While We Wait
a sermon on the spiritual formation of waiting delivered by a visiting missionary pastor who operates Outreach Ministries in Sivakasi, India
This is the second of two sermon reflections for Sunday November 16th. The theme of this week’s sermon focuses on waiting, and Pastor Joseph Stanley Salvaraj, a visiting missionary pastor from Sivakasi, India, delivered this sermon.
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Isaiah 40:31 :: but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Pastor Joseph’s father was a church founder, inspired by a Canadian man who travelled to India 55 years ago to preach the gospel. Pastor Joseph started his ministry in 2012 in India. Opportunities to preach Christianity are limited in India, and Pastor Joseph goes on TV each week and receives many prayer requests. Pastor Joseph thinks that the 1.3 billion people in India need to know the Lord.
image by Osama Saeed via Unsplash
What are you waiting for?
Many of us are waiting for something in life. When we experience a waiting season it can feel uncomfortable and sometimes awful. We want things to move fast and happen right now now. When we wait on the lord we receive strength.
Yet, we cannot avoid or escape the season of waiting. It’s a vital part of the human condition. Waiting provides a kind of spiritual formation. With what spiritual aroma do we wait? Do we wait in hope? Do we wait in discouragement? The Lord works in our season of waiting. Discouragement leads to disappointment. Disappointment leads to lowered expectation, and ultimately to lack of faith. The earthly demonic forces want to discourage us, want to see us demoralised, want to crush us with despondency. Demonic forces distance us from G-d by weakening our faith. We forget Him. Living in the disappointment leads us to dark places.
Pastor Joseph’s son was sick with a cough. Impatient to reassure himself about his son’s health, the pastor googled the symptoms. Bad idea. The information overload, and his inability to discern relevant from superfluous information, led him to a dark place. Fear filled him, it edged out faith in G-d. Disappointment weakens our faith and this opens the door for the demonic—it energises them. Discouragement taking root in your heart invites the darkness of the evil. It causes us to turn away from and forget G-d.
When frightened and discouraged we tend to lean towards filling the emptiness of pur doubts with information overload. Misuse of information, like anything else, causes harm.
What did the psalmist say in Psalm 23:4?
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil;
for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.
It doesn’t matter where we are, it matters who is with us. G-d within us > who is with us in the world. Jesus Take the Wheel!
The Bible regales us with tales of the endangered, facing deadly challenges, having only faith in G-d to sustain them. Think of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego surviving the fiery furnace into which King Nebuchadnezzar tossed them fr refusing to bow down to his golden idol. Can we give the control to g-d? Can we let go of the things beyond our control?
Your rod and staff comfort me … rod refers to authority. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. G-d is with us, the end is joy. Give control to g-d. Hold onto the Word.Remember gratitude, especially for little things. Pastor Joseph spoke of a person he knows having lived through poverty and drought, and gone without water for a period of time, who now prays over water.
Demonic energies push negativity, with a view to breeding discouragement amongst humanity. What were you praying for a decade ago? Are you there now? Are you living in your dream now? 1 Thessalonians 5:18 instructs us to be grateful as you wait and even when you don’t get what you want.
artwork Checkmate, 1831, by Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch
The Checkmate painting tells a powerful story. There’s one more move for each player. Who thinks he’s winning? Who thinks he’s losing? G-d has one more move. Are you willing to allow Him that one more move?
G-d is with us. This is not the end. The end is joy.
Did the man from 55 years ago who went to India to preach know the reach he would have? Can any of us know the reach we will have? No.
“As for me and my house we will serve the lord.” G-d remembers. He doesn’t forget.