Sermon Tone Analysis

So I want to propose to you today… that Amazon has killed my ability to wait.

OK… maybe Amazon is just the expression that my ability to wait has already long been dead.

But somehow it’s become my reality that I cannot wait two days for something that I ordered that used to take two weeks...

And don’t get me started about when they promise one-day shipping at checkout and then it gets delayed… really that seems to happen almost every time…

They also may or may not have killed the ability to wait until Christmas to find out what gifts we will receive...

I would imagine I’m not the only one who has gone to my Amazon wish list… clicked on the item to add it to my cart… just to see if it tells me that someone MAY have already purchased it…

I’m not saying I did that THIS year…

But we seem to have completely lost our ability to wait as a society.

Which is why seasons like advent are so important.

Which is why seasons like advent are so important.

Advent is all about learning to do something most of us hate… but that God often makes us do: and that is to wait.

Series vision: Find the blessing in waiting on the arrival of Jesus Christ.

We are learning in this season that God has designed his blessings to come THROUGH waiting...

And we find that those blessings come… not just when the waiting is over… not JUST when Jesus physically returns… they come through his presence with us IN the waiting.

That his blessings of hope, peace, joy, and love… don’t just come when the waiting is over… they don’t just come when we get what we were waiting for… they come when the presence of Christ arrives and meets us IN our waiting.

That’s exactly what he did in that first Christmas…

He ENTERED INTO our waiting for the Lord… he became Emmanuel… God with us.

The Son of God took on flesh and entered a weary and longing world.

But the wait wasn’t over at that point… he would physically leave… only to return again… that’s our ultimate hope… that’s the ultimate time we are all waiting for…

And yet, even as he left physically, he would still be “Emmanuel, God with us” as he left us with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit…

with the Holy Spirit securing our hope and peace and joy and love until he comes again.

So during this season we are looking at 4 times in the Old Testament when people were WAITING for the arrival of God’s promise and blessing…

Specifically we are tracing the promise of the offspring who was promised in … the one who would conquer the serpent who tempted Eve in the Garden... and who tempts us still today...

Last week we looked at how when we REFUSE to wait… and we follow the impulses of our sinful flesh… we oppose the peace of God in our lives...

And we saw that WAITING on his arrival will BRING peace through worshiping him and living out his calling…

This week we are going to see how waiting upon his arrival brings us this NEXT blessing of joy.

Big Idea: Find superior joy in waiting for the arrival of God's promise.

Big Idea: Find superior joy in waiting for the arrival of God's promise.

Read with me in .

I remember when all three of our baby boys were born… incredible joy...

A lot of fear… a lot of uncertainty… but also a ton of JOY.

I remember when many of YOUR kids were born too… and I remember feeling the joy along with many of YOU.

But I wonder what kind of joy comes after waiting until you are 90 years and 100 years old to give birth to your first son?

…a son who has been promised by God to you for a LONG time… a son who you wondered would ever come…

That’s the type of joy we are going to see in the life of Sarah and Abraham in today.

Read with me in .

There are few things in life more joyful than the arrival of a baby… I remember when all three of our baby boys were born… incredible joy...

I remember when all three of our baby boys were born… incredible joy...

I often say they looked like little aliens because they were born by C-section and looked all scrawny and purple at first… but they were fine…

And surrounding those moments, there is USUALLY a lot of uncertainty… sometimes even a lot of fear… but also a ton of JOY.

I remember when many of YOUR kids were born too… and I remember feeling the joy along with many of YOU.

But I wonder what kind of joy comes after waiting until you are 90 years and 100 years old to give birth to your first son?

…a son who has been promised by God to you for a LONG time… a son who you wondered if he would ever come…

That’s the type of joy we see in the life of Sarah and Abraham in today.

This story is the fulfillment of a long story of waiting for God’s promise.

Much like when you and I have to wait a long time for something, there were times when Abraham and Sarah waited very faithfully...

And there were times when they were.... well let’s just say… more fearful than faithful… and that’s true even after Isaac was born…

And yet we learn from their experience that when God makes a promise, it’s as good as done from the moment he speaks it.

That’s the emphasis of this text… look at verse 1 again: “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.

And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.”

(, ESV)

So if you were reading this text on your own, I would hope you would notice the emphasis through repetition: as he had said… as he had promised… at the time God said it would happen…

I want you to understand that this isn’t about waiting on just any old thing… This is about waiting ONLY on what God has promised.

But this isn’t about waiting on just any old thing...

This is about ONLY waiting on what God has promised.

Sometimes that’s half our problem, isn’t it?

We’re waiting for things… longing for things… that God hasn’t promised us!

We’re focusing all of our attention… all of our energy… on something we want… something that we think will bring us joy and happiness… that isn’t really a part of the story God has for us....

and then we get angry at God because we think he held out on us when he never promised us that thing or experience or emotion in the first place.

Too often we wait and we long for the arrival of things that aren’t really God’s best for us… and then we get angry at God because he held out on us.

And if we WERE to receive it… or if we were to receive it at exactly the time WE want it… it WOULD not be the source of superior joy.

As we learn how to WAIT during this advent season… we need to learn to wait for the right thing.

Not the things that we THINK will bring us hope and joy and peace and love...

Not the picture perfect family gathering on Christmas eve… or just the right presents under the tree...

Not people acting just as we want them to… or having perfect financial security around the holidays…

The thing that will bring SUPERIOR hope and joy and peace and love… is the arrival of Jesus Christ into our waiting.

The right thing to wait for is the coming King and his Kingdom...

That’s why Jesus taught us to pray… “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven...”

The blessings of God come through the arrival of Jesus and his kingdom as we wait.

We are learning to long for his power and presence where we find fullness of joy.

We are learning to long for his power and presence where we find fullness of joy.

And as we wait for the right thing, the blessings of his kingdom will be ours in Christ.

Ultimately, during the advent season, we are learning to wait for the promise we studied on Dec. 2… when Jesus says in Revelation 22...

“Surely I am coming soon.”

[and we are learning to say to that promise] Amen.

Come, Lord Jesus! ( ESV)

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”

Amen.

Come, Lord Jesus! (ESV)

“We are waiting… we are longing… for your arrival!!!”

I’ll be the first to admit that I fail on that MANY MANY MANY days...

But we need to train ourselves to wait for the right thing.

Abraham and Sarah were waiting for the next step in God’s story to unfold… his PROMISE of the birth of their son Isaac…

Ultimately, the promise of Isaac’s birth is part of God’s promise to bring his Son Jesus Christ into the world so that all the nations of the earth might be blessed through him…

Abraham and Sarah and Isaac are Jesus’ direct ancestors…

So we can learn to wait WITH them this morning… and to see the joy that only waiting on the Lord and his promise can bring...

The rest of this passage can be broken down into Abraham’s response, Sarah’s response, and the watching world’s response.

And from each of those responses, I want us to see…

Three Ways to Find Joy in Waiting

1. Abraham’s Response:

V. 3 - Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.

And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

And we learn this first principle of finding joy in the waiting from Abraham: Trade strategizing for submitting.

1. Abraham’s Response: Trade strategizing for the joy of submission.

(v.

3-4)

V. 3 - Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.

And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

(2016).

().

Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Explain: This morning, we are coming into the middle of a story that begins all the way back in .