Dwell: The Waiting
Dwell: WEek 3 : The Waiting
Week 3 shows that God is still working in the dark, still speaking in the silence, and still moving in the waiting. The 400 “silent years” remind us that even when we can’t see or hear God, He is preparing the way. We dwell by leaning into His light, His Word, and His perfect timing.
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Let me ask you this question. Do you know the poem “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” right? You know what I’m talking about: “‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung from the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas would soon be there.” Right? How many of y’all have ever heard that? Right? Like all of you—because you just heard it, right?
It’s a beautiful little poem. You’re just like, “Oh, it sounds so cozy and perfect.” You know, it’s quiet. Everything’s in place. Everything’s in order. Like it’s what every Christmas and Christmas Eve is like, right? Like some of you are like, “Yeah, I’ve never experienced that Christmas Eve.” Like, they talk about quiet—no, I got silence, but it’s a different kind of silence. They talk about calm—no, I got chaos. They talk about everything being ready—no, I got presents to wrap, batteries to find, something to put together that they told me I had to buy… this dollhouse that I didn’t realize came in 172 pieces with IKEA-type instructions, right? Like Christmas Eve—like, it’s not always calm. It’s not always great. It’s not always pleasant.
Like maybe it would be better if we rewrote the poem to be more like this: “’Twas the night before Christmas and all through the land, there was darkness and silence and waiting at hand.” Because that might be more true to some of the Christmases we’re going through right now—that there’s darkness. There’s not joy, there’s darkness. There’s silence—not because everybody’s tucked into their bed, but because no one’s around. There’s waiting because you’re going, “Man, I just… I need to see something good happen in my life. I’m waiting for this relationship, this job, this breakthrough with my finances. I’m waiting—not for Christmas Eve to get here, but for Christmas to be done, because it’s just wrecking me emotionally.” Some of you are there right now.
And I want to acknowledge that Christmas isn’t always perfect. That Christmas can be quite blue, if you know what I mean. And I want you to hear this: if you’re wrestling with that, if you’re struggling with that, then I want you to know you’re not alone. You’re not alone in this room. You’re not the only one that is struggling right now at Christmas time. There are people in this room beside you who are as well. They might not be going through the exact same thing, but they understand the difficulty of this season.
And not just those in this room—honestly, it’s all through Scripture. It’s all through Scripture. See, in Scripture, we see this idea of dwell—that God wants to dwell with us. That He wants to be with us. He wants to focus on us. He wants us to be with Him and for us to focus on Him. Yet even though that’s what He desires, it seems like we bring a lot of darkness. There seems to be silence and there seems to be waiting in our life. And again, all through Scripture, we see this.
Let me… let me take like three minutes and walk you through Genesis through the entire Old Testament. Are you ready? Okay, I guess you’re not. Ben, come on up. Now, are you ready?
Genesis through Malachi—a bunch of books. But what these books teach us is that God wants to dwell with you even in the darkness. That God wants to dwell with you even in the silence. That God wants to dwell with you even in the waiting. That if you go to the very beginning of the Bible, it says that darkness was over the land, that darkness was over the waters—that it was a dark time. But God said, “I want to create. I want to bring light.” And He brought the sun. He brought the stars. He created mankind. He gave us all kinds of things at creation. And He put us in a garden so that He could dwell with us. And it was great… until it wasn’t, because we brought sin into it.
That God said, “Man, I want to walk hand in hand with you. This is a perfect place.” Yet we decided to take our focus off of God and put it on something else. And it brought sin into the world. And because of that, it brought division. And where God said, “I want to dwell,” we divided ourselves from the divine. But He said, “Listen, I’ll make a way. I’ll make a way.” Satan came and he bit the heel, but I’m going to crush his head. I’m going to send a Messiah. I’m going to take care of this. I will cover you for now, but then I will take care of you later.
So from that day on—Adam, Eve, their kids, everybody—had this hope of someone coming later that would solve all problems, that would fix their situation, because God wanted to dwell. And then what we see through history is you can go on from that… you can go to Moses and the book of Exodus. Moses had carried the people out of Egypt. And then I just said “carried the people.” I know for all of you locals, you’re like, “Yeah, no big deal.” I’ve been here 11 years. I’ve never said that he would “carry” you. I don’t know why I’m saying all this outside of the fact of like, wow, I’ve been here a long time. You know what I’m saying? Because in Indiana, can I just say, we don’t say we “carry” somebody. That never happens.
But Moses carried the people out of Egypt, and then he was on the mountain and God showed up. And when God showed up, He gave him some rules to follow. And then from the rules to follow, He also said, “Hey, I want you to build me a temple—or excuse me—I want you to build me a tabernacle. I want you to build this tent where I can come and I can dwell.” And so they built this tabernacle, this tent. And God came and He dwelt, and it was awesome.
And then when King David came along, he said, “I don’t want God just to reside in a tent. I want to have a temple for Him.” So David said, “I want to build You a temple.” And God said, “Well, you can make preparations, but your son Solomon is the one who will actually build it.” So then Solomon built a temple. And when he dedicated it, the presence of God came down in a thick cloud and filled the temple. And they’re like, “Man, this is awesome. God is with us.”
And it was great… until it wasn’t, because they brought sin in again, right? God said, “Hey, I’m going to come. I’m going to reside. I’m going to be there. But don’t walk away from Me. Don’t sin. Don’t be disobedient. Don’t follow other gods.” And sure enough, as the Israelites did, they turned their back on God and walked away from Him. And you would think God would say, “All right, fine. I’m done with you.” Right? He punished them. There were consequences. But He said, “I’m not done.” He said, “Return to Me. Repent, because I want to dwell with you, and I’m going to make it possible, and Messiah is going to come, and He’s going to set up His kingdom so that we can dwell with one another.”
And that’s what you read the rest of the Old Testament. You read about prophets that are prophesying God’s going to come, the Messiah is going to come. You get that all the way to the book of Malachi. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn there. I’m going to bounce around today, so I’m going to put some up on the screen, but Malachi is where I want to start. Malachi chapter 4—last book of the Old Testament—just kind of a little bit two-thirds way through your Bible if you got a paper Bible.
And what you’re going to see in Malachi is this: God going, “Man, I want to give you a word.” And here’s the word. He starts in chapter 1, verse 2, says, “Yet I have loved you.” Like, “I want to be with you.”
And then He goes on in chapter 4, and this is where I want to pick it up. It should be on the screen. It’ll say this—Malachi 4:2: “But for you who fear My name, the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in His wings, and you will go free, leaping with joy like calves led out to pasture.” That God is saying through the prophet Malachi that the Sun of righteousness will appear, that a Messiah is going to come, and when He does, He’s going to bring healing.
And what does He need to bring healing to? The darkness. The silence. The waiting.
Because throughout the Israelites’ history—and now for the next 400 years—they’re still going to be waiting. They’re still going to feel like God is silent. They’re still going to feel like there’s a darkness. They’re waiting because they got this prophecy. This would have happened in 430 BC, or right around 430 BC. So a little more than 400 years before Jesus came. So they get a prophecy that says a Messiah is going to come, He’s going to take care of you, He’s going to set things right. Yet they just sit and wait. God doesn’t show up.
He continued on in the prophecy. He said, “Look, I’m sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and their children to their fathers.” That He’s saying this: man, a prophet’s going to come, the Messiah is going to come, it’s going to be great—but then 430 years of waiting.
You will wait for five seconds for that bubble on the text message to go through and you’ll be like, “What are they trying to say?” 430 years of waiting. We get in a line and we struggle because we’re waiting to get through the line. 430 years of waiting. You have to wait a month or so to go to the doctor—and I know I’m not making light of this, that sucks, it’s horrible, there’s anxiety with it—430 years of waiting.
What do you do while you’re waiting? What about the silence? At that moment, God gave that prophecy, and then for 430 years was silent.
Think about the Israelites for a second. When Adam and Eve were created in the garden, God walked with them and talked to them face to face. Then when Moses is there, God talks to him face to face. When Joshua is there, God talks to Joshua. When the judges are there, God speaks to the judges and gives them visions. When the kings are there, God shows up and speaks and gives visions to the kings. To the prophets, He does miracles through the prophets. He speaks to the prophets. He gives visions to the prophets. And then all of a sudden… so all throughout Israel’s history for thousands of years, they had heard and seen God move. They had seen the miracles, heard the voice, heard the vision or seen the visions—and now nothing. At least that we know of, right? Nothing recorded in Scripture at all. No records. Nothing that we’ve been able to find historically that is from God. Those 430 years of silence.
But it wasn’t just silent. It was also dark. Life didn’t get any better in that time. They went from the Babylonian captivity getting back to Jerusalem, but it was in poor shape—they were struggling. And then after the Persians came the Greeks. Alexander the Great came through the area and defeated the area and made the area his empire. And when he did so, he “Hellenized” is the word—which means make things Greek. He made all things Greek. So everybody had to lose their culture. Everybody had to change their language. Everybody had to learn to speak Greek. And everybody had to adapt to that culture. So if you’re a Jewish person, you’d be like, “We’re losing our language. We’re losing our heritage. This is bad. This is dark.”
And then after the Greeks came the Romans. In the mid-100 BCs, the Romans came through, kicked out the Greeks, conquered the land, put in roads, put in taxes, and then told everybody you have to worship Caesar the emperor as a god. The emperor at one point went to Jerusalem, went into the temple and sacrificed a pig, which is just—to a Jew—is like, “How dare you?” That’s disgusting. That’s desecration. There was a group of people called the Maccabeans who revolted and there’s war in Jerusalem. Everybody’s running to the hills.
Here’s what I’m trying to say: it was dark. It was the time before Jesus. And it was dark and it was silent and it was a time of waiting.
And then Jesus showed up. Then an angel spoke for the first time to our knowledge—to Mary and Joseph, also to Elizabeth and Zechariah. There was a word from the Lord. The waiting for the Messiah seemed to be over. Mary became pregnant. A baby was born in a barn. A star came in the sky. Angels showed up and spoke and sang and put light out.
Here’s what I’m trying to say: on the night Jesus came, darkness was conquered by light, the silence was defeated by the Word, and the waiting was over because of the work of the Lord. And that’s where we could all go, “Yay, let’s celebrate.”
Yet isn’t there still darkness?
If you’re in a time of grief, you’d say, “Yeah.” If you’re in a time of a health scare, you’d say, “Yeah.” If there’s a time of relationship turmoil, family turmoil, you’d say, “Yeah.” If you’re trying to figure out how to pay the bills next week, you’d say, “Yeah, it’s still dark.”
What do you do when it’s still dark? Because think about this for a second: it was the time before Jesus came. I think I could add to that poem. “‘Twas the time after Jesus came” that it’s still dark. So when you have darkness around you, what do you do? You dwell in the light. That’s what you got to do. When the darkness is real, you dwell in the light.
You find a way to get out of bed and to get past the grief. You find a way to pray through the anxiety. You find a way to make the bills work. You find a way to walk through the job. You find a way to restore the—like you go, “I’ve got to get through this darkness. How do I do it? I bring the light in.”
I love the way that Scripture talks about it. Isaiah 9:2: “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.” That God wants to come into your darkness with the light. Psalm 18:28 says it this way: “You light a lamp for me. The Lord my God lights up my darkness.”
And I want you to think about darkness for a second. Like try to picture complete darkness. And when it is dark, imagine what just a little bit of light does. Just a little bit of light makes it where you can see. And I don’t mean full-blown lights—I’m talking just a little bit of light. You all of a sudden, you’re like, “Man, I can see a little bit.” But if you sit in that dark room with just that little bit of light, what happens over time? You see a lot more. Your eyes start taking in more of the light, which starts to dissipate the darkness.
And guys, that’s the way it works when we start dwelling in the light of God: that no matter how dark it is, the light shines brighter.
There was a lady named Betsy ten Boom—actually Corrie ten Boom and Betsy, which is her sister—they were alive back in the World War II days. They housed Jews in Germany and because of that got arrested and got thrown in concentration camps. While they were in concentration camps, life was horrible. You can imagine there’s no way I can tell the story that equates to the reality of their situation. But they were in a concentration camp, and it was dark and it was cold and it was bad.
There were a lot of women in the same—if I can say barracks or dormitory, whatever you want to call it—area as them. And the area they were in was infested with fleas. And one day, while Betsy and Corrie were in that room, in that area, they just were reminded of Scripture that said, “Give God thanks in all circumstances.” So Betsy said, “Corrie, let’s just start thanking God for everything in our life. As bad as it is, as dark as it is, let’s just start thanking God right now for everything. Let’s thank Him for our breath. Let’s thank Him for the little bit of food we get. Let’s thank Him for the people around us. Let’s thank Him for the grace. Let’s thank Him for the fleas.”
And Corrie ten Boom is like, “Uh-uh. You lost me there.” Like, “I’m not thanking God for this area that is infested with fleas. I want to tell God to get rid of the fleas.” And Betsy said, “No, thank God for the fleas,” because God said to thank Him for everything. So they started thanking God for the fleas.
In the midst of their prayer, other ladies started joining in. They started being able to share God’s Word with them. They started being able to hold worship services every day where ladies with them started giving their life to Christ. Eventually, when the war ended, they got released from the camp. And as they got released, somehow they were able to talk to the guards. And they said, “Why did you not ever stop us? Like we should have been killed for having worship services.” And the guard said, “Your area’s infested with fleas. We don’t dare go in there.”
The very thing that was a pain in their neck, the very thing that was a problem in their life, is the very thing God used to help bring people to Christ. In the midst of the darkness, the light shines the brightest.
So I want to challenge you: just walk with Jesus in the midst of your darkness. John said it this way in the biography he wrote about Jesus: “The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it.” Whatever darkness you’re walking through right now, dwell in the light because it’ll dissipate that darkness.
Or what about when you feel like God’s being silent? Because that happens. There’s times you’ll feel like, “Man, God, I just need to hear from You. I need a word today. I need a sign today that I’ve got a situation. I’m trying to figure out how to manage it. And God, I need You to speak into it right now.” And it just feels like silence.
Guys, there have been times I have seen beyond a shadow of a doubt a sign from God where He has directed me on what I should do. There are times in my life beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have heard God speak to me. I don’t mean an audible voice, but I mean the Holy Spirit speaking to my mind, speaking to my heart, and I’m like, “That’s the Lord.” There have also been times where I’m going, “God, I need to see a sign right now. I need to know what to do,” and I don’t get anything. There are times I’m like, “God, I need to hear from You right now. What do You want me to do in this situation? What do You want me to do about that?” and I don’t hear anything.
And maybe you’re there. “God, I need You to talk to me about what I should do with this job.” Silence. “God, what do we do about this family situation?” Silence. “God, I’m looking for clarity, for wisdom,” and nothing.
When you feel silence, the best way to deal with the silence is: dwell in His Word, because He speaks through His Word daily. Daily. Like here’s what—as simple as this sounds—all I’m saying is open up the Bible. Just open it up and spend time with Him. Dwell in it. Because if you start dwelling in it, you will hear from the Lord because His Word is alive and active and He wants to speak to you. He might speak to you about a sin issue. He might speak to you about a wisdom issue. He might speak to you about a life issue. But His Word will speak. So open it up.
And you might go, “Okay, Josh, how do I do that though? It’s so big.” Let me tell you a couple ways. One, if you got a paper Bible, maybe do it this way: open it up, flip the pages, and stick your finger down. Right? Anybody here ever done that? All right. Now let me just tell you something: it’s not my best advice. But has there been times God has spoken to me—to you—by you doing that? Absolutely. But don’t use that every day. That’s not the way to build a habit of dwelling in His Word. But there’s times in your life you just need to flip it open and go, “God, what do You have to say?” And you might go, “Yes.”
If you’re unfortunate, you’ll put your finger down and it’ll say, “Kill a lamb.” You’ll be like, “Let’s try again.” Right? Like, you know what I mean? But it is one way.
But here’s another way that can help you be more consistent: get on a reading plan. I say it all the time—open up the Rock’s app and read from the Rock reading plan. Spend time in His Word every day and you’ll see Him speak. And there’s so many of us that do it through the Rock’s app that you’ll be able to start having discussions. You’ll be able to say, “Man, this verse really stuck out to me.”
That you could use YouVersion—which is the number one Bible app out there. If you read from the Rock Reading Plan, you hit the Bible button, it actually takes you to YouVersion. But YouVersion has a bunch of other reading plans that maybe you’re like, “Man, I need to deal with this topic.” They’ll have a reading plan on that topic on their app.
There’s another app called Dwell. What Dwell does is it mixes devotions and silence and music with a specific Scripture. Or here’s another thing you can do: just read through the Bible in a year. Just to say, “Hey, January’s coming. I’m going to read through the Bible.”
I’m going to challenge you in a way that I know most of you, you’re like, “Nope, no thanks, Josh. I’m not there.” But I want to challenge you to read through the Bible with me. On December 25th, I’m going to start reading through the Bible. The Bible has 66 books. Sixty-six days from December 25th is February 28th. I’m going to read through the Bible in 66 days.
Now, I’ve done this the last three years. I’m going to do it again this year. Last year, I shared this with several of you, and I know several of you did as well. Guys, let me tell you—it’s a game changer, because here’s what it does for me. Here’s what I know it has done for others: you start your year fully in the Word of God.
And you might go, “There is no way I could ever do that.” Sure you could. Honestly, it’s not very hard. You have way more free time than you think you have. And here’s what I mean by that: wake up in the morning, spend just a little bit of time reading His Word. You got to go to work, get in the car, hit play right where you left off. And as you’re driving to work, listen to God’s Word. When you’re sitting and eating lunch, put your headphones in, listen to God’s Word. When you’re driving home, listen to God’s Word. When you get home, when you think about getting on Instagram, say, “Nope, first I’m going to finish a book of the Bible before I get on Facebook.” Praise God. I’m going to get in God’s Word. You see what I’m getting at? If you’ll do that, you can do it in 66 days.
However you do it though, just get in God’s Word. Dwell in His Word.
Last thing—and I need to say this real quick—that when the waiting is there, dwell where He works. See, the reality is there’s going to be times of waiting. There’s going to be times where you’re just like, “God, I’ve been praying about this and I need to see it happen. I need You to show up.” And God, I feel like there’s some stuff there, but when is this going to happen? “God, when are we going to be able to have kids? God, when am I going to find that person to spend my life with? And God, when am I going to get that job? God, when am I…” whatever it might be.
Whatever it is that you’re waiting on, understand that God is at work in the midst of your waiting. God’s always at work. It says it this way in the book of John chapter 5: “But Jesus replied, ‘My Father is always working and so am I.’” “My Father is always working.” That God is always working in the midst of your waiting.
Can we go back to Malachi? 430 years people were waiting going, “God, when are You going to do something? When are You going to send Your Messiah?” And it felt like it was dark. It felt like it was silent. And they felt like they were waiting with nothing going on. But do you know what made the spreading of the gospel of Jesus… you know what made it possible for people to tell the world about Jesus? You know what made it possible?
Well, one thing was Alexander the Great telling everybody they had to speak Greek, because now all across the known world there was a common language. So the gospel was able to travel via words. And you know the other thing that made it easy for guys like Paul to go on his missionary journeys? The Romans—with the taxes from the Jews and the other countries that they had conquered—from those taxes, they built roads that connected all of the cities. So because of the roads and the language, when it came time to proclaim the gospel of Jesus, it was able to go out in a few hundred years to the entire known world.
Here’s what I’m trying to say: while everybody thought God was waiting, He wasn’t just waiting—He was actually working.
What do you do in the midst of your waiting? You go where God is working. Like you’re like, “Man, this is what I want to do with my future. I’ve got this desire to get there, but I don’t know how to get there. It doesn’t seem like it’s time.” So what do I do? I take one step to where God is working right in front of me, and I work there until I can get there.
And if God closes a door right here, but you see God working there, you say, “Okay, God, I’ll go right here then, and I’m going to join You in Your work right here.” Because while I wait, I’m going to work.
Maybe I could say it this way today: don’t waste your waiting. Don’t waste the waiting, but instead just join Him in His work. Because when you do that, here’s what you end up doing: you dwell with Him. You’re with Him. You’re focused on Him. And you say, “God, I’ll do whatever You need.” And God then will open up and He’ll speak through His Word and say, “This is what I need you to do right now.” And you say, “Yes sir. Yes Lord. I’m in.” And as you do that over and over and over, guess what happens? The light gets brighter and brighter and brighter.
So as some people might say, it was the time before Christmas—or it was the time before Jesus—and all through the land there was darkness and silence and waiting at hand. I want to twist that. I want to twist the common poem and I want to put it in some different words that I think will maybe sum this up for us today:
“’Twas the night you chose to dwell, and all through your soul, not a whisper from heaven, no glimpse of the goal. The prayers had been offered with longing and care, but silence still lingered like frost in the air. You sat in the shadows, not sure where to turn. The candle burned low, and your heart began to yearn. The stars overhead seemed distant and cold, and stories of hope felt ancient and old. The darkness had crept in like mist on the moor, a sorrow unspoken, a pain hard to ignore. Was God even near? Could He possibly see the ache that you carried, the burden, the plea?
But deep in the stillness, a flicker of light—not loud, not sudden, just steady and bright. It whispered, ‘I’m here. I’ve not left your side.’ Even when grief and shadows collide, you listened for thunder, for signs from above—but the silence was deafening, void of the dove. Like Israel once, you waited for years. You questioned and doubted and wrestled through tears.
But then came a nudge, a word on a page, a verse in the stillness, a voice from the stage. Not the roar of the wind, not the quake of the land, but the truth in His whisper, a voice close at hand. You sat in the hallway between what had been and what had not yet come, and wondered again: will the promise be kept? Will dawn ever break? Or is hope just a myth that my heart shouldn’t take?
But waiting’s not wasting when God’s at the helm. Behind every moment, He’s shaping your realm. The roads are preparing. The timing is tight. The fullness is coming, just not overnight.
So here’s what you do when the night stretches long: you dwell in His presence and cling to His song. You dwell in the light when the darkness presses in. You dwell in the Word when the silence begins. You dwell where He’s working. You seek where He’s near. You wait not in worry, but faith without fear.
’Twas the night you dwelled, and the dawn had begun, for silence and darkness and waiting were coming undone.”
That’s what happens when we dwell. And I want you to see that last line. It didn’t say darkness and silence and waiting were done. It said they were coming undone. Man, I’d be a fool to believe that you’d come in here with a ton of grief and in a 30-minute sermon you walk out all hunky dory. That’s not how it works. No, here’s how it works: you walk in with some grief, some struggles, some silence from the Lord, and you turn on that light, and it starts to dissipate. It starts to push back the darkness.
Now for some, here’s what you need to do today: you need to respond to Christ right now because you have darkness inside of you. You’re dark. There is no light. So what you need to do is you need to turn on the light of Christ. You need to surrender your life and let the light in. It’s the only way. It’s the only way. The light’s on in this place. Jesus is here, but the light might not be on in your soul yet. So today, I challenge you: surrender. Say yes to His love and His lordship. We have prayer counselors up front. We have our baptism team ready. We would love to help you take that step to surrender to Jesus.
For others of you, you have surrendered—it just seems like it’s a little dark. It seems like it’s a little silent. It seems like there’s a lot of waiting. Well today, I just invite you to dwell. Maybe dwell in His Word. When we sing songs, they come straight from Scripture—so if you’re dwelling in a song, you’re dwelling in His Word. Maybe it’s for you just to come up front, to get down on your knees, and to take that communion and to thank Him for His body and to thank Him for His blood and to thank Him for the hell that you’re going through right now.
I know that seems impossible. It does. But what if you were to thank Him for all circumstances and say, “God, I know that You can bring about the good for those who love You and are called according to Your purpose because God has promised that He will.” And God doesn’t fail on His promise.
So maybe today it’s just going, “God, I’m going to thank You as hard as it is because I want to see You work. So I’m going to invite you to stand with me. I’m going to pray over us, and I’m going to invite you to spend some time praying up front and in your seats.”
“Lord, we come before You. I ask You, speak—speak into our hearts and our mind, our soul. Light up the darkness. Show us where we can work while we’re waiting, because we know how critical it is to dwell—to focus on You. So help us to do that right now, in Your name. Amen. Amen.”
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DWELL — WEEK 3 BLOG
Between the Old and New Testaments lies a period known as the “400 silent years”—a stretch of time where God did not speak through prophets, visions, or recorded miracles. Darkness deepened. Empires rose and fell. Culture shifted. And heaven seemed quiet.
But silence is not absence. And waiting is not wasted.
Darkness Does Not Mean God Has Left
Israel endured oppression, cultural upheaval, political turmoil, and spiritual drought. They longed for a Messiah, a rescuer, a light. And though they could not see what God was doing, He was still moving behind the scenes.
The same is true for you.
Your dark season is not the end of your story. Darkness often becomes the canvas where God’s light shines the brightest.
Silence Does Not Mean God Has Stopped Speaking
When God seems quiet in your life—when prayer feels unanswered, direction feels unclear, and Scripture feels flat—it’s easy to assume the worst. But silence is not punishment. Sometimes it’s preparation.
And God still speaks through His Word. When you can’t hear Him through circumstance, you can still hear Him through Scripture. His voice hasn’t vanished—you simply meet Him in a different place.
Waiting is Where God Often Does His Best Work
While Israel waited…
A universal language was forming.
Roads were being built across Rome.
Cultures were converging.
History was aligning.Galatians 4:4 says that Jesus came in “the fullness of time”—the perfect time.
Your waiting is not empty; it’s ordered. God prepares the road before He sends the miracle.
Dwell in the Dark. Dwell in the Quiet. Dwell in the Wait.
When life feels like the “in-between,” dwell where God is working, not where your fear is whispering.
• In darkness — dwell in His light.
• In silence — dwell in His Word.
• In waiting — dwell in His timing.God is never idle in your in-between. He is forming something, preparing something, aligning something.
Christmas reminds us:
God shows up right on time. -
Small Group Curriculum – DWELL
Week 3: In Between the Testaments
Main Scripture: John 5:17 (NLT)
Big Idea: God is still at work in the dark.1. Connect (Icebreaker)
Fun: Share a time when you had to wait for something (mail, food, answer)—how did it feel?
Personal: Have you ever felt like God was silent in your life?
Transition: Just like Israel between the Old and New Testaments, we sometimes go through seasons of darkness, silence, and waiting.
2. Discover (Scripture & Discussion)
Read John 5:17; Isaiah 9:2; Galatians 4:4–5 (NLT).
Discussion Questions
What do these passages reveal about God’s activity during dark or silent seasons?
How do you see parallels between Israel’s waiting and your own waiting seasons?
Why is it important to believe God is working even when we don’t see it?
What habits help you dwell in God during silence, darkness, or waiting?
Dig Deeper Scripture: Hebrews 4:12.
How does Scripture act as God’s voice when we feel like He’s silent?
What’s one practical way you can let Scripture shape you this week?
3. Respond (Application & Prayer)
Personal Application
Where do you feel like you’re in a season of silence, darkness, or waiting?
Which truth comforts you most: God’s light, God’s Word, or God’s timing?
Group Prayer Prompt
Pray for those in dark or waiting seasons to see God’s light.
Ask God to strengthen trust in His timing and His Word.
Challenge for the Week
Memory Verse: Galatians 4:4 (NLT).
Next Step: When you feel silence or waiting, pause and read one Scripture aloud daily to remind yourself God is still speaking.
⏱️ Designed for 45–60 minutes
Connect (10–15 min)
Discover (25–30 min)
Respond (10–15 min)
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CONWAY
AYNOR
SOUTH STRAND