No Lines, No Waiting

Most of you have heard that by nature I am a very impatient person. I don’t like to wait around with nothing to do. I don’t like to sit around if there is something that needs to be done. In fact one of my spiritual gifts is impatience. Actually, I’m not really sure that’s a spiritual gift.

With this in mind let me say that I always pick the worst line to get in no matter where I might be.

∑ If I’m in traffic I get in the slowest moving lane. And then if I move to another lane that one all of the sudden slows down and the one I was in speeds up.

∑ Car emissions

∑ Restaurant – guy ordering for his whole apartment building.

∑ Waiting in line at Christmas for some new toy. (Movie, concert tickets)

∑ How about when your standing in line and the person that should be taking care of you is acting like your not there and you just wait.

∑ Naugatuck City Hall – fireworks permit

∑ Grocery store

I like it when they open another line and the lady comes over and says I can help a few people over here. There are no lines, no waiting over here.

I’m preaching this morning - No Lines, No Waiting. When you’re coming to God there are no lines and no waiting.

All through the pages of the Old Testament, for years and years the people were waiting for something better to come. They were waiting for some better promise. They were waiting for some better system of things. They were waiting for a savior.

Everything before Calvary in scripture points ahead to Calvary. Everything in the Old Testament pointed ahead to a better day. It points ahead to that day when the supreme sacrifice would be made for all of humankind. Everything in scripture after Calvary points back to Calvary and that day when Jesus Christ laid down his life for us on that cruel cross of suffering.

During the days of the Old Testament there were many prophecies concerning the coming messiah. It was prophesied that there was coming a day when the Lord God Almighty would come and take away the sins of the world. Now that really meant something to the people of that day for the system that was in place at that time only provided for temporary relief from their sins. Every year on the Day of Atonement the high priest would have to bring the blood of the sacrifice into the holy of holies and ask the Lord for atonement for one more year. Back then their sins were never really remitted or forgiven but they were just pushed ahead for one more year at a time. The next year on that day their sins were pushed ahead for another year. All through the dispensation of the Law they were waiting for something better to come. They were waiting in line for some better promise and a better way of doing things.

Hebrews 7:19

19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

All through the Old Testament they were:

∑ Hoping for a better way.

∑ Longing for a better way.

∑ Looking for a better way.

∑ Waiting for a better way.

But I want to preach to you that today that there are no lines and no waiting for the person who really wants Jesus today.

It was prophesied that there was coming a savior to take away the sins of the world. The prophecy was that instead of a God way up in the heavenlies that he would be God with us. Instead of laws written on tables of stone he would write his laws in our hearts and in our inward parts. The Bible calls him the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. His coming to this earth when he robed himself in flesh was not an accident or a spur of the moment event to make up for some failure in his plan. Jesus didn’t have to go back to the drawing board and make another plan but this was his plan from the very beginning of time. One day he said the waiting is over. My people have been waiting for long enough. It’s time for me to robe myself in flesh and come to the earth to seek and save the lost. The waiting is over.

For years he was a God who they could not see and could not feel and could not touch. But Jesus Christ burst on the scene longing for someone to touch him. He was not Jesus junior or some second person in some supposed triune godhead but he was God manifested in the flesh. While he was upon the earth he went about doing good and healing the sick and helping all who were oppressed. He was touching people because the waiting was over.