"Waiting on the Lord"

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In a New York Times article, journalist Alex Stone tells the story of how executives at a Houston airport faced and then solved a cascade of passenger complaints about long waits at the baggage claim. They first decided to hire more baggage handlers, reducing wait times to an industry-beating average of eight minutes. But complaints persisted. This made no sense to the executives until they discovered that, on the average, passengers took just one minute to walk to baggage claim, resulting in a hurry-up-and-wait situation. The walk time was not a problem; the remaining seven empty minutes of staring at the baggage carousel was. So, in a burst of innovation, the executives moved the arrival gates farther away from the baggage claim area. Passengers now had to walk much farther but their bags were often waiting for them when they arrived. Problem solved. The complaints dropped.
For the same article Stone interviewed MIT operations researcher Richard Larson, the world's leading expert on waiting in lines to discover the psychology behind our waiting. What happened at the Houston airport makes for a perfect illustration. According to Larson, the length of our wait is not as important as what we're doing while we wait. "Often the psychology of queuing is more important than the statistics of the wait itself," says Larson. Essentially, we tolerate "occupied time" (for example, walking to baggage claim) far better than "unoccupied time" (such as standing at the baggage carousel). Give us something to do while we wait, and the wait becomes endurable.
What we are doing while we wait matters or what we are waiting for matters as well.
Shortly after starting her perfume business, Estee Lauder realized she had to persuade a cosmetics buyer to place her products in many stores throughout the country.
At 9 A.M., Lauder was in the offices of the American Merchandising Corporation, waiting to see Marie Weston, the cosmetics buyer. Since Lauder had no appointment, she was advised to come back another day.
"I don't mind waiting," said Lauder. "I'll wait until she has a few free moments."
Salespeople came and went. At lunch time, the receptionist said Weston's schedule was so full that getting to see her was impossible. Again, Lauder was told to come back later.
"I'll wait a little longer," she persisted.
Hours passed. At 5:15 P.M. Marie Weston came out of her office. She looked at Estee Lauder in disbelief, then admiration, and said, "Well, do come in. Such patience must be rewarded."
Weston was impressed with Lauder's cosmetics, but there was no room in any of the stores. Come back later, she was encouraged. Of course, Estee did. Eventually, Weston found room in several stores. Business began to boom. The Estee Lauder name became famous in the world of cosmetics.
Waiting on the Lord is a difficult thing for us all today. Let’s face it, we don’t like waiting for anything or anyone at all. Waiting can be one of the most frustrating things we have to endure in life. But what is interesting in the illustrations we have just seen is that waiting is a problem only when there is not a distraction or if what we are waiting for is worth waiting for. So the problem is… we don’t have the right distraction or we really don’t think what we are waiting for is worth the wait? But is this why we have a difficult time when we have to wait on God? Do we not know what we are to do while we wait on the Lord? Do we not think that what we are waiting for is not worth the wait? Very telling when we are impatient with Christ.
Lets take a better look at this today.
Habakkuk 2:1–3 NLT
I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint. Then the Lord said to me, “Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
Waiting for an Answer
Waiting for the Answer
The first thing we will will look at today is the importance of vigilance and alertness when waiting for the divine answer of the Lord. Second, we will uncover the importance of waiting for the answer to be fulfilled as we wait today for the coming of the Lord promised by God which is Yes and Amen.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to approach Christ with haste and impatience, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Scriptures that will cause us to see that all the Lord has to offer is worth waiting for.
I. Waiting for an Answer
- Waiting for the Lord to respond.
A. Habakkuk filed his complaint and now he will wait for His response. And in waiting he will do so diligently. And in this passage, we will see him describe just how diligently as a prophet of God. He uses military language to do so. He will stand and watch just like a soldier does on the ramparts on the city to overwatch for potential enemies. On his watch, he waits with an ever watchful eye… he does not slumber, he does not waver, he is not distracted. We see similar pictures given by other prophets...
Isaiah 21:8 NLT
Then the watchman called out, “Day after day I have stood on the watchtower, my lord. Night after night I have remained at my post.
Ezekiel 33:7 NLT
“Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for me.
B. The vigilance and the alertness of Habakkuk is the role of the prophet of God. Here it denotes the unremitting and undistracted way in which Habakkuk was determined to wait for the Lord’s response, just as a watchman had to be fully alert at all times.
Isaiah 21:6 NLT
Meanwhile, the Lord said to me, “Put a watchman on the city wall. Let him shout out what he sees.
C. It is interesting how many misleading teaching I hear concerning this passage as if it were somehow showing us principles of hearing the voice of God. Get to your high tower, get to a closer place to the heavens and God will answer you. NO NO NO. These are not principles to hearing the voice of God.
D. Habakkuk was a prophet. He was not trying to get the Lord to respond, he knew he was gonna respond. He did not doubt that the Lord was gonna answer, he knew he was gonna answer. The issue was not if, but when. This passage was describing the vigilance and alertness he would be for the coming answer.
E. Are we as vigilant for the answer of the Lord today? See for us today, we are not waiting for the response of the Lord. Are issue is not waiting for a response, for we got all the revelation needed… in these last days He does not talk to us through the prophets, but through the Son of God.
Hebrews 1:1–2 ESV
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
2 Peter 1:3 ESV
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
F. My point is… are we vigilant and watchful for the answers that God already gave us that we don’t have to wait for? Are we vigilant and alert when it comes to the scriptures? Are we willing to work for it?
G. When I was young I would ask my grandmother many times what words meant. What does inconceivable mean? And many times without hesitation my grandmother would say look it up. She wanted me to look it up in the dictionary. She always told me that knowledge is more remembered and treasured when it is earned.
H. In our current evangelical culture we do not treasure the Word of God like we used to. We know that the Bible is the inspired and infallible breath of God and yet the more we progress the more biblically illiterate we seem to become. Stat after stat poll after poll is showing the decline of biblical knowledge in the church. Where we see ordained ministers on Jeopardy getting all the bible answers wrong.
I. All of the irresponsible and irreverent talk of people having conversations with God while they putting on their makeup or stuck in traffic getting insights and theology and direction. Why read and why study the scriptures? Just learn the secrets of how to have a conversation with God and you can get it straight from the horses mouth. When you get it like me, you can ask him anything and he will tell you everything.
J. Errrgh… I dunno where these people get the idea that this is how we operate in Christianity. If God wanted us to operate this way why did Moses taking the advice from his father in law to get other men to help him with problems and conflicts and instruction of the people. Tell um stop bugging you… tell um to ask God. If God wanted us to operate this way, why in the world are the scriptures full of getting godly counsel, wise advice, and wisdom from others? Why in the world did the Lord give Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers? Did not even the apostles and elders in Jerusalem come together as a council to decide on gentiles and circumcision. Why did they just not have a conversation with God while they were changing a flat tire? And if you remember… the counsel used the scriptures to make their decision.
K. It is the scriptures that we have from the Lord. It is sufficient for our lives as Christians. If all we have is the scriptures, then we will be more than Ok.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
L. We need to be like Habakkuk and be vigilant and alert like a century on a watchtower when it comes to the scriptures the Word of God that speaks to us. We gotta know it. We gotta live it. We gotta obey it. But the word is old, its dated, it was spoken to someone else not me. The Bible does not speak today. Yes it does.
Hebrews 10:15–16 NLT
And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says, “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
M. He is quoting the scriptures from Jeremiah. Written hundreds of years before. And he did not say the Holy Spirit said… but He says...
II. Waiting for the Answer
- Though it tarry, wait for it.
A. And now we see Habakkuk is hearing the answer from the Lord and it shows us even more about His Word.
B. This message you are to make plain. You are to write it on tablets of stone, probably like the writing of the 10 commandments. The message was so important that any possibility of misunderstanding or ignoring it had to be ruled out. This is the command to make it clear. So clear that no one could have any excuse of not knowing.
C. For the same reason the message here was to be written on tablets, which may have been made from wood or clay. Clay tablets were the normal medium of writing in Mesopotamia, and were also used in Palestine. They were durable, and so would be preserved through the anticipated delay.
D. And these tablets would make it easier for the runner to get the message out. This was a message that should be declared. It should be spread.
E. The intro of the message comes. There is an appointed time for all of the things that the Lord is about to declare.
Psalm 75:2 NLT
God says, “At the time I have planned, I will bring justice against the wicked.
F. Oh he is gonna be taking care of business. He is making it clear that there will be an end to all of this. It will happen when he has decided that it will happen. But it will all come to an end. People might try to say that it will not. Doubt might creep in and we may wonder. But it will not be proven false this message will be fulfilled. You might doubt and others may doubt because it will tarry. It will seem slow in coming… it will take a while. So know this right now… the proper response is waiting.
Isaiah 64:4 NLT
For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!
G. It is a call to wait with patience for God to act as he sees fit, and an assurance that there will be no disappointment to those who wait.
H. We have this same situation today… Do we not have the promise that the Lord will come for His bride. He is coming for us.
1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 NLT
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.
I. But this promise was given many many years ago. Many are concerned about its fulfillment. It really did not take long for naysayers to come and cast doubt upon the promises of the Lord.
2 Peter 3:4–5 NLT
They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.
J. But we are not to worry. We are not to lose heart. Do not fret.
Luke 18:7–8 NLT
Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”
Hebrews 10:37 NLT
“For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay.
K. And we should know this… the Word of God given here did indeed come about slowly. It did come about. The Lord rescued his people from the Babylonians and the Babylonians were judged by the Lord severely. It was fulfilled. Indeed it came to pass.
L. It is the same God with the same kind of promise. It is taking time, but know this… Jesus is coming back again to judge the living and the dead. Just a warning today… it might seem like its taking a while, hold on… he is coming back. The Lord promised it and His promises are yes and amen.
M. And the key here today is this… he is coming to judge. And that is a scary thing. The Bible makes it clear that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Salvation is here today. And this is why Jesus came
N. Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures.
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