Sermon: Waiting on God
Scripture: Psalm 80:1-7; 17-19
Today, we wait. We are wrestling with the reality that we desperately need God’s rescue in our lives. This is the beauty of Advent. It is a story the church replays year after year: when hope seems most distant and most faint, when joy is the furthest thing from our mind, when peace seems but a dream God steps into the picture.
In Psalm 80, God’s people are in trouble, and they know it. They have replaced hope in God with hope in the world and it is not working out for them. In Psalm 80 they are imploring God to act on their behalf to save them.
They have tried everything else for a rescue but found nothing works. Remember the cry of the Minor Prophets? They were constantly lamenting the fact that God’s people were consistently running away from God by looking for someone/something to rescue them. After generations of being led astray by kings who didn’t follow God and by evil prophets who had stopped giving God’s message, there arose a longing and anticipation that God would do something to stop the lostness. Whatever was going on inside of them, they needed God to step in and fix the problem.
This Psalm communicates that unless God acts on the people’s behalf, it is HOPELESS.
By remembering God’s past, the people are faithfully hopeful that God will act again just like he had in the past...
And guess what? God heard their cry. Just like he hears ours...
The story of hope in the Advent season is that God hears and delivers...
He delivers today just like he did yesterday. Instead of running to everything else for rescue, he desires for us to run to him. In his presence, we’ll find our rescue...
What do you need to bring to him? God is faithful. Trust in him. Rest in him. He won't let you down.
Scripture: Psalm 80:1-7; 17-19
Today, we wait. We are wrestling with the reality that we desperately need God’s rescue in our lives. This is the beauty of Advent. It is a story the church replays year after year: when hope seems most distant and most faint, when joy is the furthest thing from our mind, when peace seems but a dream God steps into the picture.
In Psalm 80, God’s people are in trouble, and they know it. They have replaced hope in God with hope in the world and it is not working out for them. In Psalm 80 they are imploring God to act on their behalf to save them.
They have tried everything else for a rescue but found nothing works. Remember the cry of the Minor Prophets? They were constantly lamenting the fact that God’s people were consistently running away from God by looking for someone/something to rescue them. After generations of being led astray by kings who didn’t follow God and by evil prophets who had stopped giving God’s message, there arose a longing and anticipation that God would do something to stop the lostness. Whatever was going on inside of them, they needed God to step in and fix the problem.
This Psalm communicates that unless God acts on the people’s behalf, it is HOPELESS.
By remembering God’s past, the people are faithfully hopeful that God will act again just like he had in the past...
And guess what? God heard their cry. Just like he hears ours...
The story of hope in the Advent season is that God hears and delivers...
He delivers today just like he did yesterday. Instead of running to everything else for rescue, he desires for us to run to him. In his presence, we’ll find our rescue...
What do you need to bring to him? God is faithful. Trust in him. Rest in him. He won't let you down.