Advent 2021: Waiting

Psalm 40: Waiting

Introduction to Advent:

“Waiting” Waiting for what?

Get the presents out of the way so that we can just focus on the true meaning of Christmas!

Waiting was over once we hit December 5th. That was a cool tradition because we got to open presents before my friends.

But the kind of waiting in Psalm 40 is very different than just waiting to open presents… There is a desperation to this kind of waiting.

Psalm 40 is a Psalm about Deliverance: Where the Psalmist waits to experience the Lord’s deliverance from his own sin and self-righteousness.

Advent is a time of waiting, waiting out of desperation because things are not yet the way they are supposed to be. We wait, and wait, and even after 2,000 years of the church waiting for Christ’s return, waiting to be unstuck… waiting to experience a heart that desires and delights in God’s will…

The Waiting Game

And so we wait, and some of agony while we wait is self-inflicted:

1  I waited patiently for the Lord;

he inclined to me and heard my cry.

2  He drew me up from the pit of destruction,

out of the miry bog,

I waited patiently for the Lord

Patiently= “too placid” (Derek Kidner)

“Waiting, I Waited” Intensifier/amplifier

Wait, I waited for the Lord

Waited ‘patiently’?

I waited and waited...

I really, really, waited...

While I was waiting, I waited....

And where is King David waiting and waiting?

“In a pit of destruction”

“In a miry bog”

Pit=Man made shaft for holding water

Pit:

Man made clay hole used to hold water.

Joseph’s Pit

Jeremiah’s cistern

Pit of Destruction: Not a place you want to be… Hellish place...

miry bog

Miry bog

Muddy muck

Root= “to be sticky”

What is the Bog Made of?

Not really made of mud

My iniquities: v. 12: “For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.”

The waiting game is deliverance from our own iniquity! Just another word for brokenness.

Cistern: Man-made hole!! We created it ourself. We put ourselves in this mess!

NOT Quick sand: “When I was a kid, I thought that quick sand was going to be a much bigger problem.”

No, the type of pit we’re talking about is created by us! It’s man-made!

We are the ones who got stuck!

Our waiting game is the self-inflicted hurt, and worry, anxiety, and stress that sin causes in our life!

It’s the psycho-somatic impact sin can have, where guilt can run so deep that we can lose sleep and walk in a fog!

And we wait, and we wait, and we wait and hope for help...

It’s a lonely, dark place—a place where it feels like the walls are caving in.

Have you been in the place of waiting?

Of being stuck in your sin, waiting to be saved? Waiting to be freed from guilt?

How do we get unstuck?

The LORD!

vv.2-3: I waited and waited, He inclined to me and heart my cry!

“He inclined to me”= “too courtly” (Derek Kidner)

“Stretch out” or “down” “bow”

“He drew me up from the pit of destruction, and out of the miry bog...”

He set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

Rather than crying out help, HE put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

v.13: “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!”

v. 17: “You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!”

Getting pulled out from the pit

October 14, 1987

10:30 Wednesday morning: Mother runs a child day car, 5-10 children, went to go answer the phone, the mother’s 18 month daughter, Jesssica Morales, went down to the bottom of the hole 20 minutes.

Next few hours, next few hours.

Drilling for more than 2 days. Young parents would call. 18 months, crying.

Absolutely no food or water.

Someone just got close enough for someone to tickle her.

Midland, Texas: 60 hours: Jessica McClure, base of the well. Volunteer rescuers.

Water drill: Water suction. Pressurized water to cut through rock.

The Lord came and rescued her:

Baby Jessica

Pulzer Prize winning photo!

God came and dug us out of the pit of destruction and placed us on solid ground!

We didn’t climb out. We couldn’t climb out.

God digs for us!!

v.6: “You have given me an open ear.”

LIT: “You have dug out my ear.”

God gave us the ability to hear the Good News, the Gospel!

God saved us his own way through the power of the Holy Spirit!

Point to baptism

We are saved by grace...

When you’re in Christ, you can never be stuck again!

Try to get stuck by the ocean side. The water always ‘unstuck’ the foot. Water gets in and removes the hole… Can you imagine you dangerous the beach would be if you got stuck in the sand!!??

But you’ve been unstuck!

The Lord will keep you unstuck:

v. 11: God preserves us:

As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain

your mercy from me;

your steadfast love and your faithfulness will

ever preserve me!

Love=Chesed: Your Covenantal Love

God’s LOVE, covenantal faithfulness, will preserve us.

GRACE WILL PRESERVE US!

Grace and the ocean, trying to get stuck but can’t!

Don’t go back there!

Well: Parents: DON’T EVER GO THERE!

How now do we lived as Delivered?

1. Worship

v. 3: Worship! He put a new song in my mouth

v.5: I will proclaim [your wondrous deeds], and yet they are more than can be told.

v.16: May all who seek you, rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the LORD!”

Put worship in Your Daily Vocabulary

Blue Bird with a Mohawk

Robbie Ray: Cy Young Award winner: I first want to thank God.

Described on Twitter: “Follower of Christ....”

Bring God into the workplace, into your conflict, into your pain, into your blessings, etc.

Example:

“Great work on that Steve”

“Well, thanks boss. I first want to thank God for giving me this opportunity.”

“God is good.”

“The Lord has blessed me.”

“The Lord is with me in this conflict.”

“The Lord gives me strength.”

“Jesus loves you.”

“The Lord bless you.”

Do you do that? Are you capable of inserting the Lord into your daily vocabulary.

!!Salvation Culture!!

2. Authenticity

6  In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,

but you have given me an open ear.

Burnt offering and sin offering

you have not required.

7  Then I said, “Behold, I have come;

in the scroll of the book it is written of me:

8  I delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is within my heart.”

v. 6: BURNT AND SIN OFFERINGS: “These two sets of offerings, then, mark the opposing ends of the spectrum of sacrificial experience in Israel, implying in this context that it is the entire sacrificial system that is at issue here, not just certain sacrifices.” Gerald Wilson NIVAC

You can go through the religious motions, but not be changed on the inside.

Going through motions of religion won’t get you any closer to solid rock living.

v. 8: I delight to do your will, O My God; your law is within my heart.”

Delight=Desire: Law is written in here, not what is expected on the outside, but what is desired on the inside.

Salvation leads to a life of desiring God’s will… Because the law is within my heart. Deep inside...

The same water that blasts us out of the pit is also use to carve God’s law in our hearts!

No self-righteousness allowed!

No Holier than thou attitude

Can’t go through religion without relationship!

Religion motions can be a miry bog! The LORD may need to save you from the motions!

!!Christianity is an inside out religion of an upside down Kingdom!!

And so as we wait and wait and wait for Jesus to come, we must do so with a fresh perspective of what our faith is all about! It’s not about Sunday morning. It’s not about singing songs, long prayers, regular fasting, small groups, mission projects, gatherings, food, our tithes, our service, our dedication to charities, or ability to communicate the Gospel, our participation in Lord’s Supper, getting baptized, or helping the orphan...

All these external acts can mean nothing without a heart transformed on the inside!

Christianity is an inside out religion of an upside down Kingdom!!

Faith and love go hand-in-hand

And so we wait for this Jesus to come back. We wait and we wait and we wait for Jesus to come...

And so we wait, we wait for the upside down Kingdom to be revealed in all his glory, for him to come down, to incline towards us and come down and wait...

We wait and we wait and we wait, with a faith that runs like a river that courses through our souls, with an authentic, integrated faith, where FAITH manufactures genuine worship, and acts of service, and abundant love of God and neighbor!

I have always been a big fan of Psalm 40, partly because I have always been a huge U2 fan.

We wait for the coming of the King to return...

End with Story about U2:

Wedding present: U2 concert:

I waited patiently for the Lord He inclined and heard my cry He lift me up out of the pits Out of the miry clay

I will sing, sing a new song I will sing, sing a new song

How long to sing this song? How long to sing this song? How long, how long, how long How long to sing this song?

While we are singing this song, Bono slowly shines a spot light around the entire stadium… Each person seen, each person recognized in the light. Band members slowly leave the stage, and so the only musician left is the drummer keeping the beat while the entire stadium singing, “How long to sing this song?”

Bono takes the spot light and places it straight up towards the ceiling and leaves the stage… The concert ends with everyone singing “How long to sing this song?” Looking upwards...

And so we can thank U2 for making the Advent connection…

We wait, and we wait, and we wait with a new song, for a very, very long time...

We wait, and we wait, and we wait patiently for the Lord in worship...

The Church has been singing a new song for 2,000 years, and we continue to sing this