December 8 & 9, 2001 Sermon

Decemmber 8 & 9, 2001

"Can't Hardly Wait"

Mike Slaughter

Luke 1:21-23
21: Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple.
22: When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
23: When his time of service was completed, he returned home.

Why is waiting so hard? It's human nature. Carolyn and I recently discussed subscribing to a high-speed Internet connection service. She called and it costs $45 per month. We've not signed up for it yet because that's 500 dollars per year more than basic cable. They can get by with charging that because we can't stand to wait.
We are all about getting faster because we associate wasting with waiting. This is creating a new phenomenon in our culture. We demand fast food and at the same time we want slow cooked taste. As people of God we are called to not only be faithful but fruitful. To be wombs through which God can birth God-life to other people. Babies don't come overnight. Miracles grow. There is a time of waiting between the promise of God and the birth of the baby.

Luke 1:21
21: Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple.

We are in Luke 1:21. Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were faithful. They showed up every week at the temple when they were expected to show up. They were participative when they were asked to participate. They gave when they were asked to give. They were faithful but they were barren. An angel of the Lord by the name of Gabriel appeared to Zechariah when he was in the temple. Many of us have heard God's voice when we come here and it's like one of those 'Aha' moments God has for our life. But because he didn't believe that God would do anything extraordinary through his life, he became mute. He lost the power of his witness. Verse 21. "Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah in the parking lot and wondered at his delay. "Hurry up! We are going out to eat. We're gonna miss the 7:05 show." When he did come out, he could not speak to them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. When his time of service was ended, he went to his home."
You've had that unexpected moment. You've come to church. God showed up in a unique way. You heard God's promise and then you had to go home. That's the way it works. God showed up last weekend. We had a great worship celebration. I went home Sunday afternoon, and I was down. This happens at other times in my life, too. You come and you've had an experience of God and maybe the next couple of days you go through a little time of depression. What do you do when you have heard the promise of God and you still don't see the baby? That in-between time, the time when you are waiting for a miracle.

I. Midwife Not a Magician
I am really excited because God is teaching me a lot about faith, miracles, and waiting. God is teaching me that God is a midwife, not a magician. In a quick fix, fast food, immediate gratification, instant cure, right now culture we can tend to look to God as a magician. Miracles are not magic. Like pregnancies, miracles take time. Miracles grow.
Men, I think this is one of the reasons that we have more problems than women do with this spiritual thing. Women understand pregnancy. The Bible says that this Jesus thing is like going through the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in us. This is why men have problems with this. We don't know what the pain of childbirth is all about. We are immediate, bottom-line people. Miracles are not magic. God has to grow a miracle in you before God can birth a miracle through you. God has to grow truth in you before God can demonstrate truth through you. Any pregnancy depends upon fertility, and fertility is tied to cycles or certain days of the month. So here is a question we all have to ask ourselves. Men, this is going to be a little unique for us but God wants to stretch us. What time in your life are you most receptive to God? There are different rhythms in our week, different rhythms in our days. I'm a morning person. I am most receptive to God early in the morning. When are you most receptive to hearing God? When are you most open to what God wants to do in you? Sometimes in my day, sometimes in the seasons of my life, I am a little selfish and self-centered. Sometimes we are just so needy that we are not fertile for God to grow miracles in. So before a miracle can ever happen, you have to be receptive to what God wants to do. When you are fertile, when you are open, conception can take place. In the first chapter of Acts we read that the disciples had been hanging out with Jesus for three years. They had shown up. They had participated. Jesus said that was not enough. Being faithful is not the same as being fruitful. Participating is not the same thing as knowing the power of God. He said, "Don't leave Jerusalem. Wait." There's that word "wait." It's hard for me to wait. I'm almost tempted to spend that $45 a month for the high speed Internet connection. "Don't leave Jerusalem until you have received what the Father has promised - the Holy Spirit." God not only wants to work through you, God wants to work in you.
This Christian life is a supernatural life. Those necklaces and bracelets that say "What Would Jesus Do" are everywhere. Ask yourself what Jesus would do. A lot of times I know what Jesus would do. My problem is, I just can't do it. For example, sometimes I'll see people who in some way have hurt me in the past and I've still got these feelings inside. It's really not their problem, it's my problem. Before God can work through me, God has to work in me. This Christian life is a supernatural life. Literally it is about the presence of the life of God growing in you. When we are born of the Spirit, when Jesus Christ comes into your life, it's like an embryo. In that embryo you have all of the fullness of God - everything that God will ever become - but it is still an embryo. When you become pregnant in that first trimester you don't even know what it is. It may be some period of days before you even realize you are pregnant. Then it's some time before you figure out if it's a boy or a girl. Back in the dark ages, when Carolyn and I had children, we didn't know the sex until they came out. But now you can tell fairly early. As I yield myself to this new life that is growing in me, this life begins to mature. Just as a child begins to grow and take on the characteristics of their parent, I begin to demonstrate the DNA of my heavenly parent. As I yield myself and nurture this new life that is growing in me, I begin to think more like Jesus. I begin to take on the priorities of Jesus. I act as my heavenly parent. We are not going to have the power of God coming out of us if the life of God is not growing in us. It is only through the Spirit of God that you will be able to demonstrate the attitude of God.
Pregnancy is a process. That's why waiting is critical to the fulfillment of full-term faith. There are two kinds of waiting. The first kind of waiting is not biblical but it is what we do many times. We find ourselves settling into a routine and we come to expect the expected. We show up, but we don't really expect God to show up in extraordinary ways. We pray, but we don't really expect God to answer our prayers in extraordinary ways. In passive waiting, you have heard the promise of God and you are just sitting there waiting for God to fulfill the promise. You get stuck in a moment.

II. Active Waiting
The second kind of waiting is what the Bible means when it says to wait upon the Lord. Active waiting. As a matter of fact, when the Bible uses the words, "Wait upon the Lord," it means to serve the Lord. It is the same word that we use for waiter or waitress. A waiter or waitress does not sit there waiting for the food to serve itself. To wait on the Lord is a period in your life when you are serving the Lord between the promise of God and the delivery of the baby.
When Carolyn and I became pregnant with our kids we did not just sit there and wait for babies to show up. We actively committed ourselves to prenatal care. You have to nurture this miracle. You have to nurture this new life growing within you. We did whatever we could to ensure healthy delivery and avoid premature birth, which would minimize the chances of our children's survival. We started reading books. We went to classes. We weren't just sitting waiting for a baby to show up. We committed ourselves to actively serving this new life within us.
The first thing you do in active waiting is to change your focus. We had to pay attention to what we were eating. We learned things about sodium. When we went out to dinner, only one of us had a glass of wine. All of a sudden there wasn't anymore Coke or Diet Coke. I think this was the dark ages - before caffeine free. We didn't even think about vitamins until we got pregnant. Neither of us right now pays much attention to sleep. It's not as big a deal as when you are responsible for this new life that is growing in you. Pregnancy is a time of growing up - for both of you. You better be growing up because everything you did in this relationship between a husband and wife was pretty well focused around the relationship of the husband and wife. Now it's not about you. Now you are focused on nurturing this new life that is growing in you. It's in you but it's really not you. God is trying to teach us right now that God wants to do a great thing. You have to realize that when God does that great thing it's not so people will look at you and say, 'Whoa, aren't you something.' When Elizabeth finally gave birth, people didn't say, 'Look at Zechariah and Elizabeth,' they said, 'God is great! God is good.'
This time of active waiting is a time of learning. While we actively serve God we are learning to trust and depend upon God. We have overemphasized the importance of the word belief. We keep talking about belief. It's not about believing, it's about trusting and depending. We can believe in God and at the same time not really trust and depend upon God. I can believe in God and I can trust my own ability. I can believe in God but I can draw my security from my job and my 401K. This is why this time of waiting is so important. We keep repeating the same mistakes in our lives because we don't really trust and depend upon God. Some of you keep getting into the wrong relationships because you can't trust God with your loneliness. You get a divorce from a mistake and then you marry the same kind of mistake. It might look different but it's the same mistake. The reason we keep getting hooked up in the wrong relationship is because we can't trust God with our loneliness.
Some of you who made a commitment to get out of debt this Christmas are getting deeper into debt because you can't trust God with your needs. We stay in unfulfilling jobs and wrong jobs because we can't trust God with our calling. A believer is supposed to believe. A follower is supposed to follow. This time of active waiting is really a time of unlearning. In this time between the promise you've heard and the delivery of God's miracle, it seems like you've got to go backwards. Every spring I prune my trees. Carolyn looks and says, "What have you done? You've killed it." We go through this every spring. You don't prune a tree to kill it. You prune it to thicken it and allow healthy growth to take place. In three to four weeks God proves me right.
The Bible calls this a waiting period - going through the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. It's not about believing in God. We need to learn to trust and depend on God. You see what God's doing in this time of waiting because you come here and you hear God speak. But then you've got to go home. You have the promise of God and you are waiting for the miracle of God. What God needs to do in this time is to increase the why in our lives. If the why in your life is not big enough, you'll be tempted to abort the miracle. The why is the compelling reason you are committed to something. The stronger and more compelling the purpose, the greater the passion, focus and creative flow of faith and energy that will come through your life. God has to increase the why. You know there are so few people in the world who are enthusiastic. You can go by people every day and it's like they are just existing. They never feel up and they never feel down. They are just flat lining through life. On an EKG, that's called dead. Enthusiasm comes from two Greek words - en theos, in God. When you are enthusiastic, God increases the why in your life.
Just a few years ago, a group of people in this church decided that I should leave. They wrote the bishop letters and everything. It was hard on me. It was so painful that if the why wasn't big enough in my life I would have left. I would have aborted the miracle. That's what this time of active waiting is for - for God to increase the why in our life. One thing that we have learned from the Taliban since September 11 is that there is a difference between what we believe and our convictions. Convictions are your passions, what you really care about. I can believe things that I am not passionate about. With all of the technology and military power of America, some third world religious fundamentalist can create global panic and affect economic markets with a few zealous converts and ten dollars worth of box cutters. Think about that for a minute. There is a difference between what we believe and convictions. To come to a place of full-term faith, God has to increase the why in your life.
Every one of us needs a God-sized initiative. A God-sized initiative is a life cause that is more than you can accomplish in your own strength and resources. A God-sized initiative is something that is large enough, broad enough, and Christ-empowered enough to live beyond you into the future generations for the honor of God. That is exactly what came through Zechariah and Elizabeth. Zechariah was just a little, timid, temple servant until God showed up. God nurtured that vision and Zechariah literally became the channel through which John the Baptist heralded the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have known Cheryl Bender since she was in the eighth grade. She grew up in this church. When I first came here I worked with the youth. You know - little church where I was the pastor, youth pastor, secretary, janitor. I worked with her because my whole mission statement is to connect people to their God destiny. Cheryl Bender and her husband Richard, a social worker and a banker, are two people who have focused. They are two people that have a clear God-sized initiative. They are the driving forces behind our Clubhouse ministry, our inner city ministry with kids.
Cheryl Bender:
"The mission of Clubhouse is basically training and equipping teens to go out and be the hands and feet of Jesus. Going to neighborhoods that a lot of adults probably wouldn't go into. At risk neighborhoods. These kids are discipled. These kids become attached to the teens and not only do they have one teen each week, they have three or four different teens - one each day that they really get to know. I believe it was in 1989 that a teen who had been on a mission trip and really got a lot of inspiration in service, came back and wanted to do that on an ongoing basis. That teen just took the initiative to get some bikes and go down to Dayton and start riding with kids at Parkside. And as his passion grew he got more teens involved and as relationships with these kids started to form it was just magical. As the Clubhouse has grown, there are 200 plus teens each year. But weekly there are approximately 70 teenagers that are giving one day a week to touch these kids lives. It is just amazing over the last ten years how our teens have really touched those kids. I would say Clubhouse has empowered over 900 teens to go out and do local ministry. They have started Clubhouses in Cincinnati, which has been going on since 1992, in Oxford at Miami University, and there are five Clubhouses in South Carolina. It's just amazing. What keeps me going in Clubhouse is that somebody, when I was a teenager, gave me tons of opportunities for service and touching other peoples lives with what God has blessed me. I just know that God has called me to equip teenagers to go out and experience God through service. I don't think I could do anything else because it's in my blood. This is why I am here on earth, to equip young people to go out and serve."
That's called increasing the why. God has to increase the why because if the why is not big enough you'll abort the mission. God is teaching me that before I'll ever see the delivery of the baby at Ginghamsburg Church, I have to make the commitment to go full term. Last weekend as I was driving away from here, I felt depressed and I was down. I came in and shared this with the staff team this week. See if you can connect to me in an emotional way or if you can understand this. God showed me a long time ago a picture of what God wants to do here. God is working in neat ways but we are not yet to the fulfillment of that picture. And I'm thinking, what is taking so long, God? I was supposed to be almost done by now. By 55 my plan was to be out of here and go to another more exciting place in the country. I had an opportunity a few years ago to go to San Diego and be dean of a seminary. I said, "Not yet. Give me a few more years. Let the miracle be done." Here I am at fifty and here is what I hear the Lord saying to me. "The picture I have for you at Ginghamsburg Church is probably going to take the commitment of your lifetime." I'm thinking, "But, God, that means I'm going to have to surrender my expectations." "Well, Mike, let me tell you something. Your expectations are pretty good. But mine are great. Mine are perfect." The one who is willing to lose their life for Christ's sake will find it. When Jesus said we must be born again He was not talking about belief. He was talking about abandonment. To abandon your expectations. To abandon every other source of security that you have in your life. You are not going to lose in that deal because God's expectations for you are perfect. God's expectations are great. It's when we come to the place of abandonment and commit our lifetime to the picture that God has given us that the promise of God will be fulfilled in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's pray. I want to give you the opportunity to search the priorities of your life. Be honest about the places where you draw your security. Then abandon - let go. To move from belief to trust and dependence, regardless of your background and what you've believed or not believed in the past. Everything Jesus promises is yes. All we need to do is abandon. Abandon your expectations for His expectations. Come, Lord Jesus, - come long-expected Jesus. Come into our life anew. We trust You. We trust You for what You are going to do in us as we go through those pains of childbirth, to become more like You. And through us, that the world may have life. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.