Love's Greatest Hits: You Can't Hurry Love

"You Can’t Hurry Love"

• First we sat in 60 seconds of silence
• Point out what we just experienced. How did it feel?
• Thoughts of, “What’s going on, what’s happening, why isn’t something happening, who’s in charge, did someone mess up? When is this going to end, this is awkward, this is weird”
• What happens when our 60 seconds of silence turns to 6 months? 6 months without a job, trying to sell a home, trying to have a child, waiting for test results.
• Or maybe the wait is for God to do something in someone else’s life? How many of us have prayed for a family member or friend to give their life to God? Or for someone we love to “wise up” and stop making foolish decisions? Sometimes those times of waiting are even harder.
• It’s incredibly difficult. We feel like our life is on pause.
• It bothers us to wait in silly ways too: restaurant – 15 min is longer, does the pager work? See other people sitting down. Or a Dr. office with bad tv and old magazines. Nothing to do but wait. We get mad because we have to wait longer than we expected.
• Waiting affects us all. Everyone here is either just coming out of a long wait, you are waiting, or you will be waiting.
• When we are in those moments of waiting it seems like everything else is happening for everyone else but us. It feels like an eternity
• We pray harder, work harder, and do whatever else we can to hurry God along in our wait.

• Let’s look at Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 12)
• God tells him to pack up and head out. No idea where he’s going or really what God has in mind. We just know he did it. (Heb. 11:8-9)
• As they traveled they had to wonder “Are we there yet?” They didn’t even know where “there” was. Doubt had to have been heavy on their hearts.
• God finally revels His plans: 1) give you land 2) make a great nation
• Problem: Sarah and Abraham are old
• Sarah decides to hurry God’s plan (Gen 16)
• This happened 10 years after they had settled. We get upset when God doesn’t come through in 10 min.
• The longer we’re in this waiting period the more tempted we are to speed things up. It’s in those times that we move ahead with choices that were not part of God’s plan. All because we were tired of waiting.
• We get to a point in life where we tell God, “It’s not that I don’t believe you or trust you but I’ve come up with a really good plan here.
• We wouldn't go see our dentist needing a root canal and take his/her tools and try to do the procedure ourselves because we don't feel like waiting our turn.
• That’s crazy but that’s what we do with God
• What happens is we get to point where the thing we are hoping for becomes the thing we are hoping in.
• We cross that line. God says we should put our hope in Him. Not in our circumstances or plans but to wait.
• Sarah and Abraham chose to hope IN a son not IN God.
• A mess was made that we’re still feeling the ramifications of today
• God stayed true to His plan. He gave them a son. On His terms. In His time.

• If you’re waiting this morning maybe you need to hear that God has not forgotten you. He’s not left you out to wander around for the rest of your life. He has a plan and he is in control. He just asks us to wait.