Is there anything harder than waiting for something that you really want? Waiting is the worst. Whether I’m waiting for a flight that gets delayed or I’m waiting for us to finally begin our construction project at 414 Brannan or the fact that I have to wait another 8 months for my book to be released. While I do have to wait for all of these things, this isn’t the worst kind of waiting. I know the flight will eventually take off, the construction project will begin soon, and my book is going to release August 27th next year.

The worst kind of waiting is when you don’t know if you’re ever going to receive the thing you’re waiting for. Maybe you’re waiting to see if the company will even exist 3 months from now. You are waiting for the report to see if the cancer is gone or if it’s come back. You’re still waiting to see if you’ll get married or be able to have children.

The longer you have to wait for something, the more likely it feels like it will never come.

We want to eliminate waiting for things so that we can eliminate our fears around all that’s uncertain in our lives. And this is also the reason so many of us have stopped pursuing our dreams. We have set down our dreams because the biggest dreams often take the longest time to become reality. And we just haven’t built the patience and perseverance muscles necessary to stick with our dreams long enough. We want our dreams accomplished in a day when dreams often take a decade.

Are you trying to eliminate waiting in your life just so you can eliminate your fears?

There is so much uncertainty when it comes to our future. And when we don’t know how something is going to turn out, it’s so easy to fear the worst. This causes us to grasp for a kind of control that we don’t actually possess. When we feel like we’ve lost all control, our fear usually increases even more. But what if we don’t have to control our future in order to get rid of our fears? What if we have a good reason to replace our fear with faith, regardless of how long we have to wait for our desired results? This is the pursuit we’re after in an Advent series we’re starting today called, Waiting Without Fear.

Here's the question we’re going after today:

How do you keep waiting when you feel like you’re running out of time?

The word advent means “arrival.” So what do you do when you aren’t sure that what you’re waiting on is ever going to get here?

Luke 1:5-25 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.” Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this has wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

There are so many things we can learn from Zechariah and Elizabeth. Here’s the first one: They did everything right in God’s eyes and still experienced the pain of being childless. Can we please stop assuming God is unhappy with us when life is bad and He loves us when life is good? Or that God is holding out on us when He makes us wait.

Waiting has always been the normal experience for the people of God.

Prophet Isaiah foretold birth of Jesus – took 700 more years to happen

Abraham – when he was 75, he was told he’d become a father. Didn’t happen until he was 100.

Joseph has a dream at age 17 that he would have some grand leadership position. That dream doesn’t become a reality until 13 years later.

Zechariah and Elizabeth are in what seems like an impossible situation. They are childless and they’re both very old.

Have you given up hope because you think what you wanted is now out of reach?

Then you get this line that shows up all throughout the Christmas story and over 300 more times in Scripture – “Do not be afraid.”

If God is going to keep telling us not to be afraid, we need to know why.

There are a few answers to this question, but here’s the answer in verse 13 – “Do not be afraid, because the Lord has heard your prayer.”

What would happen to our fears if we started believing God hears our prayers and responds to them?

There is a massive difference between passively waiting and actively waiting.

Zechariah is actively waiting. He is still praying for the impossible to happen.

How can you stay active while you’re waiting?

You can talk yourself out of wanting what you want.

You can research what you want.

You can try to take things into your own hands to get what you want.

Or you can actively pray for God to give you what you want.

“Your wife will bear you a son and you are to call him, “John”.” He will bring you joy and delight. There is a relationship that exists between waiting and joy. And interestingly enough, the birth of a child is the perfect metaphor – regardless of what you’re waiting on. Jesus uses this image to comfort his disciples when he tells them he’s going away.

John 16:20-22 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

The angel tells Zechariah, “Your son will be filled with the Spirit, he will bring people back to God, and he will turn the hearts of parents to their children.” In other words, this child is going to be great in the sight of the Lord.

And Zechariah’s response reminds me so much of what I’m so prone to do when God speaks to me. “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” In other words, how can I have certainty, because here’s what makes what you’re telling me so hard to believe – I am old and my wife is well along in her years too.”

When God speaks, will we trust His voice or only what our eyes can see and our minds can understand?

Gabriel tells Zechariah that now he will not be able to speak, because of his unbelief. I think there’s something present in Zechariah that’s often present in us – a mixture of belief and unbelief. Zechariah at least has enough faith that he’s been praying, but maybe he wasn’t confident that his prayers were being heard and could make a difference. It’s like the father who asked Jesus to heal his son. The man says, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Jesus wants to replace our unbelief with faith.

Hebrews 3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

What is your unbelief keeping you from entering?

God is still gracious to Zechariah and to Elizabeth. “The Lord has done this for me.” They still get the blessing of this son. Their son will be the one who prepares the way for the long-awaited Messiah to take center stage.

God is working while we are waiting.

When it seems like what we’re waiting on will never happen, we must stay confident that God has us in His hands and He has perfect timing. I was in the room in London when I heard Katherine Chow say this:

“A vision from God is the source of my patience.” -Katherine Chow

Galatians 4:4-5 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.‍