temple dedicated to Nammu, the moon-god. The remains of the royal cemetery reveal that ritual burials were sealed with the horrors of human sacrifice. For the first 75 years of his life, Abraham was deeply entrenched in this dark and hopeless dark culture (Joshua 24:2). Then one day God made Himself known to Abraham, told him to pull up his tent stakes, pack his bags, and go. And Abraham went!
We can only imagine what his friends and family must have thought. “Abraham, what are you doing?” “I’m packing.” “Packing?” “Yup, we’re moving.” “Why would you want to leave your home at your age? Where will you go?” “All I know is God told me I need to go. I’m not sure where, but I know I need to go.” “God? You’re saying ‘God’ spoke to you? “Yup.” “That’s just plain weird.” “Maybe.” “Where did you say you were going again?” “I didn’t. God hasn’t told me.” “You mean to tell me ‘God’ told you to go even though you don’t know where you’re going?” “That’s right.”
Years ago, while on active duty in the military, I went for a walk during a warm spring night in Port Hueneme, Ca. My relationship with God was basically still at the starting gate. As I looked up into the stars that night, I was overwhelmed with the sense that God was calling me like He did Abraham to leave everything behind and follow Him. The only thing was – I didn’t know where! Yet, I knew, God was calling me to follow wherever He led.
Abraham’s going, yet not knowing, suggests a couple of lessons we need to remember for our everyday lives:
- Salvation brings separation from the world and your past. With God’s calling still
ringing in our ears, He gives us both the willingness and the power to let go of those things that He wants us to leave behind (Phil. 2:13; Gal. 2:20). Abraham walked away from the only life he’d known for 75 years. He let go of friends and family alike.
Giving up the old life, uprooting ties to the past, can be one of the greatest challenges in following Christ. It can also be one of the greatest obstacles. That’s why we must let go of the past. Paul said: Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Cor. 5:17, NLT). Our relationship with Christ separates us from the world and our past.
- Salvation brings an awareness that this world is not our home. The Bible says our
citizenship is in Heaven. We are citizens of Heaven, where the Lord Jesus lives (Phil. 3:20). V. 9 tells us Abraham, and his descendants dwelt in tents. They lived by faith as refugees. In other words – they were never at home! They never put down roots in one place. Where others built permanent homes with large two car garages to park their Egyptian made chariots, and spacious barns to house their animals – Abraham lived in tents. The next verse tells us why: Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God(Hebrews 11:9). He knew this earth was not his home.
It was not that Abraham lacked either the means or ability to acquire land. He was immensely wealthy and tremendously powerful – a force to be reckoned with. Once while rescuing his nephew he boldly defeated four kings with only 318 men! (Gen. 14:9,15). The only property Abraham ever owned was his wife’s burial plot! (Gen. 23:17-19). He made no attempt to acquire land through business dealings or marriage. Instead, he lived by faith waiting on God’s timing. Abraham was not alone in his wait. His descendants would not own the land for another 500 years! (Gen. 15:16God promised Abraham’s descendants would own the land four generations after Abraham). Abraham lived to be 175 years old. That means he camped in a tent for a hundred years! What was waiting on God like for Abraham? Genesis 25 tells us when Abraham breathed his last, he diedan old man and satisfied with life(Gen. 25:8, NAS). No regrets. The wait was more than worth it. Do you see the thread of waiting-on-God at work in Abraham’s life? God’s call works the same in our lives. His call in our lives means leaving the past behind and living with the continual awareness that this world is not our home. God has a far better Home planned for us in the future. One of our long-time prayer warriors in her early nineties was once asked by her doctor, “Phyllis, are you happy?” “No,” she said, “But I am content.”
Is God loosening your tent pegs? Is He telling you to let go of your past, to step out in faith trusting Him to go without knowing, to trust His leading though you don’t where? The first lesson of a God-approved faith is faith means going without knowing.
- Faith believes without understanding. To put this in perspective, when Abraham was 75 years old God told him he would have a son. But God waited another twenty-five plus years before He gave Abraham his son! Abraham believed without know how or when God would fulfill His promise. Faith believes without understanding just how God is going to work. That’s what verses eleven and twelve tell us: It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep his promise. And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them (Hebrews 11:11-12). God gave Abraham the ability to have a son even though he was – as good as dead.
Most of us know about “the skeleton” in Abraham’s closet. I’d like to say Abraham never got ahead of God. That he never failed. I’d like to say Abraham never made any bad decisions that deeply hurt the ones he loved the most – choices that invited deep pain and regret – but he did. I know Abraham is far from alone. The truth be known, all of us have skeletons of regret in our closets. Past decisions we wish we’d made differently. Painful memories that still haunt our thoughts and trouble our conscience. We’re not alone. Even Abraham, the Mt. Everest of faith, the stellar patriarch of the Jews had them.
Sometime in Abraham’s mid-eighties, both he and Sarah realized her biological clock was rapidly winding down. Sarah was well-passed with the ability to have children and Abraham wasn’t far behind. About this time Sarah came up with her own homespun plan to have a child. She would give Abraham her maid-servant Hagar. Abraham willingly complied with her only to deeply regret it later. You probably remember how their take-matters-into-your-own-hands-plan worked out. It was a disaster!
What God wanted was for Abraham and Sarah was to wait on Him. But they didn’t. God wanted them to understand that faith means believing without understanding. He wanted them to learn the God of the Bible can do the impossible! But the only way they could learn this great lesson was to be put in an impossible situation! So, God waited until Abraham was as good as dead – when he could do absolutely nothing in his own strength to have a child – then God worked! Shortly before their son was born God asked them: Is anything too difficult for the LORD(Gen. 18:14). This aged patriarch learned to bet the farm on God’s Word. Faith says God is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think, according to the power that works within us (Eph. 3:20).
Let’s face it, sometimes we try to make things happen we know are outside of God’s will. But they never turn out the way we want. They always leave an ugly scar of pain and regret. God is saying: “Following Me means following My lead, not your logic. Following Me means there will be times when I’m going to tell you to take a left, or turn right, with any explanation. Take the crowbar out of your back pocket and stop trying to open doors I haven’t opened. Learn to trust Me completely. Trust My timing. Depend on My wisdom to satisfy your life.” The second hard but essential lesson of a God-approved faith is: Faith means believes without understanding.
- Faith finishes without quitting. Someone with a God-approving faith is an eternal optimist. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God (Hebrews 11:9-10). It was not an earthly city Abraham was looking for, but a Heavenly one. The idea of this promised city is going to be the theme of the rest of the book of Hebrews. The city he has in mind is the Heavenly Jerusalem (12:22). He is saying, trust in God with your last breath. It will be more than worth it!
Let me try to put this in perspective for us. The author of Hebrews was writing to a group of struggling believers who were holding on to the earthly city of Jerusalem, the holy city of David, the Temple and all its religious trappings. They were looking for spiritual security and meaning through earthly things, much like we do. The author is prompting them to look more closely at Abraham. Where was Abraham looking? He was looking beyond this world to the Heavenly City. Abraham was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. In other words, Abraham was not looking for some consolation of a life he’d lost here on earth. He could have returned to Ur for that! No, instead, he was looking toward a God-promised future of the life he wanted but never had! Abraham lived with this optimistic faith right up to his last breath (Gen. 25:8). That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them (Heb. 11:16).
God is calling us to do the same. In this life you will never be at home because you were made for a different world. Your citizenship is in heaven (Eph. 3:20). God’s heavenward calling rings in our ears daily! A God-approving faith is one that trusts God’s promise to give us the life we wanted but never had, not here on Earth, but in Heaven!
Let me illustrate it this way. Imagine two women of the same age, same economic status, the same education level, even the same temperament. You hire them both and say to each: You are part of an assembly line, and I want you to put part A into slot B and then hand over what you have assembled to someone else. I want you to do that over and over for eight hours a day. You put them in identical rooms with identical lighting, temperature, and ventilation. You give them the same number of breaks in a day. Now, you have to admit, that would be boring work! The conditions are the same for both in every way – except for one difference. You tell the first woman that at the end of a year you will pay her thirty-thousand dollars, and you tell the second woman that at the end of the year you will pay her thirty-million!
After a couple of weeks, the first woman will be saying, Isn’t this tedious? Isn’t this driving you insane? Aren’t you thinking about quitting? And the second woman will say, No. This is perfectly acceptable. In fact, I whistle while I work. What’s happening? Here are two women experiencing the exact same circumstances but in radically different ways. What’s the difference? Their expectations of the future. The Christian life is threaded with a thick winding thread of waiting. Sometimes we find waiting to be frustrating, unsettling, tedious. But all of that changes when we take to heart God’s promise of our future.
Just after the turn of the 19th century, pioneer missionary Henry C. Morrison was returning to New York after spending forty years in Africa. The boat that carried him also carried the wildly popular president of the United States Theodore Roosevelt. As their ship entered the New York harbor, Roosevelt was greeted with a huge fanfare. When he first heard all the cheering Morrison thought it might be for him. After all, he’d spent four decades of his life in the Lord’s service. But he was greatly disappointed. Feeling the sting of dejection, a small voice reminded, saying: “Henry, . . . you’re not home yet.”
Believer, you may be tired, unsettled, feeling out of place. You may feel life seems like one long tedious up-hill battle of waiting and you’re wondering seeking a God-approved faith is worth it after all. May I remind you, you’re not home yet. Remember Abraham. One day the wait will be more than worth it.