Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Psalm 33:20-22
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  December 7, 2022

Psalm 33 is a beautiful psalm that encourages us to find our joy in the LORD. It surveys God’s love in creation and his rule over history, and both begins and ends with joy. It opens telling us to shout for joy and ends with a quiet affirmation of joy. With this sermon, I’m going to explain 4 characteristics of this advent joy looking specifically at the final three verses: Our souls wait for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. 21 Yes, in him our heart rejoices, because we trust in his holy name. 22 May your mercy, O Lord, be on us, even as we wait confidently for you.

1: Joy is only experienced by those who wait upon the LORD. (“Our souls wait for the Lord.”)

Have you ever heard of the 7-minute rule? It’s a theory of communication that basically says that the most important conversations you have don’t happen until you’re about 7 minutes in. Here’s how it works: you’re talking with someone and you talk about the weather, you report on your weekend, you talk about your life in general ways, and then about after 6 minutes or so you run out of the fluff. And then someone asks a question or brings up a topic that is more substantial—you know the good stuff, the real, meaningful stuff that we really want. That doesn’t start until you’re about 7 minutes in. Those who pull out their phone or can’t focus on another person for at least 7 minutes will not experience those conversations. They are only held by those who are willing to invest the time, to focus and wait. And isn’t this true on a larger scale? For the greatest, most meaningful, the tenderest things in the world, we must wait. It doesn’t happen the moment we want it, but only after consistent focus. This is also true of Christian joy. It only comes to those who wait upon the LORD.

Waiting on the Lord is a matter of focus. It is a matter of priority. It is being in the world but not of it. And this is where I see the sickness of our hearts. Because there are many Christians who long to find joy in the LORD but are so distracted. They aren’t waiting for him. Even faithful worshipers, even people who come to extra services on Advent Wednesdays—even you and I—struggle with this. Outside of the one or two hours we spend in worship, we can become so distracted.

There was once a pastor who was invited over to a couple’s house for dinner. They had a nice meal with good food and good conversation. But at one point during dinner, the pastor took the small thin silver knife out of the butter dish, wiped it off on his napkin and then, quite obviously, slipped it into his pocket beneath the table. Now the wife saw him do this, but she didn’t say anything out of sheer surprise and fear of embarrassing him. Well once dinner was finished they went into the living room and talked for a bit, the pastor gave a short devotion and read a passage from their Bible and then he left. After the door closed, the wife said to her husband, “I can’t believe it! Pastor stole our silver butter knife!” They kept coming to church, but this began to bother them so much that about that same time the next year, they finally decided to confront the pastor. They decided to ask him over for dinner again and confront him privately. So, the pastor came over again and sits down at the table. The couple comes right out with it, “Pastor, you stole a knife from us! We know you did, don’t deny it!” But the pastor said “I didn’t steal it. I left it in the Bible on your coffee table.”

There are a lot of Bibles in the world that serve more for decoration than mediation, aren’t there? The excess media consumption, good or bad, the abundance of distractions, and the daily demands of life all gang up to keep us from waiting on the LORD—from focusing on his Word, from taking just 7 minutes in prayer. Now this isn’t just about a personal devotional life, but are our minds and our time focused on the LORD?  Are we consciously waiting for him? Personally, when I lose focus on the LORD, how quickly I become annoyed and negative. But when I am focused on Him, I have joy and peace no matter how rough my day might be. Joy is only experienced by those who wait upon the LORD. 

2: Joy in the LORD is confident! (“He is our help and our shield…we wait confidently for you.”)

The joy of the LORD is not something we need to manufacture through our piety. The Joy found waiting upon the LORD is the joy which comes down to us in Jesus Christ. And this Joy has gone through the poverty of the manger and the agony of the cross; and therefore it is invincible and irrefutable. You can be confident in this joy because it has withstood every earthly test. It does not deny humility and anguish, but finds God in the midst of it, in fact precisely there. Christ, who is our Joy, does not deny sin but wins forgiveness precisely in bearing that sin for us. This Joy looks death straight in the eye and finds life precisely by passing through it. In other words, this joy of the LORD has overcome the world. This is the joy that remains when other happiness is stripped away. This is the joy that stands when everything else is falling. The joy found in waiting upon the LORD cannot be ruined. And that is what we celebrate in Advent! This is what we wait for at Christmas, isn’t it?  God has given joy to us in himself, and he has given it to us, freely, fully, and without end. May your joy in the LORD be confident!

3: Joy is based on the combination of God’s holiness and mercy. (“because we trust in his holy name. May your mercy, O Lord, be on us…”)

God’s holiness is something that should terrify us. It is his incomparability, his otherness, his moral perfection, and it is something that we cannot even bear to see in our sinful state. God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock because, “No one may see God and live.” He is the Holy, Holy, Holy One in front of whom Isaiah says, “I’m so happy to be in your presence, God!” No! He can only whisper, “Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips.” But our holy God, without compromising his holiness, is also merciful. He has given us the holiness of Christ, through his atoning sacrifice, in exchange for our sin. This high and holy God comes down to us in the person of Christ. He comes in perfection and takes our sin. He comes in glory and takes our humility. This separate and set apart God pulls us to himself and makes it possible for us to be close to him through faith. We are forgiven and, yes, even called his holy people! Saints of God, called to the holy purpose of living for him, of waiting upon the LORD. Our joy is based on the holy God who has shown us mercy.

4: Joy is yours right now! (“Yes, in him our heart rejoices”) 

Many people just want to be happy. And there’s nothing wrong with being happy. I pray that you are! But happiness should not be the goal of our lives. There’s much more important things than happiness.  The truth is that it comes and goes. And often those who spend their lives looking for it, never find it. It can be a bottomless pit of desire—quick hits of pleasure but no satisfaction. Jesus didn’t command the pursuit of happiness, he said, “Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me.” Or to say it in the words of Psalm 33, “Wait upon the LORD!” But the funny thing is that joy comes along for the ride for those who wait upon the LORD. Sometimes you might hear the phrase, “It’s not just about the result, you need to enjoy the process”. That applies well to Christain faith. Joy comes in the path of a good purpose and there is no greater purpose than waiting upon the LORD.

My friends, we aren’t supposed to be sad and grumpy people until heaven. We are called, even commanded to rejoice in the LORD right now!  I’m sure there are difficulties in your life right now. I’m sure there are crosses you bear. Know there is never going to be a perfect state or situation for us on this side of heaven. We can’t afford to remain in a state of constant dissatisfaction, repeating the phrase “one day I’ll be happy” or “then I’ll be satisfied”. Perfect happiness and satisfaction will come one day in heaven, but for now take the joy of each day as it is given by God. When we wait upon the LORD, we don’t have to wait for joy. Joy meets us where we are; Joy comes down from the LORD. And this joy is yours right now in Christ! Amen.