Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to our Madison Church online audience. I'm Stephen Feith lead pastor. For those of you, you don't have to know me super well to know that I have never, ever been good at waiting. That's not what I'm known for. Nobody's ever described me as a patient human being. I'm ready to move if I have a rough sense of what needs to happen. I don't need the whole picture, I just barely need a feeling and I'll go after it. I usually don't sit around and weighing options. This is why we have boards at Madison Church to help us with the finances and the spiritual direction.

Speaker 1: 0:36

I never, ever wait for peace. I'm a big kind of believer that when I look at my favorite characters out of the Bible, they never waited for peace to do something, they just went and did it, and so that's become like core theology to me. I speak and act quickly, most of the time without thinking it all the way through my wife's in the back. She can vow. Just for those of you who don't know me, I've said things that didn't need to be said, even though they were true. I've made decisions that have caused more damage than progress, and it's not because I'm a reckless person. That's just who I am. I don't think it's either good or bad, although it can lead to good things and it can lead to bad things. But you know, every now and then I do the opposite. Sometimes I wait too long. Every now and then I do the opposite. Sometimes I wait too long. This year, as I've been learning and growing, I've learned that when it comes to people and relationships, this is an area of my own life that I wait too long, I take more time than I should and I stay in unhealthy relationships because I tell myself I can help. I will be the difference. If I don't help, who will help? And maybe if I'm just patient enough. Again, no other part of my life do I care about that, but in this part, if I'm just patient enough, it will turn around and what I end up doing and if you're like me, you end up carrying other people's emotions that aren't yours or mine to carry. I don't walk away when I should, and it's not because I'm dumb I'd like to think that I'm of average intelligence but it's because I feel responsible. I feel responsible not just as a human being who lives on planet earth with you, but I feel responsible as the pastor of this church and we're in community together and I've got to be the front guy, the top guy, and I've got to watch out and go to battle with you every time. And I'm working through all of this in therapy. My therapist loves seeing me every Friday to catch up on the drama that is my real life. I asked her point blank on Friday. I said how much do you look forward to me coming in on Friday? And she said well, I'm not allowed to answer that, but you're not far off. So that's great.

Speaker 1: 2:49

Some of you, you live in this tension with me, how you want to rush forward but you hold back. Now others of you live differently. I know I think for a lot of you you don't resonate with anything I just described. Moving forward. You want clarity. You need it before you're going to move forward. You want confirmation, some sort of cosmic sign of certainty, before you're going to do anything, before you do something. You're not disobedient. That's not what I'm saying, that's not what I'm trying to suggest at all. You're just cautious and you don't want to get it wrong, and so you'd rather not move at all and stay where you are than move forward and possibly risk getting it wrong. And that's what this series In the Waiting is all about.

Speaker 1: 3:35

In life there are a lot of in-between spaces and, as I mentioned last week, I want to mention it again. I know many in our community. You're watching or listening online. You're in an in-between space right now. You're not where you were, but you're not yet where you're going, and this space in between is challenging and it's difficult. There's the tension of not knowing, but there's also the danger of not doing anything. Whether we're a person who pushes too hard or you're a person who hesitates too long, we all have places in our lives where we get stuck and God meets us there. God isn't just where we've been and God isn't just where we're going, but God is also here in the tension with you, and he's not trying to rush you and he's not scolding you, but he is gently calling us all forward.

Speaker 1: 4:32

In today's passage coming out of Acts, chapter 1, we're going to see how God does that. So if you want to follow along, we have the house Bibles. The words will be up on the screen as well. We're going to verse 9. If you remember from last week, if you weren't here, don't worry, but the disciples have just heard Jesus' last words on earth. He gave him his last instructions. His command was stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. Remember he was saying you're not where you were and you're not where you're going yet, but wait. He wasn't rushing them. And then suddenly he's gone Verse nine, we read.

Speaker 1: 5:12

After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching and they could no longer see him. And put yourself in their shoes for one second. The one they had been following for years, the one who taught them everything they knew about God, the one who corrected them, the one who empowered them, the one who had just risen from the dead, disappeared. That's confusing, right? Because you didn't expect Jesus to die. You certainly didn't expect him to come back from the dead. And then he's telling you all of these things. You're thinking, good, great, turning the page, and then poof, he's just gone. It was stunning, disorienting, unsettling, and they do probably what you and I would do if that happened today.

Speaker 1: 6:01

They're looking at this like you coming back. I mean like what's going on here? They're looking at this like you coming back. I mean like what's going on here? They're unsure what to do next. And you got to imagine they're looking pretty long. Because it's like Jesus gets up to heaven and he's like I'm home, back at the throne. You know this is not good theology, by the way, but he's in heaven and he looks back and he sees the disciples. They're just standing there looking around and Jesus is like look, I already did the comeback thing once, a couple days ago, I ain't doing it again. Jesus sends two angels. He's like go, tell them to get to work. That's what's happening.

Speaker 1: 6:36

So in verse 10, he says as they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them, men of Galilee. They said why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go. Why do you stand here gawking at the sky, gawking at the sky, looking for Jesus to come back? It's not a rebuke in as much as it's a redirect. Stop looking there, look here, right, stop looking there, look around you. You already know what the next step is. Jesus made that loud and clear. Now take the step and to explain kind of this imagery in the Jewish imagination the sky and heavens that symbolized up there. That's where God dwelled. Okay, so when Jesus ascends, it's not just like he's vanishing, he's not a ghost, but he's making a visible declaration to Jewish people, who would expect this, that when the Messiah left he would go that way.

Speaker 1: 7:49

But the disciples are still bound to earth, they're still humans, and that person who anchored them the last three years was no longer there in person to anchor them, to be physically present with them, and they're not yet filled with the Holy Spirit. They're in the in-between, they're in the waiting, not where we were and not where we're going. They don't have a blueprint, they don't have a GPS, they don't even really have a sense of direction. They're caught in the confusing in-between. But what they do have are those clear instructions Stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Spirit.

Speaker 1: 8:29

It wasn't time to preach and it wasn't time to do miracles and act, but it was time to obey, to listen, and sometimes the hardest obedience as followers of Jesus if you're a person of faith in the room watching or listening online the hardest kind of obedience begins when nothing is clear, when that next step isn't clear. What the disciples experienced on that hillside isn't different than what we experience in seasons of waiting. Yes, their situation certainly unique. They just watched Jesus ascend to the sky with their own eyes. They had received a direct command to stay in Jerusalem, but their struggle is just like ours. They stood staring upward, not because they didn't believe. They believed, but they didn't know what to do next.

Speaker 1: 9:24

And that's precisely where I think most of us get stuck. Also, we're stuck looking up at heaven, looking up at God. Where are you? What do you want me to do? We're stuck, we're waiting. We say we're waiting on God, and sometimes we are.

Speaker 1: 9:44

I think in most of my conversations with folks other pastors who do what I do, and talk to other people, and in my own life, if we're being honest, waiting becomes an excuse, becomes an excuse, a way of avoiding acting on things that we know we're supposed to do. And what we do is we confuse faith with passivity. We believe we're not supposed to move unless I get total clarity from God. So I won't go there until God comes out and spells it out for me and tells me exactly what my next step is. But that's never been a pattern of biblical faith. God hardly ever shows the whole picture. He just gives you the next step.

Speaker 1: 10:29

And still most of us, myself we stall. I'm waiting to forgive someone until I feel ready to forgive them, until I feel good about it. I'm waiting to serve until I know what my exact calling is. I'm not going to do anything for Jesus until I know exactly what I'm supposed to do for Jesus. I'm waiting to give until my financial situation becomes more stable. I'm waiting to speak up until it's completely safe for me to do so.

Speaker 1: 10:59

But if God has already spoken through scripture, conviction, the spirit and community, then waiting becomes disobedience, disguised as spiritual language. Delayed obedience, as I've heard it said, is disobedience. Now, most of us don't think of ourselves as disobedient. I know a lot of us. We're trying really hard to do the right things, the way that God wants us to do it. We think we're being careful, prayerful and wise, but sometimes wisdom is a mask for fear. We're afraid, so we say we're just thinking it through.

Speaker 1: 11:40

Discernment becomes a way to stall. Well, I know what God wants me to do, but I'm just discerning exactly how he wants me to do it. And we delay because we say we want more signs, more peace, more reassurance, when what we really need is more trust. It's not about more signs, it's not about more peace, it's not about more reassurance. It's about trust, about more silence. It's not about more peace, not about more reassurance, it's about trust.

Speaker 1: 12:09

And if God has made the next step clear, then continuing to wait isn't faithful. If God has made the next step clear, then continuing to wait isn't faithful. It's avoidance and obedience will rarely ever feel convenient. It often comes with a cost, kind of like what Jesus said while he was with his disciples it would come with a cost, and that's why we look for ways to buy time. Oh, it comes with a cost. Well, I'm not ready to pay that yet. Give me a day, a week, a year, a change of life season, once the situation gets better. God, I promise I'm all in there.

Speaker 1: 12:46

But can I point out that delayed obedience also comes with a cost? Yes, there's a cost of being obedient, but there's a cost to being delayfully. Is that a word? Delayfully, is that a word? We'll go with it. Delayfully obedient it forms habits of hesitation, it deadens your sensitivity to God's voice and maybe, most tragically, it keeps you from becoming who God intended you to be. The angels told the disciples stop looking up, not because their waiting was wrong, but because it had served its purpose. The moment for watching had passed. The next step had already been given. They didn't need a new word, they just needed to walk into the one they already heard, and so do we.

Speaker 1: 13:44

What we see in Acts isn't a one-time situation, but it's a consistent pattern throughout all of scripture. Again and again, god calls people to move before they know exactly where they're going next. The biblical story is filled with people who obeyed, are biblical heroes, so to speak. They obeyed before they knew what the next step was. In God's economy, obedience is not rooted in certainty, it's rooted in trust.

Speaker 1: 14:14

Take Abraham Hebrews 11 tells us it was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave his home, the place he had been, and to go to another land, the, where he was going. Leave everything that's familiar, everything that's comfortable, everything that brings you peace and security, and go this way. Well, what's that way? I'll tell you in a little bit. Well, hold on a second. That wasn't symbolic. Abraham really left his home. Abraham really left behind his culture. Abraham really walked away from security because God said go to the land. I will future tense show you Not the land I have shown you, not the land you've dreamed about, not the land that's on your 10-year plan. But I will show you. And Abraham obeyed him without having a map, just trusting in the voice of the God who called him.

Speaker 1: 15:18

And then we consider Paul's words in 2 Corinthians Talking about faith. He says this is why we live with such good cheer. You won't see us drooping our heads or called him. And then we consider Paul's words in 2 Corinthians Talking about faith. He says this is why we live with such good cheer. You won't see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet. Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It's what we trust in, but don't yet see that keeps us going. It's what we trust in but don't yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we'll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.

Speaker 1: 15:54

The Christian life isn't about having the full picture before you move. If we only take steps when everything is clear, we are not walking by faith. We're walking by comfort. Faith throughout scripture is not blind, it's relational and it's anchored in the character of the one who leads it. This is what theologians call progressive revelation those of you who like getting super nerdy on this stuff, you should Google this later but it's the idea that God reveals more as we obey what he's already said. Obedience becomes a doorway to greater clarity. Now we want the whole plan up front, but God gives us just enough light for the next step. The more obedient you are in taking the next step, the more God shows you. The more God shows you Now. That's deeply frustrating for us today, because we want to feel confident before we move. We want the full picture, the timeline, we want the guarantee. That's typically almost never how God works. He didn't show Abraham the land. He didn't give Moses a 10-year plan. He gave Moses specifically one conversation at a time with Pharaoh. One conversation at a time.

Speaker 1: 17:17

Even the disciples had to wait for the Spirit before they had any idea what was going to happen next. That's what the disciples had to learn. They were used to Jesus just being physically present with them. Have a question about a parable? Just ask him. He's right there. Need something right now? Well, he's right here. Go out there.

Speaker 1: 17:35

We always knew we could come back to Jesus because we always knew where he was to give us real life, real time guidance, always knew where he was, to give us real life, real time guidance. But now, with Jesus ascending into heaven in the spirit, not yet given, the disciples had the trust. Not where I've been, not yet where I'm going, and that's where we need to live to. We want certainty, but God gives us direction and, as Oswald Chambers once wrote, faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the one who is leading. Faith isn't about having all of the answers. Faith is about trusting that God is the answer and stepping forward anyway.

Speaker 1: 18:24

So here's the convicting, challenging, hard question for you this morning. And because I've written this, I've been asking myself this question a lot what clear instruction from God have you been avoiding? Okay, you know what the next step is. You know what you got to do, the conversation that has to be had, the thing you're supposed to do, maybe the thing you're supposed to stop doing? For many of us, the problem isn't confusion. You probably know the answer to the question. You don't have to raise your hand. We're not asking for confession time here.

Speaker 1: 19:07

But why do we keep waiting? What are we waiting for? The right moment, more clarity, for some kind of confirmation that will make obedience, feel safer. If that's what we're doing, we're just like the disciples staring up at the sky. We're stuck, not because you don't believe I know you believe. Not because you don't believe, I know you believe but because we're afraid of what following Jesus might cost. And yet Jesus never asks you to map out the future. He just asks you to trust him, to follow, not just when it's convenient, not when it's certain, but to follow him even when it's not. And for a lot of us, the time is now.

Speaker 1: 19:56

So where in your life are you looking up instead of stepping out? Are you waiting to forgive someone until they apologize first? Are you holding back from serving because you don't feel ready, because you don't feel qualified? Are you delaying generosity until your finances feel more secure? Are you staying quiet instead of speaking truth because it'll rock the boat in your marriage with your friends? Here's the invitation Stop waiting. Stop waiting for the skies to part and for God to look down and spell it out for you. Obey what you already know. You already know you're called to love. You already know you're called to forgive. You already know you're called to serve and to speak the truth and to show up and to take risks.

Speaker 1: 20:39

Obedience doesn't require all of the answers. It only requires enough trust to take that next step. So what is that next step for you? Not in theory, but in practice, real life today, in your habits, in your relationships, in your giving, in your growth. And again, maybe for you it isn't adding something to your life or doing more. Perhaps it's about letting something or someone go, maybe the illusion of control, the belief that you're not enough, the story you've been telling yourself why it's not time, it starts with one act of obedience.

Speaker 1: 21:23

The angels told the disciples this same Jesus that you just saw leave will return. That is the promise. Jesus will come back. It's just not yet. And in the meantime, he left them with a mission, and that hasn't changed. We still live in the same in-between, after the resurrection changed. We still live in the same in-between after the resurrection, before the return of Christ, after the resurrection and before the return, between what Jesus has already done and what Jesus is preparing to do next. And just like those first disciples, we are not meant to stand and stare at the sky. We're not meant to wait passively, hoping for the perfect moment or more apparent signs.

Speaker 1: 22:10

John Ortberg has some insights on waiting that I love. He says waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be. If I can encourage you this morning, if you find yourself in the waiting in this in-between season of life, you're not just being tortured or put through the ringer because God had nothing better to do. You're not just waiting for tomorrow or next week or next year, but God is doing something in you that he couldn't do in the season before the one you're in. He's doing something new. Do in the season before the one you're in. He's doing something new Now, I know that doesn't alleviate the pain, the anxiety, the depression, the relationship problems. It doesn't alleviate those things right now, in this moment, but I hope that I've given you something to hold on to that is encouraging that, even though you're going through something truly challenging, truly difficult, that God is still doing something remarkable in you.

Speaker 1: 23:10

Waiting isn't wasted time. It's where God shapes us. It's where he forms our character, sharpens our purpose and prepares us for what's next. Yes, you are going somewhere, but you're not ready for that yet. Yep, you've been somewhere else and you're not going back to that.

Speaker 1: 23:32

And so, as we get to where we're going, god says I got to do a few things with you.

Speaker 1: 23:37

First. We are meant to step out to obey and trust that God has already given us enough to take that next step. And if Madison Church were to become that kind of church that stops waiting for perfect conditions, and if we just all, individually, every single one of us here you're listening if we all just obeyed what we already knew, that one step, whether that's forgiveness, generosity, service, reconciliation or justice, even when the timing isn't right, then Madison Church would be a community, a people marked by belief and movement, just like that church in Acts, the one that we want to be like. And people will notice, and our city will notice. Because, in a world of hesitation and noise and chat, gpt and Google and all the certainty that's at our fingertips, god wants a people who are courageous, who are obedient and who are faithful. And so, as we enter into our time of communion next, sit with it, name it and don't leave today without asking God for the courage to take your next step.