HOW LONG OH LORD: HOPE WHEN GOD'S SILENT
Good morning Cornerstone family! If you are new with us this morning, thanks so much for joining us. My name is Nic Cook and I’m one of the pastors here at Cornerstone Church in Auburn, IL. I’m so grateful to be able to worship with you this morning. [2]If you haven’t already, I’d like to encourage you to go to www.auburncstone.info and fill out the connection card and let us know you’re here and how we can be praying for you. You can also find sermon notes there for todays message. [3]We’re starting our new Christmas series called THE THRILL OF HOPE. How many of you could use some hope right now? If you’re with others at home go ahead and say out loud “Yes please.” Or you can let us know in the online chat by posting the hand raised emoji! That title is pulled from one of my favorite Christmas songs “Oh Holy Night.” And I think many of the lyrics from this song are appropriate for this time. For example…[4]
- “A WEARY WORLD”: Some of the lyrics say “Long lay the world, in sin and error pining.” LOOOOOOOONG lay the world in a state of not right. It’s pining. That word pining means to suffer a mental and physical decline. People look weary. They look beat up and tired and they’re longing. There is a question that seems like it’s lurking just below the surface of every interaction and conversation. [5]How Much Longer? How Long until things change? And if you’re feeling that way today, I want to tell you you’re in good company. God’s people have asked that question regularly throughout history. There are some lyrics from even older songs that say [6][Ps. 6:3] My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, How Long? [7][Ps. 13:1] How Long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How Long will you hide your face from me? [8]These lyrics are from the book of Psalms and they were sung prayers. Praying God how long?!
- I love that the writers of the Psalms just put it out there and say it out loud. I think far too many times we are afraid to be that honest with God. To tell him, I’m disappointed. God, I feel like you’re far away. God, I feel like you’re not paying attention. We feel like if we say those things that there is something wrong with our faith. We feel like God might get angry if we say those things. But the psalms remind us that we have a relationship with the God of the universe, He is our Father and we are his children. As his kids, he wants to hear what’s on our hearts and minds, the good and the bad. Once we have given God what is on our hearts, I believe we’re in a better place to hear what’s on his heart. We’ve released our emotion and are more receptive to listening to truth. So, this morning, I want to carve out some space for that. We’re going to hit pause for 1 minute of silence and let you pray silently and honestly- [9]God I’m: disappointed, angry, hurting, frustrated, numb, tired,…(whatever you need to say to him) (Pause 1 min.) God we all come here this morning in need of you. We want to hear your voice. We want to experience your presence. Speak to us. Make yourself known. Help us to see that you are with us, for us, and working all things for our good and for your glory. Amen. [10]
(TEACH/APP) WORSHIPPING, PRAYING, DOUBTING
THE CHRISTMAS STORY STARTS WITH A WEARY WORLD THAT IS PINING: Our bibles are made up of two major sections. The Old Testament which tells of how God is preparing the world for the coming of Jesus. And the New Testament which tells us about how the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus changes everything. But if you look at where the Old Testament Ends and the New Testament begins there is simply a blank page. The Old Testament ends with a man named Malachi being given a message from God to give to his people. It says [11][Mal. 4:5-6]. Basically, the message is, pay attention, God is coming to set things right soon. Before he comes back though, he’s going to send someone who is going to remind the world that it has turned away from God. He’ll call them to quit running away from God and stop acting like they are God. So, the Jewish people think, okay, God’s coming back soon! And then nothing. [12]That’s the last message they get from God for 400 years. 400 years of silence from God. For 400 years the Jewish people are waiting to hear from God. They are clinging to the last promise God made. During that time they kept hoping God would come back and defeat the empire that was ruling them. First it was the Persian empire. Maybe God will come back and defeat them and establish his kingdom forever. Then the Greek empire conquered both the Persians and took overruling over the Jewish people. Maybe God will come back and defeat the Greeks and set up his empire. Then the Greek empire fell, and the Jewish people were caught between the Kingdom of Egypt and the Kingdoms of Syria. Maybe God will come in and defeat both those kingdoms and establish his own. Only to find out that the Roman Empire would rise and conquer everyone. Much like today, I believe God’s people were probably asking and wondering HOW LONG O LORD? Have you forgotten about us? Are you going to do something about our circumstances? You promised to be with us! You promised you were going to build your kingdom. This is where the book of Luke’s story of Christmas begins.
[Lk. 1:5-25] [13-23] God has been silent for 400 years and when he decides to finally deliver a message, he sends an angel to a man named Zechariah. There are three things we hear about Zechariah and his wife. The first is that they’re called righteous in God’s eyes. That doesn’t mean perfect. It means that they did their very best to love God and love others. These are good people. They live well, they love well. The second thing we hear is that they had no children because Elizabeth couldn’t conceive. And the last thing we’re told is that they’re very old. The bible gives us a short but profound picture of good people who live well, but have lived for a long time with the disappointment that life didn’t look like they had hoped. There is a tendency when our lives don’t look like we had hoped, the danger is to wonder, did I do something wrong? Did I make God angry? And we’re told that God wasn’t punishing them for sin. They had lived well. The other danger is to be mad with God when we’re disappointed with the way our lives have gone and become disillusioned and cynical. INSTEAD we see Zechariah…[24]
- WORSHIPPING: We’re told that in [1:8] that Zechariah in his old age is serving as a priest. After years and years of disappointment, instead of giving up on God, instead of walking away, we see him faithfully worshipping God. He has decided he will worship God regardless of how his dreams and desires have been fulfilled or met. He is still meeting with God’s people, still offering sacrifices, still singing and celebrating God’s goodness at the festivals. Still leading those in in worship on Sabbath. He has spent years worshipping God instead of wallowing in pity and disappointment. We also see him…[25]
- PRAYING: Here we have Zechariah standing in the temple. His job that day was to take incense and put it on the fire that was in a special altar in the temple. This is the original Essential Oils. This incense is made out of a resin and mixed with fragrant oils like frankincense, cinnamon, and others, and when it burned it represented the prayers of God’s people. As he did this, he was to say a prayer to God on the behalf of the Jewish people. Often the prayers associated with ceremonies in the temple would have been for God to forgive his people, for God to be with his people, for God to bring the king from David’s line that would establish his kingdom and rule forever. But there is another prayer indicated here as well. The word for prayer that is translated “your prayer has been heard” is actually better translated “your continual prayer has been heard”. What has Zechariah been praying for continually throughout his entire life? He’s been praying for a child. Zechariah doesn’t seem to believe that God has said no to his prayer for a child, so he has continued to pray for years. So, when the angel says your prayer has been answered, the question is, WHICH PRAYER? My prayer for a child, or my prayer for God to forgive us, to be with us, and to send his king and build his kingdom? And the answer is YES! YES to your prayer for a son, yes to your prayer for forgiveness, yes to your prayer for me to present with my people, yes to your prayer for me to send my King, yes to your prayer for me to establish my kingdom. I believe that as Luke look writes about Zechariah and his wife Sarah, he gives us a beautiful…[26]
- A PICTURE OF WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO ACTIVELY WAIT: They had every reason to be disappointed, they had every reason to feel like God was distant, they had every reason to be longing for the world to be made right. They could have gotten bitter, and cynical, and given up and moved on. Instead, they clung to the promises of God. They trusted even when they couldn’t see that God was still working and moving. But they didn’t sit back and wait. They actively waited by worshipping God and thanking him for the blessings they could see. They actively waited by praying for God to move, and asking him to work in their lives. And they prayed, and prayed, and prayed, and prayed, even when things seemed impossible. There are two kinds of waiting. There is passive waiting where you sit back and hope things happen, and there is active waiting where you trust God to do the things you can’t, and engage in the things you can, like worship and prayer. Now I want to be careful not to hold Zechariah up as a perfect example. He is also quite like us because we see him…[27]
- DOUBTING: Zechariah says, how can this be that I’m going to have a kid, I’m an old man? And the Angels response is [28][Lk. 19-20] Some of you are thinking, I know a couple of people I wish God would make mute. It seems like an honest question. God this seems pretty crazy, old people don’t make babies. I know how biology works and we’re past those days. [29]As much faith as Zechariah had, there were still things he doubted that even God could do. As mature as he was, he still needed to grow. Oh yea, God, you gave Abraham a baby when he was a hundred, but that was way back then. You don’t still do miracles today. So God takes away his ability to speak. This struck me this week as I studied this. As a priest, what was Zechariah’s job? Teach them scripture. Facilitate worship and pray over people. And what could he not do as someone who was mute? Teach scripture or facilitate worship. [30]God made it impossible for Zechariah to do the things he would have spent his time doing so that he had to simply sit back and watch God work.
- Talk about relevant to a pastor who was utterly incapable of doing anything for 3 weeks due to being really sick with Covid. Sit back and watch God work while you can’t. Take this as a time to spend less time doing and more time observing God at work. I can’t help but think that for many of us, Covid has been a time where our self-sufficiency has been stripped from us, our ability to live normally has gone away, and God is inviting us to trust that he’s at work even if things seem impossible. This morning I want to close with two major take-aways. If you find yourself in a place of asking How Long? And it seems like God is silent, we have a beautiful example of how to…[31]
(NXT/INSP) ACTIVELY WAIT BY WORSHIPPING, AND PRAYING
Keep worshipping God. Make reading his word and his promises a daily habit. Often times people wonder why God seems silent, yet they haven’t opened their bibles. This Christmas season is a great time to start reading the book of Luke. 1 Chapter a day will take you through the entire gospel and be a great reminder of why we celebrate Christmas. Make singing or meditating on truth part of your daily habit. Put together a spotify playlist of your favorite music. Worship while you drive, take it into the bathroom and play it while you shower.
Keep Praying. Pray for God to speak. Pray for the ability to see him working. Pray that you would experience his presence. Pray for others who are hurting. Pray even when you don’t feel like it. Pray when it seems like God is silent. The truth that Zechariah heard is still true for us today. “your continual prayers have been heard.” He doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we think they should be, but he always answers our prayers in the ways that are best for us and in his timing. The second takeaway is that even during that 400 years of what seemed like silence, as people are crying out, how long o Lord, God was at work…[32]
(JC) GUIDING THE WORLD TOWARDS JESUS IN THE SILENCE
We talked about this in our sermon series on Daniel, but during that 400 years as empires rose and fall, they each put a major piece in the puzzle of God’s plan in place. The Persian empire conquered the Babylonian empire and let God’s people return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. They were conquered by the Greek Empire. The Greek Empire brought their educational system to all the people they conquered and taught them the Greek language. The Roman Empire conquered everyone and built a roadway system that connected the vast empire together so people could travel easily and quickly. And each one of those things had to happen so that when God sent a baby to be born from Jewish parents in their homeland, and he could grow up and offer himself as a sacrifice and replace the temple, and when he rose again from the dead, his disciples could spread the message in the Greek language, and that message could travel all over the entire known world using Roman roads, so that it could spread across into England, and Africa, and to America, to Auburn IL where we are today! His plan was not just for jews living in Palestine to be saved, it was for the whole world to know Jesus, and it took time for the pieces to be in place.
Hear me, we will all have moments, maybe months, maybe even years where God seems distant and silent. But he is always at work. [32]Our Hope is in the God who not only works in minutes and moments, but also over months, years, and millennia. We have a long-term God that we can worship as he is working behind the scenes. So, as we wait, we keep worshipping and keep praying. Let’s do just that… Let’s pray and let’s worship together.
(DISC) SHARING STRUGGLES, CELEBRATING SUCCESSES (US)
- How do you think God might be working during Covid?
- Have you ever felt like God was distant or silent? What was that like?
- Have you been able to look back and see how he worked through that experience?
- During Covid, has this been a season of active or passive waiting?