Sermon For Encouragement

Those Who Wait On The Lord

There is a particular kind of tiredness that sleep does not fix. You can rest all weekend and still wake up Monday morning carrying the same weight you carried on Friday. It is not a tiredness of the body alone. It is a tiredness of the soul, a weariness that settles somewhere beneath the surface and makes even ordinary days feel like a long climb uphill. If you have ever felt that way, or if you feel it right now, the passages before us this morning were written with you in mind.

We are going to spend our time together in two texts. The first is Isaiah 40, verses 27 through 31. The second is Hebrews 10, verses 19 through 25. These two passages, separated by centuries, speak to the same human condition and point toward the same source of durable strength. Let us read them carefully and let them do their work.

Isaiah 40:27-31 In The Christian Standard Bible Reads This Way:

"Jacob, why do you say, and Israel, why do you assert: 'My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God'? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to his understanding. He gives strength to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who wait on the LORD will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint."

And Hebrews 10:19-25:

"Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to provoke one another to love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching."

The Complaint That God Understands

Isaiah 40 opens with the voice of a people in exile. The nation of Israel had been carried away from everything familiar. Their homes were gone. Their temple was in ruins. Their daily rhythms had been torn apart. And in that condition, they began to say something that sounds almost like accusation: "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God."

That is not a casual complaint. That is a cry from the bottom of a long, exhausting season. And notice that God does not rebuke them for saying it. He does not respond with disappointment or correction. He responds with a question that is really an invitation: "Do you not know? Have you not heard?"

The prophet is not scolding the people for their weariness. He is reminding them of something they already know but have lost hold of in the darkness of their circumstances. This is an important distinction. The text does not say their faith was defective. It says their memory needed refreshing. There is a difference between weak faith and forgotten truth, and the pastoral move here is to speak the truth again, gently, over the exhaustion.

What is the truth being spoken? That the LORD is the everlasting God. That he is the Creator of the whole earth. That he never becomes faint or weary. That there is no limit to his understanding. These are not abstract theological propositions. They are meant to land as personal assurance. The God who made everything and sustains everything has not grown tired of your situation. He has not lost track of you. Your way is not actually hidden from him, no matter how hidden it feels.

Then comes the turn that the whole chapter has been building toward. "He gives strength to the faint and strengthens the powerless." Not the strong. Not the ones who have it together. The faint. The powerless. The ones who have already spent what they had.

The next verse is striking. "Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall." In the ancient world, youth and strength were nearly synonymous. If the young and strong can stumble, then no one should be surprised when they themselves reach the end of their own resources. The point is not to discourage. The point is to level the ground. Human strength, at its best, has limits. Every person in this room, regardless of age or health or resilience, will eventually arrive at the edge of what they can carry alone.

And that is precisely where the promise speaks. "But those who wait on the LORD will renew their strength." The word translated "wait" carries the sense of expectant hope, a leaning forward toward God rather than a passive resignation. It is not the waiting of someone who has given up. It is the waiting of someone who is looking for something real to arrive.

The images that follow are worth sitting with. Soaring on wings like eagles. Running without becoming weary. Walking without fainting. Notice the sequence moves from the dramatic to the ordinary. Soaring is glorious. Running is impressive. But walking, simply walking without fainting, that is the grace most of us need most of the time. Not a spectacular moment of breakthrough, but the quiet, sustained ability to keep going through an ordinary Tuesday.

The Access We Have Been Given

The writer of Hebrews is addressing a congregation under pressure. Scholars believe these early believers were facing social exclusion, the temptation to drift back toward older religious patterns, and the grinding uncertainty of a community that had not yet seen all the promises fulfilled. The letter has spent ten chapters explaining who Jesus is and what his sacrifice accomplished. Now, in verses 19 through 25, the writer draws out the practical implications.

"Since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus." In the old covenant, only the high priest could enter the innermost place of God's presence, and only once a year, and only with blood. The curtain that separated that holy space from everyone else was a permanent reminder of the distance between a holy God and sinful people. But the writer of Hebrews, drawing on the reality of what Christ accomplished, says that distance has been closed. Not because we earned access, but because Jesus opened the way through his own sacrifice.

This is the foundation of everything that follows. The "let us" statements in verses 22 through 25 are only possible because of what God has done in Christ. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith." Draw near to God. Not cautiously, not with the fear that you will be turned away, but with full assurance, because the one who welcomes you is the same one who made the way for you to come.

"Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful." The reason to hold on is not willpower. It is the character of God. Faithfulness belongs to him, not to us. We hold on because we are holding on to someone who does not let go.

Then the third "let us," and this one turns outward. "Let us consider one another in order to provoke one another to love and good works." The word translated "provoke" is the same word used elsewhere for irritation or sharp disagreement. Here it is turned in a positive direction. We are to stir one another up, to actively think about how to draw out love and good works in the people around us.

This is not accidental. The writer connects it directly to gathering together. "Not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another." The community of faith is not optional decoration around a private spiritual life. It is the place where the "let us" becomes real. We draw near together. We hold on together. We stir one another up together.

The word "encouraging" here carries the same root as the word for the Holy Spirit as Comforter or Advocate. To encourage one another is to do, in human form, something that reflects what the Spirit does. It is not cheerleading. It is not pretending everything is fine. It is speaking truth, bearing witness to hope, and showing up for one another in ways that make the weight lighter.

What This Means For This Congregation Today

There are people in this room carrying things that are not visible. There are quiet griefs, long-term struggles, fears that have not been named out loud, and exhaustion that has been managed so long it has started to feel normal. The texts we have read this morning do not pretend otherwise. They speak directly into that kind of weariness.

Isaiah's word is this: the God who made you has not grown tired of your situation. Your way is not hidden from him. And the strength he offers is not a reward for the ones who have held on the longest. It is a gift given to the faint and the powerless, which is to say, it is available to you.

Hebrews' word is this: you have access to God through Christ that nothing can revoke. And you do not walk that road alone. The community gathered here is meant to be a place where people are seen, where hope is spoken aloud, where someone notices when you are struggling and stays close.

If you are carrying something heavy right now, you do not have to perform strength in this room. You are allowed to be honest about where you are. And if you are in a season of relative steadiness, look around. Someone near you may be at the end of what they can carry. Consider them. Think about how to stir up love and good works in their direction. That is not a small thing. That is the work of the church.

If you are not yet a believer, what is being offered here is not a system of self-improvement. It is an invitation to draw near to a God who has already made the way through Jesus Christ. That is where durable hope begins.

Let us pray together.

Lord, we come to you as people who sometimes feel faint and powerless. We thank you that you give strength to exactly those people. Remind us today that our way is not hidden from you, that you are not weary of us, and that in Christ we have full and free access to your presence. Help us to hold on to hope not because we are strong but because you are faithful. And help us to see one another clearly, to encourage one another honestly, and to carry one another's burdens with the same grace you have shown us. Amen.

Sources Consulted

Motyer, J. Alec. Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. InterVarsity Press, 1999.

Oswalt, John N. The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Eerdmans, 1998.

O'Brien, Peter T. The Letter to the Hebrews. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Eerdmans, 2010.

Guthrie, George H. Hebrews. NIV Application Commentary. Zondervan, 1998.

Christian Standard Bible. Holman Bible Publishers, 2017.