Sligo22: Waiting
Simon Genoe is minister of Magheralin Parish, leading the church in villages of Magheralin and Dollingstown. Simon loves Christ’s church and is passionate about seeing her rise up, particularly on this island and showing the power and love of Jesus to all. Here is a summary of what he had to say on the opening night of #Sligo22
Who had a job when they were at school? We are from County Monaghan and our whole family was involved with picking and transporting mushrooms. It was hard work so I thought working as a waiter would be a more cushy job. I had to get a white shirt and black trousers. I arrived the first day and found out my job was cleaning out the dishwasher -scooping out grease with my bare hands!
I got another job in Belfast in a restaurant. Being a waiter is hard Chefs are never nice people and customers can be horrible! In our passage tonight, we are going to read in Isaiah 40 that we are called to be “waiters.” Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.
For 39 chapters there have been all these prophecies about the coming judgement. In Isaiah 40 , judgement has arrived and God’s promises of restoration seem unbelievably far away. Isaiah 40 is about comfort for a weary, tired, discouraged and frightened people.
The message of Isaiah 40:21 – 31 is to remember who we are dealing with. The people wondered if Babylon was stronger than God but Isaiah reminds them, “Behold the nations are a like a drop from a bucket…”
We have a Big God and He is coming to rescue and restore Israel.
But what about right now? It is one thing to believe that one day (in the future) God will move, but it is another thing to survive in the present moment. Most people believe that Jesus will return and He will eradicate disease and war and evil. But it is also important what we believe today.
He gives strength for today as well as bright hope for tomorrow
Verse 26 – To a weary broken people Isaiah says, “There are 200 billion trillion stars and our God is so big that He calls them all by name.” He is powerful enough to know about billions of stars but personal enough to call them by name. Because He is strong in power not one is missing. If you are comforted by the story of the lost sheep be even more comforted by the lost star. He counts out 200 billion trillion. God knows the names of pieces of flaming rock, how much more will God remember you.
Do you feel that He doesn’t know what you are going through or that He doesn’t care what you are going through?
Two suggestions:
We need to lean into the truth
Look at this amazing passage. “Have you not heard. Here is truth about your God. Our God is the everlasting God.” He is not bound by time. He is with you now. He is the creator of the ends of the earth. That means that whatever situation you are in. He made the whole ends of the earth.
Corrie Ten Boom said, “I have learnt that no pit is so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”
He is here. He is with you now. He is all powerful. He is wise. John Calvin said that nearly all wisdom can be placed into two categories. Knowledge of God and knowledge about ourselves. What do we need to know about ourselves? I had Covid last week – I’m completely clear now but one thing that caught me unawares was how weak and weary I felt. Here is a thing we need to know. We are weak. He is powerful… we are not. We need to know about God’s strength AND about our weakness.
Don’t be surprised when you are weary. We are vulnerable and we need a mighty God. Even great athletes get tired… even bishops and super spiritual missionaries. We have to know our limits. We have to realise that this is not something new.
When I got involved with New Wine, David said he chose me because he had seen a lot of my back - he had seen me going forward for prayer. The people who are strong are those who know their own limitations. They know He is the strength in our weakness.
Receive the gift
If you are weary He says come unto me. Here’s a gift. He gives power to the faint. Jesus knows our weakness. Jesus embraced weakness for us but now He is in the highest place and He is willing to give us that gift for today. Strength for today: There is a condition on this gift. “Even youths shall faint and be weary, choice men shall fall but they that WAIT for the Lord will renew their strength.” It is crucial. It is so important that we know how to wait.
We have a problem with this because it can seem so passive like playing on your phone when you are bored. But there is nothing passive about this word “wait”. It has the connotations of a lion lying in wait for its prey. It is an active waiting.
Spurgeon says, “It is like birds waiting in the nest for the parent bird. Before she comes, you will hear their cries but when she comes, you will see open gaping mouths.”
How wide will we open our mouths today? What level of expectation do we have as we wait on the Lord?
What about the metaphor of a waiter? We visited a posh restaurant in Belfast. Every time I went to pour out my tea, the waiter did it for me. He was watching and he was waiting to serve. What an amazing thing. The church needs to be so expectant; wide mouthed for God to pour out His strength on us; lying in wait for what He is going to do.
The Italian renaissance master Fra’ Filippo Lippi had a painting in London’s national gallery. There was no doubt of his skill but the proportions seemed wrong. For many years art critics pointed out that the hills in the background looked as if they might topple out of the picture. That was until the art critic Robert Cumming realised that the painting was never meant to hang in a gallery, but was intended as an aid to prayer. Lippi assumed that those viewing the picture would do so from a kneeling position, and it was when Cumming fell to his knees that he finally saw all the details of the picture in their proper perspective. He saw what generations of art critics had missed.
It was not the perspective of the painting that was wrong, the painting only came alive to those on their knees in prayer. Right at the beginning of our time together this week, the Lord wants to pour our His strength to the weary as we come on bended knee. We need him.
Are we people that are ready to show our back to the crowd and be strengthened by the king of kings?
They who wait on the Lord shall exchange their strength… Tonight, bring your weariness to Jesus and by His divine power, He is going to pour out on us and give us everything we need to live a divine life. He takes our weakness on the cross and pours out His strength.
“They who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up on wings like eagles.”
(I’m a little disappointed that the giant mural is not an eagle but an owl) The Lord wants to put us back where we belong. Do you know the height from which you have fallen? The enemy wants to bring you down to earth. He wants you to lose your identity as a child of God.
A test pilot called Henley noticed that there was a rat chewing his fuel line. The crew told him to get down on the ground quickly; instead he went up high and starved the rat of oxygen. The enemy wants us to ground the plane but we are here to wait on the Lord and have our strength renewed and take our place in the heavenly realms.
Not only will we mount up on wings like eagles but we are going to run and not grow weary. There are ministries that the Lord has asked us to do and Covid has caused us to withdraw. The Lord wants to strengthen you this week to run with it again.
It’s time for a long obedience in the same direction.