Christ Church Sermon, Red Light, Green Light: Learning to Wait and Move

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You are listening to a message from our

weekly worship at Christ Church in Bethl

Park, Pennsylvania. We're a United

[music] Methodist congregation with the

mission of building inclusive community,

sharing Christ's transforming [music]

love. To learn more about the church,

including how you can join us for

worship online or [music] in person,

visit christummc.net.

Thank you for listening.

Today's

scripture is Psalm 27:13 and 14. I

Psalms 27:13

remain confident

and of this I will see the goodness of

the Lord in the land of the living. Wait

the Lord. Be strong and take heart and

wait for the Lord. Hear what the

spirit

spirit is saying to the church.

>> Thanks be to God to God.

>> Thanks, Clayton.

You know, there are some childhood games

that require no explanation. You just

say the name and everybody knows what

game you're talking about. Maybe you

figured it out by now, but today we're

talking about red light, green light.

That's one of those games, you know,

everybody stands at one end, there's

somebody else at the other end, and when

they yell green light, everybody runs.

And when they yell red light, everybody

has to freeze. Y'all play that game?

Because if you have it, we'll play it

right now.

Right. Here's the thing. The thing about

that game, the challenge of that game is

is not how fast you go only. It's

knowing also when to stop. And I think

that's a pretty good picture of faith

because sometimes following God requires

us to go. We need to take the step. We

need to make the call. We need to have

the conversation. We need to start the

ministry. We need to serve. We need to

give. We need to forgive. We need to

move. But sometimes God is telling us to

stop. Don't force it. Don't rush it.

Don't manipulate it. Don't get ahead of

God.

Stop. And if we're being honest, most of

us are better at one than the other.

Now, how many of you are better at green

light?

Okay. How many of you are better at red

light? You have to pick one. My

goodness. Some of us love green lights,

right? We're doers. Give us a problem,

we'll fix it. Give us a challenge, we'll

tackle it. Give us a mountain, we'll

start climbing it. We don't mind when

God says go. We actually struggle when

God says stop. Others of us are pretty

comfortable with the red light. We can

pray about something for a long time. We

can think about it. We can analyze it.

We can consider all the possibilities.

Sometimes God is saying, "You've prayed

enough. I've opened the door. Now you

got to go." The challenge of following

God is to recognize the difference in

both and know both are important because

following God requires both movement and

waiting. And wisdom is knowing the

difference. And that brings us to Psalm

27.

Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take

heart. And wait for the Lord. Now notice

David doesn't tell us that waiting is

easy. He says be strong and take heart.

Why? Well, because sometimes more faith

is required for waiting than moving.

There are moments in scripture where God

essentially says green light. Think

about Abraham. God says, "Go from your

country to the land which I will show

you." And Abraham has to move. Think

about Moses standing before Pharaoh. God

does not tell Moses to form another

committee. God just says, "Go." Think

about the disciples as Jesus was walking

along the Sea of Galilee and he asked

them to leave everything and follow him

and they did. Think about the great

commission where Jesus says, "Go into

the world and make disciples." So, there

are moments in our faith that require

action. Sometimes we pray for God to

show us what to do when God has actually

already made it pretty clear. Should I

forgive? Green light. Should I serve?

Green light. Should I be generous? Green

light. Should I love my neighbor? Green

light. Should I share my faith? Green

light. Should I use the gifts God has

given me? Green light. You know,

sometimes we're waiting for a sign from

God when God has already given us our

answer in scripture.

There are moments when the faithful

thing to do is to move. Now, here's the

problem. Sometimes, sometimes we call

our fear waiting on God. We say, "Well,

I just don't know if the timing is

right." Well, that's possible, but

sometimes we know exactly what God wants

us to do. We're just afraid to do it.

Sometimes the problem isn't that God

hasn't spoken. The problem is we don't

like where he's asking us to go. God

says forgive and we say I'm praying

about that. God says to serve and we say

I'm waiting for the right opportunity.

God says to give and we say maybe when

things settle down a little bit. God

says have the conversation and we say

well we're waiting for the perfect time.

Sometimes God is saying green light and

we just got to go. Faith isn't simply

believing something. Faith is trusting

God enough to take the next step. And

that's what we've been learning

throughout this entire game on sermon

series. We don't have to know everything

in order to take the next faithful step.

Remember Candyland, the journey matters,

but God often doesn't give us the whole

map. He just gives us the next move. And

sometimes that's enough. So when God

says green light, we need to take that

step. But there are other times where

God really says red light and we need to

wait. And most of us don't like that

nearly as much, right? Because we live

in a world that doesn't value waiting.

We don't wait for much anymore, right?

If a website takes more than 5 seconds

to load, we get irritated. If the

drive-through line has six cars or more

in it, we start doing the math to figure

out how long it's going to take us to

get through. If someone doesn't respond

to our text message immediately, we

think there's something wrong. I mean,

think about how we live our lives today.

We can have groceries delivered. We can

have dinner delivered. We can have

packages delivered the exact same day.

Trust me, I've watched it happen in my

house. We can stream an entire

television series and we don't have to

wait for the next week for the next

episode. Now, the problem with all that

instant gratification is we bring that

expectation to God. Well, God, I prayed

about this yesterday.

Nothing. Well, God, I really need an

answer. Nothing. God, what's taking so

long? And God says, wait.

Psalm 27, wait for the Lord. Be strong

and take heart and wait for the Lord.

But waiting for the Lord does not mean

we're not doing anything. Waiting for

the Lord actually has what what I like

to call active trust. It is saying,

"God, I don't know what you're doing,

but I trust you know what you're doing."

And that's different than doing nothing.

You see, waiting on God is not giving

up. Waiting on God is not losing faith.

Waiting on God is not assuming that God

has forgotten us. Waiting on God is

trusting that God is working even if we

cannot see what God is doing. I mean,

think about how often that happened in

scripture. Abraham was waiting for a

child till he was like in his 90s.

Joseph waits in prison. Israel was

waiting for deliverance. David waits to

become king. The prophets are waiting

for the Messiah. The disciples are

waiting between the crucifixion and the

resurrection. The church is waiting for

the Holy Spirit. over and over and over

again. God's people wait. Sometimes the

waiting lasted much longer than they

expected. And that's probably the

hardest part. You see, we don't mind

waiting if we know how long we have to

wait. If we go to the restaurant and the

and the hostess says, "Your table will

be ready in 10 minutes." We're pretty

good. We can handle that. If the hostess

says, "I don't know how long it's going

to be before you have a table." Chances

are we're getting in our car and going

to a different restaurant. You know, I I

want God to say, "Hey, Chris, this will

happen in three weeks. I'm good. No

problem. I can handle that." Here's the

thing. God has yet to give me a

countdown clock on what I'm praying for.

Instead, God gives us this promise that

he is with us. And sometimes that's all

we get. There are prayers that some of

us have prayed for days and weeks and

months and years. you know, a

relationship to heal, a door to open, a

loved one to come back to faith, a job

opportunity, a financial situation, a

diagnosis, a child, a dream, a

direction, and we've wondered, God, have

you forgotten me? But Psalm 27 reminds

us to wait on the Lord. Now, that's not

because waiting is easy. That is because

God is trustworthy. And that is the

hardest truth because God's timing and

our timing are often very different.

Have you noticed that or is that just

me? Right? We want the immediate. God

gives us the eternal. We want the

quickest route. God is interested in who

we become along the way. We want

answers. God often wants trust. We want

God to change our situation. And

sometimes God is using our situation to

change us. That's my personal favorite.

Now, that doesn't mean that all delays

are from God. It doesn't mean that every

disappointment we face is planned by

God. Because remember, most of the time

when we're praying, we're praying for

other people as well. And when you're

praying for other people, they might not

be ready to listen to God. So, it isn't

just about us and God. But no matter how

many delays or disappointments we face,

we need to remember that no season in

our life is beyond God's ability to

redeem. Because David tells us something

very important at the beginning of this

passage that Clayton read for us. He

says, "I remain confident of this. I

will see the goodness of the Lord in the

land of the living." I love that David

doesn't say he understands everything.

He says he remains confident.

So when we don't understand, remain

confident. If I don't see the answer, I

remain confident. If the door hasn't

opened, we need to remain confident. If

the prayer hasn't been answered the way

I hoped it would, we need to remain

confident. If we don't know what God's

doing, we need to remain confident. Now,

why and how can we do that? Because our

confidence isn't in our ability to

understand God's timing. Our confidence

is in God's character. And God is

faithful. So here's the question I want

to leave with you today, and really it's

a question that kind of ties the whole

series together. What color is your

light right now? Maybe it's red. Maybe

God's saying, "Wait. Don't force it.

Don't rush. Don't panic. Don't assume

that because nothing seems to be

happening that nothing actually is

happening." Maybe God is just saying,

"Trust me." Maybe it's actually yellow.

Maybe God is saying, "Slow down. Pay

attention. Listen. Seek wisdom. Talk to

somebody who you trust. Don't make the

decision simply because you're

impatient." Maybe God isn't saying no.

Maybe God isn't saying go. Maybe God is

saying, "Pay attention because I'm

getting you ready." Or maybe it's green

and you've prayed and you've listened

and the opportunity is there and God has

been nudging you and you know you need

to go and maybe you don't need another

sign. Maybe you just need the courage to

actually go. Take the step. Make the

call. Join the group. Start serving.

Offer forgiveness. Ask for forgiveness.

Give generously. Invite someone. Use the

gifts God's given you. Say yes to the

green light.

Red light, green light seems like the

perfect place to end this sermon series.

For the last 10 weeks, we've been

playing games, but we've really been

talking about something much bigger than

the game. We've been talking about

following Jesus, right? We started with

Gaga Ball. We learned to guard our

hearts because what gets into our hearts

eventually guides our steps. Then we

played Simon Says and we were reminded

to listen to the right voice. Remember

Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice."

Then we played cornhole. We learned to

aim for the goal. Paul said, 'I press on

towards the goal. Keep your eyes on

Jesus. And then we played Jenga and it

reminded us of how the foundation

matters because storms reveal what our

life is actually built on. And then we

played Monopoly and we were asked, "What

are we building?" because Jesus reminds

us to not spend our lives building

treasures that don't last. And then we

traveled through Candyland and learned

that the journey matters. We need to

trust the Lord. We don't need to demand

to see the whole map. We just need to

take the next faithful step. Then we

learned through sorry that God is with

us all the time, even if we have to

start our life all over again. And we

discussed how Uno showed us that even

when our daily life is unpredictable,

our faith can be unshakable.

And then last week, we played kickball

and we learned that everybody has a part

to play on God's team. There are no

spectators in the body of Christ. Every

person matters. Every gift matters.

Every role matters. And then today, red

light, green light. Sometimes God says

wait or stop. Other times, God says,

"Go." And faithful disciples know how to

do both.

But underneath every game is the same

invitation. Trust Jesus. Because game on

is not about playing harder. It's it's

about following Jesus more faithfully.

And maybe that's the final thing that we

need to remember as our game on series

is coming to an end. The game isn't

over. Tomorrow morning, there are going

to be choices to make. Voices are going

to be competing for our attention.

Things are going to be trying to get

into our heart. Distractions are going

to be pulling it our focus away. Storms

will test our foundation. Opportunities

will come up for us to use our gifts.

Moments will come up where God is

telling us to wait and other moments

will come up where God is telling us to

move. The question is not whether or not

we will encounter these things. We will.

The question is, who will we trust when

we encounter these things? Because

Christianity is not about winning. It's

not about beating someone else. It's not

about having the highest score. It's not

about looking more spiritual than the

person sitting beside you. You guys can

figure that out amongst yourselves.

Following Jesus is not a competition.

It's a relationship. It's waking up each

and every day and saying, "Jesus, where

are you leading me today?" and then

listening. Sometimes Jesus is going to

say come. Sometimes Jesus is going to

say go. Sometimes he's going to say

stay. Sometimes he's going to say wait.

Sometimes he's going to say let go.

Other times he's going to say try again.

But every time the invitation is the

same. Trust me.

So as we close our series, maybe that's

the prayer. Not God, show me the whole

plan. Not God, guarantee me everything

will work out the way I want. Not God

make the road easy, but simply Jesus

help me follow you. When the light is

red, help me wait. When the light is

yellow, help me listen. When the light

is green, give me the courage to move.

But whatever season we are in, help me

to trust you because God is faithful.

God's timing is trustworthy and Jesus is

still leading.

So the challenge for us individually and

the challenge for us as Christ Church is

to guard our heart, listen to his voice,

keep our eyes on the goal, build our

life on the right foundation, invest in

what lasts, trust God on the journey,

receive grace,

play our part,

wait when God says wait, and move when

God says move. But above all, no matter

what, keep following Jesus because every

day gives us another opportunity to

trust the one who leads us. And

remember, the game is never over. Let's

pray. Lord, we are so grateful that you

guide us through all that we face. And

there's so many things that we have

learned from these different games that

we can apply to our everyday life. But

underneath all of that is the importance

to put our trust in you.

Help us to be able to do that [music] in

what we are doing. Help us to not try to

get ahead of you. Help us to not try to

do things on our own, but help us to put

our trust in you and follow the next

step that you are putting in front of

us. And if that means we need to go,

help us to go as fast as we possibly

can. If it means we need to stop, help

us to stop as quickly as we possibly can

and help us to have the wisdom to know

the difference because you promise

[music] to guide us every step of the

way.

Thank you for that lesson and thank you

[music] for your willingness to walk

with us every step we take. We ask all

this in your son's name and everyone

said, "Amen.