From Mountain Tops to Suddenly
Living Life in the Dots
Pastor Ron Cobler 6/12/11
Habakkuk 2
Pastor Cobler’s sermon “From Mountain Tops to Suddenly” focuses on how God works through change which often results in us waiting. We are in the midst of change Nationally, locally and in our own lives and we find ourselves living in the dots. . . What are the dots? The dots are marks used between the end of one statement and the beginning of another but what happened in-between was too long to write so the writer uses a series of dots for what is omitted. These marks are called ellipsis from the Latin word meaning to fall short. There are times when personal promises can come to us as we read scripture or when we pray. It is wonderful when we see the promise fulfilled, but the time between the promise and the fulfillment requires us to wait. That waiting time is living in the dots or the ellipsis.
In Acts 2:4b “He gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” The disciples may have been surprised when Jesus ascended into Heaven that the Holy Spirit did not descend sooner. Instead, they began a time of waiting in the upper room. The disciples were living in the dots waiting for the fulfillment of the promise. They were waiting for the “suddenly” of Acts 2:2-3 “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from Heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” They had gone from a mountain top watching Jesus ascend into Heaven to waiting for the “suddenly” to happen. When we find ourselves waiting on the Lord, what should we do?
On way to survive living in the ellipsis is to embrace the dots trusting God and in faith believing that we may not understand the dots, but we trust the God of the dots. God’s timing is different than ours and we must not grow weary in waiting. We don’t want to be one dot Christians who step out in obedience and when circumstances don’t change we give up waiting and we go back to doing it our way. Often these dots over time can suck faith, hope and joy out of our lives and the dots become like a black hole drawing us into it. Psalm 23 promises us that even if we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we will fear no evil. God promises us that we will never be alone, someone greater than the black hole is on our side. Everything that comes into our lives has gone through the Father filter because God has allowed it. Embrace the waiting and hold on to God’s Word.
A second way to survive the dots is to find a handhold from the Word in the midst of the ellipsis. In Habakkuk 1:2 we read “How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” God replies in Chapter 2:2 “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” Here we read that although it may take a while, what we are waiting for will happen. The only word that will get us across the bridge from ellipsis to the suddenly is the word faith. Without it, we will fall short. One day, we will look back on the dots with gratitude because we will see how God used the time of waiting for our good. Psalm 119:36 Incline my heart to your testimony and not to selfish gain. In the dots, we begin to see our hearts and who we really are and when we hold on we begin to see who God really is. The dots squeeze us so that we can see what is in us. We see our need for Him and we turn to Heaven and praise God that He loves us. Our independence turns to dependence, we become humble and we begin to look like Jesus more and more as we focus on His Word as our stronghold.
God is working in the change around each of us. As we embrace the time of waiting on the Lord we begin to trust Him more and we find peace. When we find ourselves living in the dots, we need to grab hold of something from the Word of God as our anchor. While we wait, we need to be intentional in increasing our faith in Jesus. God is using the change to conform us more to His image. One day when we see Him face to face, the ellipsis between now and forever will be filled in. All will be revealed and we will fall at His feet, grateful.
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