Trust God in the Waiting | Miracles

TRANSCRIPT

And specifically we're talking about waiting for a miracle. So I'm generally not that quick on the uptake, but I feel like I understand why they've chosen me for this little this little endeavor of waiting for a miracle. And I'll explain more about that lately, but I think as far as miracles go, We miss more than we see.

We really miss more than we see and I could give a hundred examples or or someone smarter than me could give a hundred examples but I think you know if you get up and see a sunrise and you know that the earth, this little ball has spun around one more time and and it's and now it's spinning around the sun and we're exactly the same distance from the sun as we should be and is that an accident?

I don't think so. But what about our human body? You know the way it's knit together and the way it functions and someone tell me how the brain functions because you know you know, maybe I need to know that more than anyone but It's a miracle that we're knit together the way we are and I I think sometimes we miss Miracles more than we see them.

We only see what we want to see But specifically we're talking about waiting And by the way, I've I've inflicted Jen on another church this morning. Jen has a way of interrupting my stories and always has done. She should have known that I'm a broad strokes kind of guy and I never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

But she always wanted to interject. She even does it now, you know, so I had to send her off and So that I could speak about her and me Unencumbered so I've sent her off. She's gone So she'll be watching this later online and she'll point out probably with her little bony finger how I should have done better But that's the nature of marriage.

Isn't it guys? Yeah. I tell you what just speaking of missing miracles There was something in devotions the other day back in Moses day and they missed a miracle. They missed the fact that their clothes did not wear out. And their you know, probably their shoes didn't wear out. And and that was a miracle that they missed.

And I feel like this is not recorded in the Bible, but what happened then is a strong delegation of women came up to Moses. And they said, they said, Moses, I want to go and buy a pair of new shoes. And he said, then Moses gave the 11th commandment. And he said, thou shalt not buy any new shoes until yours wear out.

And there was a miracle, but I don't think they appreciate it. There was a lot of moaning going on at that stage. So I'm just going to quickly share my story or our story again. And I know most of you know my story or our story, Jen and I. But there may be a few in the room that don't know it. And for you guys online, welcome again.

And I just want to share my story quickly with you. And this is a very brief version. So Jen and I have been married for nearly 41 years and we're heading to 50. There's no doubt about it. That's our goal at least. And so we've been married 41, married in 83. Traveling along beautifully until 94, 1994 and then Jen was diagnosed with a brain tumor and it was removed in that year.

Massive amount of God's stuff went on in that period in our lives. We had thousands and thousands of people praying for us overseas here. Church support. Awesome. So, so good. And they only gave Jen two to five years when we left hospital and Jen has now made it through to seeing her Children grow and loving them.

And also grandchildren. Now she's seen that But there came a point, what happened was Jen received radium after the brain tumour operation into the brain. Now I'm not a doctor and I, I can't verify this, but I sensed that there was damage done. And since that time, Jen's had four different strokes, each of which has taken something from Jen.

Culminating in the last one in Christmas of 2020, where she had a major stroke, and it went down through her vocal cords and her throat, and that has stopped her from speaking. But she can still communicate. Don't worry about that. But it has stopped her from speaking, and even eating is an issue, but she can eat something.

So, that has been the progress of our our journey but she's still going strong and my job is to make her laugh and I can still do that. And we, we still communicate even though she's unable to talk. So, that has been the journey and, you know, it's, it's produced in me some negative stuff which I've had to overcome.

You know, I've been angry. I've been angry with God. I've been frustrated. I've been There's been more than buckets of tears. It has been quite a journey in terms of reconciling this and I'm a victory type of guy. I want to see victories. I'm, I just related to sport and maybe beating Jeff at golf, which has never ever happened.

But you know one day but you know, i'm a victory type of guy. I know i'm looking for a victory But it has been a frustrating experience to try and see it And but I want you to know i'm waiting and i'm still waiting But What I have discovered in all of that helplessness and all of that frustration is that we need to pray honest prayers.

Forget the these and thous and God will you, you know, like we need to just tell God what's going on. And I've been able to do that in many different occasions and just say, God, I'm not happy here. You know, what is going on? This is tough. Help me to see what you're doing in this, which is the nature of what we're talking about today, is what is God doing in the midst of you waiting for your miracle?

Now, I want to, I want to gauge the room today. And I know that Pastor Kev was just praying for us and you guys as I feel like there are people waiting on a miracle. In this room today and online. And I wondered if you would just, just bear with me. Would you give me a show of hands today? If you are waiting on a miracle might be your family might be, Oh, wow.

That's more than I thought. That is like two thirds of the room. This could be a timely message because you know what? I. I just believe that God is actually going to do something. But it's not on our terms. It is not on our terms. It's on His terms. And we need to see that today. We need to see that.

Sometimes we're waiting on a miracle and we're praying fervently for a breakthrough and we might feel abandoned. We might even feel overlooked. We might even feel like that God is not interested at times.

But you know what? We're going to look at a story today that's going to show us otherwise. And what I want to do is dig into some scripture today, which is one of my favorite things is digging into some scripture and just seeing what God is actually doing in the waiting period. I've experienced miracles.

I have been healed of manic depression and I have experienced many miracles. So I can look back on those miracles. And I saw miracles during Jen's time with brain tumor and stuff. And I can look back on those miracles. But that is encouraging. But there is still that frustration of what's happening now.

God, why? And I'm going to tell you that why is not your best question. I'm Because it only leads to more frustration. And if we persist in the why, and we persist in asking God and being frustrated, it can rob you of your faith and rob you of your joy. And someone really timely gave me that scripture that, you know, the joy of the Lord is our strength, you know, and I got that again the other day.

And I, yeah, I need that right now. So let's dig in. And we need to know before we do that, that he, he doesn't fulfill our desires in our timetable. And the other thing is that God's delays are not denials. God's delay in attending to your miracle are not denials. So what we want to explore is the space in between.

And we're going to have a look at the story of Lazarus. Lazarus, Mary and Martha's brother, he got sick and we're going to read some scripture now. I'm not sure if we got it up on the screen, don't that we do, so I will be reading it for you. There'll be a lot of blasters coming off and on, you know, because I need to do that, you know.

Sorry about that team, but here it comes. So what we're going to do is read from John chapter 11. 1 to 44, won't read the whole lot, but just, you know, just don't panic, but it's going to be good. Here we go. Now, a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha.

This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. You know, they were good mates, these guys. They were just hanging out, you know. Imagine having Jesus just pop over. Having a swim in your pool, you know. Eating, having fun, you know.

And that's what they did. Jesus and these guys were friends. But they also knew Him as Lord. And I think that is something that we can take on board too. That Jesus is our friend. But He is also Lord. Let's play on. So the sister sent word to Jesus. She said, Lord, the one you love is sick. So Jesus was at another place.

He just left this area, nearly got stoned. You know, the disciples were pretty keen to get out of there and they went to another place. And now she's sending word to where Jesus is. And so I don't think the boys are that keen to come back, but let's let's play on. So the sister, Lord, the one you love is sick.

And when he heard this, Jesus said, this sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it. Okay, so here we see Jesus has a plan. Glasses back on. We see Jesus has a plan that he will be glorified. Is it possible that Jesus glorification is of more import than our waiting on a miracle?

Jesus was going to be glorified and this was the plan and purpose. Wouldn't it be good to be able to sit down with Jesus? And if I could just sit down with Jesus and find out what's going on and, and you could sit down with Jesus and just say, you know, I'd love that. What do you, how do you think you're going to play this?

You know, it'd be really good to know but we don't get this, but we do have the Holy Spirit. who can come and comfort us and give us peace, which Jesus said was even better than him just chatting with us. But you know, sometimes I feel like I'd like to chat, you know, it'd be good to know what's going on.

But God had a plan and a purpose for this. So again, we can see a divine delay is not a denial. And maybe you guys that have had your hand up. have experienced the disappointment and the struggle and the waiting and the God doesn't seem to be showing up. But what we need to understand is that there is a plan.

God has a plan and he runs on his timetable not on our timetable. So how do we reconcile that troubled soul? Well, again, we need to pray honest prayers. We need to really get with the Lord. And I, I remember an honest prayer that I was praying maybe two or three years ago now, I mean, this is sort of, this is ongoing, this waiting, and we'll see that there are people who waited a lot longer than this in the Bible.

But I've told this story before, but I, I was in a particularly, maybe I could say dark place and I was walking down the road and I had my cup And I was walking down the roads and God you got to take this cup from me I've had enough You know, and I was I was a mess And then when I got to the end of the road He said i'm not taking it from you.

I will make you stronger I thought of abraham. Could we negotiate a bit here? You know, could could we could we you know could we do something here? He has made me stronger sure Do I know the whole plan of purpose? No, I don't. Do I want it to be different? Yes, I do. But he, I'm working on his timetable.

And that's something that we have to do is work on his timetable. We need to pray honest prayers when we're in these situations. You know, at first glance, most people think this is just a story about Lazarus getting healed, but Jesus is showing off something more than that. It could be, and it is a foreshadowing of his resurrection, which may be not too far down the track from this point.

And you know what? Sometimes we get blinded. To the bigger picture when we're so focused on our Dilemma We get blinded to the bigger picture of what god wants to do in a situation And I know that would be true for me as it would be true for you because sometimes we We're so hungry for god to do something That we look at the situation, but we're not looking at what god can do And what God wants to do in the situation.

And God is painting a bigger picture than the one that you are just looking at. And we have to understand that. And as mature believers, we have to know that God is painting a bigger picture. We haven't seen it all yet. The pages are turning. There's going to be a new chapter. We know that. But sometimes we don't see it because we're so focused.

And Mary and Martha were in that position right here that they were so focused on their spiritual disappointment. And Jesus copped it twice from both Mary and Martha. They said to him, Lord, if you had have been here, my brother would still be alive. That was their thoughts. They were so focused on what they thought Jesus should do.

And sometimes we put Jesus in a box and we say, Lord, this is what you should do. You should do this, or you should do that, or you should solve my problem. But Jesus has a bigger picture, and he has a bigger picture. And sometimes if you let the anger and the doubt and the, the frustration linger too long, you start to lose your faith.

And this is what we have to guard against. Everyone here today, if you're looking for that miracle, you've got to guard against it. The anger and the frustration, yep, it's fine. It's fine for a time. But we need to at some point surrender to God's timetable and allow Him to dictate when and where the miracle is going to happen.

Let's play on. We're going to read some more scripture. Glasses off. Therefore, when Jesus, oh hang on, we're going to go from verse 32. She said, Lord, if you had have been there, my brother would have not have died. And then therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled.

And he said, Lord, he said, he said, where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see. And now we have a verse that's the shortest, shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. Jesus wept. I have many, I have many verses that I call my favourites, but you know what? This is included in the list. Do you know why?

If the Lord of glory, if the King of kings and the Lord of lords can weep, it gives me permission. It gives me permission to weep. And I'm not going to do it right now, but I'm going to choose a time and a place. If I need to weep, I will weep. And I have, it gives me permission, but you know what else I want to know?

A savior who will get down in the trenches with me and he will weep with me. I don't know about you, but I want to know that Saviour. I don't know, I, you know, I don't want an aloof God who lives in some corner of the universe and he sends his minions down to tell you what to do. I want to know a Saviour who will come and He will weep with me.

And I have that. And you can have that too. Today, if you don't know Him, or you're just on the fringes, and you don't get it, I'm telling you that we have a Saviour that will come and get into the trench with you, and He will, He will weep with you. But bear in mind, Jesus could have said, Don't worry guys, I got this.

In half an hour, this guy's coming out of the grave. How cool would that be? No. No, no, no. Jesus understood. saw their pain and he had compassion on them. And compassion means to co suffer. Jesus was co suffering with these ladies who had lost their brother. And I, I want a God like that. I want a God like that.

Who will come with you and be in the journey with you. And that's what, that's who we have. Do you know what? It ain't over till it's over. And it ain't over till Jesus says it's over. You might think you've got a deadline for your miracle. And oftentimes we do, we think, oh, you know, if this doesn't happen by this time, I'm going to lose everything.

Or if this doesn't happen by this time, then I'm going to lose my loved one, or whatever. It ain't over until Jesus says it's over. He is the boss. He is the boss. So. Let's read some more scripture and then we're gonna bring this baby home. Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

Take away the stone, he said. But Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad odor, for he's been there four days. Don't the girls Want to keep it tidy, you know? Okay, come on, you know This could be big here Martha, you know Stay with me says Jesus. So Jesus said did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?

So they took away the stone and Jesus looked up and said father. I thank you that you have heard me I know that you always hear me. But I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me. Jesus had an agenda. And maybe he was crying earlier because there were some hard hearts around him.

And there were people that were sort of going, what's he going to do here, you know? Because Jesus came to save the lost. Not just the lay, to raise the Lazaruses, but he was doing something here to glorify himself so that more and more people will understand that he is the Lord of glory. So we're playing on, and when he had said this, Jesus said in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out!

Do you know, I've heard it preached that if he didn't say Lazarus, there could have been 20 people trotting out of that tomb. Because it wasn't just for Lazarus. If he had said come out, you know, there could have been 20 coming out of there. But he said Lazarus. And do you know what he, Lazarus heard the voice even in death.

He heard the voice of his savior. And Lazarus got up and he shuffled on out because he was full of grave clothes. And Jesus said, take the grave clothes off. And there's probably two or three sermons in that little statement there. Take the grave clothes off. You know, sometimes when we come to Christ, we've got our grave clothes still on.

Hey, and then we have to take them off. But you know what Jesus was demonstrating here? He was demonstrating his power. over death. Jesus was demonstrating his power over death. And this could have been foreshadowing a couple of weeks time when he went to the cross and he lay in there for a couple of days and then he was raised and Jesus was, Jesus was demonstrating his power.

And we need to take that on board. We need to take that on board. If you're not afraid of death, you're not afraid of much. You see what I mean? It's called the final enemy in, in the scriptures. Power over death. If we know Jesus and we love him, we can see by this story that he's got power. over death and all of the other signs that he had which we may talk about in a minute but Lazarus had been dead for four days and in Jewish culture they believe that three days, three days that you could still probably you know get someone back but how long did he, Jesus wait?

Four days, four days. So he was just breaking all the rules, all the stigmas, all the stuff and Jesus came in four days and he brought Lazarus back from the grave. God's delays are not denials. So we need to take that on board today for all of us here who are waiting on a miracle. There is, God is turning pages.

And there's going to be a new chapter and there's going to be something good. God works together for good. For all of those who love the Lord, there is going to be something good.

Just to begin to wrap this up. I want to just go through some of the miracles that Jesus did. There are seven signs in John and each one of them demonstrated power over something. The first one I really love. It was turning water into wine. Me and Cam talk about that a lot, you know. I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm waiting on that one.

You know, that would be so cool. Jesus turning water into wine. He, there was the healing of the nobleman's son. There was the healing of the man at the pool. Do you know how long he waited? 38 years. I don't want to discourage anyone today, but I don't know. There is, he waited 38 years, but the miracle came.

There were people who waited on the word to come to pass. There was waiting involved. And so we're not on a perfect earth at this moment. And there is sin and sickness and stuff going on. And there's reasons why things happen and things don't happen, but we know it ain't over till Jesus says it's over.

Amen. Amen. Then there was the feeding of the 5, 000, demonstrating his ability to provide. There was walking on water, power over nature. There was healing the man brought born blind. And then finally, there was raising Lazarus from the dead. He power over death. Do you know what? I I want just to encourage you guys that are waiting on a miracle, that you keep waiting, but maybe change your perspective while you're waiting.

Remember who you are relying on. Remember that Jesus is the one that has the power and we trust him. And he's the one who will get down in the trench with you, and he will cry with you, and he will be with you, and you, he has got you. Just the same as he had Mary and Martha. He's got you. And so this morning, just before I go and the band can come up, I just want to pray for those ones today who are waiting.

on a miracle. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I just pray for each and every person who are here, who are here today that are waiting on your miracle. And Lord, as I am waiting on your miracle, Lord, help us to see you in a new light, to see you as a big picture painter who has this in the palm of his hand.

Lord, you have this in the palm of your hand that you would touch people today and reassure them and give them peace as they wait on the miracle today. That you are bigger. You are bigger. Than the problem you are way bigger than the problem and so father we trust you today, and we honor you today that you are bigger than the problem, and you are ready and willing to come and Comfort and even weep with those who have to wait a little longer But you are with us always and we thank you for that in Jesus name Amen