Wait Upon the Lord

4 November 2015

Opening Prayer/Worship

Hymn: Rock of Ages, Cleft of Me

Theme: Spirit of Life

Topic: Wait Upon the Lord

Reading: Isaiah 25:6-9

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear. ⁷ And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; ⁸ he will swallow up death for ever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. ⁹ It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Introduction

Waiting for something or for a situation to improve is not an easy experience; and waiting upon the Lord could be particularly challenging.  As the Church militant, our waiting on the Lord are two-folds: for a new heaven and a new earth, as well as for God’s peace and blessings in our present life.  Our focus in this study will be on the latter.  When we go through situations that can only be resolved by God, we could begin to wonder why divine intervention is taking so long.  As believers, our faith can be stretched to near-breaking point; but we should remember that God is not man that He should lie to us. Whatever He promises will surely come to pass.  God promised Abraham that He would bless him with an heir through Sarah.  Although it took several decades before Isaac, the promised child was born; God’s word still came to pass.  Waiting upon the Lord can be tough, but through the help of the Holy Spirit, we will keep waiting until He answers our prayer according to His purpose for us in Christ Jesus.

Questions/Discussion

1) What does it mean to wait upon the Lord? 

Psalm 27:1-14

¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 

² When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh—
my adversaries and foes—they shall stumble and fall. 

³ Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident. 

⁴ One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:
to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. 

⁵ For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
   he will set me high on a rock. 

⁶ Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord. 

⁷ Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
⁸ ‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek his face!’ Your face, Lord, do I seek.
⁹   Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help.
Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!
¹⁰ If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up. 

¹¹ Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
¹² Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence. 

¹³ I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

Isaiah 55:6-13

⁶ Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; ⁷ let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. ⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. ⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. ¹⁰ For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, ¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. ¹² For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. ¹³ Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. 

Daniel 3:13-20, 24-30

Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought in; so they brought those men before the king. ¹⁴Nebuchadnezzar said to them, ‘Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods and you do not worship the golden statue that I have set up? ¹⁵Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble to fall down and worship the statue that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?’ ¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defence to you in this matter. ¹⁷If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.¹⁸But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.’ ¹⁹ Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace to be heated up seven times more than was customary, ²⁰and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. ²⁴ Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counsellors, ‘Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?’ They answered the king, ‘True, O king.’ ²⁵He replied, ‘But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god.’ ²⁶Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, ‘Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!’ So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. ²⁷And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counsellors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics were not harmed, and not even the smell of fire came from them. ²⁸Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed the king’s command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. ²⁹Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that utters blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins; for there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.’ ³⁰Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

2) Is God’s answer to our prayers and supplications ever late? 

John 11:32-44

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ ³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’³⁵Jesus began to weep. ³⁶So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’³⁷But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’ ³⁸ Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ ⁴⁰Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ ⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ ⁴³When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

Psalm 24:1-10

Refrain: Lift up your heads, O gates; and the King of glory shall come in.

The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world and all who dwell therein. For it is he who founded it upon the seas and made it firm upon the rivers of the deep. R "Who can ascend the hill of the Lord? and who can stand in his holy place?" "Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who have not pledged themselves to falsehood, nor sworn by what is a fraud. R They shall receive a blessing from the Lord and a just reward from the God of their salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, of those who seek your face, O God of Jacob. R Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them high, O everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. "Who is this King of glory?" "The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle." R Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them high, O everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. "Who is he, this King of glory?" "The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." R

3) What are the benefits of waiting upon the Lord? 

Numbers 23:18-24

Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying:
‘Rise, Balak, and hear;
   listen to me, O son of Zippor:
God is not a human being, that he should lie,
   or a mortal, that he should change his mind.
Has he promised, and will he not do it?
   Has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it?
See, I received a command to bless;
   he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob;
   nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
The Lord their God is with them,
   acclaimed as a king among them.
God, who brings them out of Egypt,
   is like the horns of a wild ox for them.
Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob,
   no divination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
   “See what God has done!”
Look, a people rising up like a lioness,
   and rousing itself like a lion!
It does not lie down until it has eaten the prey
   and drunk the blood of the slain.’

Isaiah 40:27-31

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 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.

Revelation 21:1-6A

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. 

Intercession/Worship

Conclusion

Waiting upon the Lord can be tough, but through the help of the Holy Spirit, we will keep waiting until He answers our prayer according to His purpose for us in Christ Jesus.

Closing Prayer (Collect for All Saints Day)

Almighty God, whose people are knit together in one holy Church, the mystical Body of your Son, grant us grace to follow your blessed saints in lives of faith and commitment, and to know the inexpressible joys you have prepared for those who love you; through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.