When God Runs Late

Michael Pittman | July 30, 2023

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Transcription

Hey, can we do that for our pastor Tim Rivers?

Just from what we can see, which is not always all there is we see Pastor Tim, he's a husband, he is a father, he is a son, a brother, an uncle, and that's just what we can see. We know that he's in theology school, getting his doctorate. He comes up and preaches just about every Sunday he leads a staff and a church, and that's just all we can see. And so it is just an honor to be under your leadership. I don't know how you do it. I'm not jealous because God has given you big shoulders to carry that and would not rather be under anyone else's leadership. So just one more time for our pastor, pastor Tim

And Pastor Tim could testify to this. I actually told him, I found out I was preaching a few weeks ago and we were talking out and I said, you know what? What's kind of theme? He's like, man, you know, can kind of preach on whatever you want, but what I am really believing for is for revival and a refreshing of faith and trust and belief. And I told him on the phone, I said, man, you'll be hearing from the Lord like me and Amanda, we'd be driving home from church and we're like, we were just talking about was he in the car with us? Are we being bugged? And so based off of that direction, a couple of weeks ago, I was like, okay, cool. I already told Amanda, I have my notes. I was like, I'm going to talk about doubt. But then two weeks ago, I guess the Lord speaks to us both. And so he preaches on the amazing message on doubt. And so I'm like, okay, well I'm going to throw that away. And then the next week I was like, I don't want to get Okie dod. And so on Wednesday I reached out and I said, Hey, how likely is it that you teach on Lazarus?

And he said, oh, bro, you wouldn't believe it. I said, you got to be kidding me. You got to be kidding me. He said, well, I told the staff that I was either preaching from Lazarus or Ehud as he did last week, and I'm moving in the opposite direction of Lazarus, to which I was like, thank the Lord, because I don't know what I would've done then, but it gave me a lot of confirmation, not only of the continuity between us, but it also gave me confirmation of what I'm going to be preaching on today. And so I'm very excited for that. If you're taking notes, which I recommend you do, because we are jumping into the deep end of the pool today. The title of today's sermon is When God runs Late.

When God runs Late, take Off Your Floaties. We about to go in. Okay? So the Bible says in John chapter 11, if you have your Bibles, we're going to be in John 11. If you're not there or if you don't have your Bibles, we have it on the screen for you. It says, A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, Lord, your dear friend is sick. But when Jesus heard about it, he said, Lazarus's sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory. Everybody say glory. Glory from this.

So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. Finally, he said to his disciples, let's go back to Judea. Verse 14 says, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he tells them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I'm glad I wasn't there for now. You'll really believe Everybody say believe. Believe come. Let's go see him. So when Jesus survived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in the grave for four days. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask. And so Jesus told her, your brother will rise again. And Martha says, yes, he will rise again with everybody else at the last day. But Jesus told her, I am the resurrection in the life. Yeah. Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?

Yes, Lord. She told him, I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God. The people in verse 36 who are standing nearby Lazarus's tomb said, how much? Look how much he loved him. But some said, this man healed the blind man. He have kept Lazarus from dying. 1 39, Jesus tells him, roll the stone away. Yes, but Martha, the dead man's sister protested. She said, Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible. Right in the old King James version, actually, it says He's stinketh. Right? Jesus responded, didn't not tell you that you would see God's glory. Everybody say glory. Glory if you believe. Everybody say believe. Then Jesus saw that Lazarus come out and the dead man came out his hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a head cloth. Jesus told him, unwrap him and let him go. Verse 45 says, many of the people are with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen. Let's pray. Lord, help us understand the truths we can hold on to in our lives when it feels like you're running late. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

During the summertime, there are a lot of things that I enjoy, right? I enjoy going on family vacations with my kids. I enjoy laying out by the pool. I enjoy the N B A finals, but one thing that I enjoy specifically about the summertime season are cookouts. I love a good cookout. I love to eat. Okay? I designate the time as between Memorial Day in May and Labor Day in September that my friends is cookout season. Okay? Now here's the thing. I love cookouts, but one of the most frustrating things about cookouts is when you go to a cookout and the other people who are at the cookout don't know cookout etiquette, right?

What is cookout etiquette? Cookout etiquette says that not all foods brought to the cookout are created equally. Therefore, based on what you are bringing, that should impact your punctuality to the cookout.

Already preaching, right? If you bring in a pound cake from Costco or some LaCroix sparkling water, okay? That's one thing, right? But don't be the person running late and you responsible for the brisket, the mac and cheese, rice, cheese, bake beans, collard greens, right? Or the plates. How are you running late to the cookout and you responsible for the plates? We over here eating brisket out of a napkin because you late. That's not good. Cookout etiquette. Y'all ever been in a situation where someone was bringing something to the cookout and they were running late? And so you reach out to 'em like, Hey, where you at? Right? And they say, I'm down the street. And then you find out that your definition of down the street, it's different than their definition of down the street because they've been down the street for the last 45 minutes and your street ain't that long. Now, nowadays, I don't do down the street, I don't do, we're on the way. I need an e t a 12:37 PM right? Central standard time. You know what? Not even an E t A nowadays, just share your location with me. Run me your run me your apple maps, let you see your Google maps. Drop it in chat. I need to know where you at, right?

Can I get an amen?

Amen. Yes.

And I believe that the reason that we are all so passionate about this is because we understand how frustrating it is when we have a need that somebody else can meet and they run late.

Good. Set it up.

Have you ever felt like God was feeling late?

Yes. Yes indeed.

Now, I know we're in church and we got our church clothes on and everything like that, and so we wouldn't say it like that. We would probably say like, oh, I'm just waiting on the Lord. Oh, I'm just taking it one day at a time. Meanwhile, on the inside, we hot. We're like, God, where you at? I pray for a job a long time ago, and I've been faithful in putting in applications. In every application I'm getting is a decline. I believe God that you're a healer and I have a family member, a friend who I love that's been sick for months, years, and you have the power to heal them. And we've been praying and believing, and nothing has gotten better. God, I feel like you made me some promises.

Promises for maybe a spouse, for maybe a child, for maybe success in my business, and yet I'm not seeing it. And while I've been waiting, time's been ticking and it feels like you're running late.

By a show of hands, anybody in here ever felt that God's run late in their lives beforehand? Hands all over the room, look around, keep your hands up. Look around. We are not alone.

This is a frustration that the followers of Jesus have had for centuries, and I would imagine that this is how Mary and Martha felt as their brother. Lazarus is sick, dying. They tell Jesus and don't even get a response.

And so that's what we're going to uncover today. We're going to find three truths within this scripture of what to do, what to anchor ourselves on when we feel like God is running late. And let me tell you why this is important. The reason why this is important is because Pastor Tim has been preaching. I mean preaching, preaching like organ and everything the last few weeks on revival and belief. And if you move forward in faith and you trust God, but you don't take into account God's delays or God's disappointments, then now the enemy has an open door to attack your hope.

For many of y'all, God's been too good for you to leave him. You're not going to give up your faith, but you would give up hope if you were not aware. And guess what? If you don't have hope, then you don't need faith because faith is the substance of things. But if you got nothing to hope for, then you don't need faith. And so this is a pivotal issue that we're going to unpack today, and we're going to do it through these three truths whenever God is running late, you need to remember these three things that we're going to cover. The power of our prayers. Yes. The paradox of God's goodness and the precision of God's timing. Good. The power of our prayers, the paradox of God's goodness and the precision of God's timing. Are you guys ready to go to work? Yes. Alright. Point one, the power of our prayers.

Verse 20, in John 11 says, when Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask. When God runs late in our lives, we can have two different approaches. We can have a Martha approach or a Mary approach. We can either be like Martha and pursue Jesus in the midst of our disappointment, or we can be like Mary and stay where we at, right? Right. Martha shows us in John 11 that in the midst of her disappointment, she didn't stop talking to Jesus. You are right. Yes. Her and Mary were both disappointment. Yes, her and Mary both had unmet expectations. I define disappointment as the gap between what you expect and what you experience.

If I'm expecting this, experiencing that, then that gap is called disappointment, right? And let's keep it a hundred. The greater the gap, the more I'm believing God for something, the more I'm trusting him for something, the more I am looking at him to come through, the greater the disappointment when it feels like he doesn't. Right? And so in this situation, Martha continues to talk to Jesus, which by definition is prayer. That's what prayer is. Prayer is talking to Jesus. Now, my question for you is this, whenever you are going through hard times, what is your perspective on prayer? What are your fundamental beliefs about prayer? Some people take a more skeptical approach. They say, I believe that whenever I pray, I was taught that when I pray things happen. And so whenever I'm praying and nothing is changing, then I'm skeptical on if this whole prayer thing even works to begin with. Other people take a more unworthy approach. They say, I know my past and I'm not sure if my past decisions have disqualified me from my future desires. So I don't even know if I'm worthy of God's good things. Can I be honest? Can I be vulnerable with you guys on what I've struggled with? I've struggled with an apathetic approach to prayer.

The narrative in my mind is, well, if God was on my timeline, he wouldn't be running late to begin with. And so if he's going to just do what he wants, when he wants it, how he wants it, then I mean, at the end of the day, what's the point of prayer?

Right?

An apathetic approach. But the problem with this is that apathy is the enemy to intimacy. Apathy is the enemy to intimacy. If you want to see some red flags in a relationship, have one or both parties decide they don't even care to make it work no more. Oh, they're apathetic. They're indifferent. Apathy is the enemy to intimacy. And so if our mentality around prayer is apathetic or indifferent, then eventually we'll stop praying altogether because we are too scared to care. Then that will lead to less intimacy unless connection with God. If you're writing notes, I want you to write this down. Disappointment can lead to disconnection. Y'all ever been in a situation where someone disappoints you so you decide you want to disconnect from 'em? I ain't talking to them no more, right? We are not on speak in terms, right? I'm going to let them do their thing. I'm going to do my thing and then I will love them from a distance.

And that's because disappointment can lead to disconnection. And while that makes sense in some of our human relationships, because hashtag boundaries, it never makes sense in the midst of our disappointment to disconnect from God ever. And so many of us, whenever we experience disappointment from God, we're like, okay, I'm kind of beefing with God. I'm mad. I'm not happy with God right now. But when the greats in the Bible had their frustrations with God, they went to him with it. That's what Martha did. God is a big boy. God can handle your honesty. You are not too much for God. You cannot offend God. You in order to get the healing that some of y'all are looking for, you may just need to go and have just an unfiltered, real transparent with conversation with God about the way you actually feel.

Now, how do you do this practically how? I mean, I want to break it down without watering it down. And so if you can just vent your feelings and then verify the facts, that's a good way to go to God. When you're experiencing your frustration, vent your feelings, then verify the facts. And what will happen is when you do this, you'll receive greater comfort and a clear picture of who God is. Good. That's good, greater comfort and a clear picture of who God is. This is actually what happens here in John 11. Martha starts off by venting her feelings to Jesus. Lord, if you are here by brother one of died, right?

I mean, can you imagine the emotion? Honestly, can you imagine how angry or sad or just distraught she would've felt in this moment, right? She's venting her feelings. See, I mean, it's really teetering on the line of blame, right? Because once you start getting into if then statements, if you would've done this, then this wouldn't have happened. That's really on the line of blame. So Martha is like borderline blaming Jesus, venting her feelings, and then she verifies the facts. Yes, yes. She says that even now I know that God will give you whatever you want if you ask. And those facts are reinforced when she says, I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world. And so in this interaction, what actually happens? It's very interesting. Jesus tells Martha that her brother will rise again. And she's like, yeah, with everybody else on the last day. But Jesus says, I am the resurrection in the life. Anyone who lives in me will never die. So catch this. What happens to Martha when she vents? Her feelings verifies her facts. She gets greater comfort in the clear picture of who God is. In the midst of her pain, Martha receives fresh revelation for her situation.

Mary didn't get this. Mary stayed at the house. But because Martha continued to pursue Jesus, because she continued in prayer, she received revelation for her situation. Now when we go through our times of waiting and disappointment, it feels like God was running. Isn't comfort what we like actually want? We want to just feel better. One of the rookie mistakes that I made whenever I was first married was when my wife would come to me with feelings and then I would invalidate her feelings with facts or I would just, I wouldn't inval, okay? So I would invalidate her feelings. She's like, babe, I feel this. I feel that. I feel this. I feel that. And meanwhile I'm thinking to myself, she's obviously coming to me because I'm brilliant. I've got this marriage thing down. After nine months, I need to write a book. She's coming to me, the leader, the head of the household. And then over some time I'm hearing I didn't feel seen, I don't feel acknowledged, I don't feel loved. And I'm like, do you not see the seven step strategic plan I outlined for us to get to the of this issue? What is the problem?

But what I realized was that if my wife can't express her feelings, then I can't even then she can't even hear my facts. If she doesn't feel fully acknowledged, then the facts don't land. Any wives in the audience can give me a good amen on that. Amen. Husbands listen. And so the reality is that whenever you're experiencing this disappointment with God, you can go to him because he won't do what I did. He won't spiritually bypass your feelings, but rather he will comfort you. In fact, in Matthew five, four, it says, blessed are they that mourn for they will be comforted. Psalms 34 18 says, the Lord is close to the broken hearted and rescues those whose spirits are crushed. Second Corinthians one, three through four says, praise be to the God of our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion in the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God, we serve a comforting God.

When God is running late and you're in need of comfort, vent your feelings, verify the facts. Now, you're probably also thinking, Michael, is this really biblical? Because some of us grew up in environments to where our emotions were actually demonized. We weren't allowed to cry, we weren't allowed to feel. And so you may be thinking to yourself, I'm not really trying to have God strike me down with lightning during my prayer time if I really keep it real with him.

Right?

Consider King David, a man after God's own heart. Right? In Psalm 13, he says, how long, oh Lord, how long King David sound a lot like many of us don't he? Right? How long, oh Lord, how long will you forgive me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall the enemy be exalted over me? What you'll find is that in this moment, king David is venting his feelings, but then he will verify the facts. He says, but I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. King David shows an example of venting your feelings, then verifying the facts. And when you venture feelings and verify your facts, you verify the facts, you'll receive greater comfort and a clearer picture of who God is. We see this with Joe. We see this with Habakkuk. We see this with Jonah. We see it here with Martha. And what you'll find is that in those moments, God becomes as real to those people as their links.

He becomes a present help in a time of trouble. But what's interesting though is that when we look at the story in John 11 with Martha, Martha receives greater comfort and a clear picture of who God is. Yes. And yet nothing about her situation has changed.

Lazarus is still dead. Yes. People are still at the house mourning. Mary is still at the house. So while nothing looks different on the outside, everything feels different on the inside. And the reason that's often the case is because God wants to do something in you more than he wants to do something for you. God wants to do something in you more than he wants to do something for you. And so when you pray, I cannot guarantee you that your situation on the outside will change, but what I can guarantee is that you'll change, you'll change. You'll be different. You'll see 'em in the greater picture in a lighter way. And so what's big about the power of our prayers is understanding that in order to endure the presence of our problems, we have to embrace the presence of God. What's interesting is I bet in this scripture, Martha is thinking, God, if you would've been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Meanwhile, Jesus probably thinking, if your brother wouldn't have died, I wouldn't have been here because Martha, I need you to see a miracle. I need you to see a representation of my power. I need you to see a representation of my sovereignty. I need you to see a representation of my authority, and so I'm going to create a problem so that you can see a miracle.

What's so funny, we'll, like sing about miracles and get excited about miracles. Breakthrough is come in, bye. Faith. I see a miracle waving our hands, right? But we don't realize that in the Bible, every miracle had one common denominator a problem. We want the miracles, but we don't want the problems. We want all the upside, but none of the downside. Everybody want to go to heaven, but nobody want to die. So we want the miracles without the problems, but biblically, there is no precedence in that which should comfort you because Jesus didn't say Lazarus was sick because he should have been gluten free. Jesus. Jesus didn't say Lazarus was sick because of a sin. He committed like, no, no, no. Jesus said, this is for the glory of God. I am in this, which is why you should not misunderstand the presence of problems as the absence of God.

Don't misunderstand the presence of your problems as the absence of God. It is in the presence of problems that God's power shows up in the greatest ways, but in order to endure the presence of your problems, you must embrace the presence of God through the power of prayer. Yeah, that's good. And that's the first point. When God is running late, an anchor to hold onto is the power of prayer. The second point to remember is the paradox of God's goodness. Okay? The paradox of God's goodness. We often talk about the goodness of God and we'll sing about the goodness of God, but have you ever realized that God's goodness is a paradox? What is a paradox? A paradox is a statement or situation that on the surface seems contradictory, and yet it's true. It seems like it contradicts itself, but it's actually true. There are plenty of these in the Christian faith.

The last will be first and the first will be last. That's a paradox. If I want to find my life, then I must lose my life. That's a paradox. Yes, it's Jesus was fully God and fully man, that's a paradox. God is sovereign, but I'm still responsible for my own decisions. That's a paradox. A paradox we're one of the, we're the recipients of the greatest paradox. There was an innocent man dying for the sins of the guilty. So his righteousness becomes our righteousness, our sin become his sin. That's a paradox, right? A paradox is a statement or a situation that on the surface seems contradictory and yet is true. Why is this important? There is a paradox in the story of Lazarus. The paradox in the story of Lazarus is that the immediate good was not God's ultimate good.

The immediate good was not God's ultimate good. John 1114 says, Jesus told the disciples plainly, Lazarus has died. And for your sake, I am glad I was not there. So that you may believe, I want you to picture this, use your Holy Spirit imagination for a moment. You're living back in this time, you're looking at this firsthand, and you go to one of the disciples and you say, Hey, Jesus's friend, Lazarus, who he loves is sick and dying. He has the power to heal him. Now in this moment, without even seeing him, do you believe that it would be good for Jesus to heal his friend Lazarus, the disciple? Probably like many of us would've said yes. Then you go to the disciple and say, Hey, would it be good for Jesus, for your faith in Jesus to get elevated to a greater level of belief? The disciples, like many of us would've said yes. However, isn't it interesting that in this scripture Jesus has those two things contradicting one another, they are mutually exclusive, diametrically opposed? You can't have both. It's a paradox that the immediate healing of Lazarus was not the ultimate good that God wanted.

Jesus said, it is going to be through lazarus's death that I'm going to lead you to greater belief, not his healing. And the reason why this is important is because while healing his friend seemed good, it wouldn't have produced glory seems good, but it wouldn't have produced glory. In order for God to have gotten the glory out of this situation. Hear me, that which was bad was necessary. It was necessary. I think about my son, my son Elijah. He is, he hates eggs. He hates eggs. He doesn't like eggs. Whenever we're making eggs in the house and doing omelets and stuff, he's like, Ew, eggs. But he loves cookies. And in order for him to get the type of cookie he wants, guess what it requires? Eggs.

So that which was bad was necessary. And whenever you understand this, you'll be able to look at some situations that have happened in your life and just say, I don't understand it, but I know it had to happen that way. That's a paradox. I don't understand, but I know that it had to happen that way. And when you really understand this attribute of God, then here's what's going to happen. You'll be able to tap into a different paradox, which is the paradox of peace. What is the paradox of peace? Even when things seem out of control, I know that God is in control. Even when things seem out of hand, I know that it's all in his hands. Just because God is unpredictable doesn't mean he's not reliable. Even when things don't seem good, I know he's working it out for my good. Even when he is running late, I know that he is right on time.

And so you can have a different level of peace when you understand this nature of God and because God's nature, because his goodness is paradoxical, it requires us to adopt a level of humility in our lives because we have the self-awareness that we don't always know what is good for us. What often happens is we have our definitions of good, yes. And we say, God, if you are good, then you're going to fit into this definition of good.

Y'all know how in the Bible, Jesus says, if you love me, obey my commandments. Some of us have deified our thoughts so much that we say, God, if you love me, obey my commandments. Give me what I want, when I want it, how I want it, with who I want with. I'm sorry. Is he God or you? Right? We often don't know what is good or what is best for us. So it requires us to adopt a posture of humility. And it's important for us to understand that we see goodness through our limited human perspective and that what we can trust is that if Jesus had an ultimate good for the disciples and Lazarus, then he has an ultimate good for us as well. And that's the second point. The first is that we have to rely on the power of our prayers. The second is we have to understand the paradox of God's goodness.

And the reality is that God's goodness is often not revealed immediately. It often takes time. And so that's going to be the third point, the precision of God's timing, the precision of God's timing. John 11, four through six says, but when Jesus heard about Lazarus's sickness, he said, Lazarus is sickness, will not end in death. No, it happened for the everybody say glory. Glory of God, so that the Son of God will receive everybody say glory, glory from this. And so although Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. He stayed where he was for the next two days, and Lazarus dies and it feels like, Hey, Jesus, your timing was off because my brother didn't make it. However, we recognize in the story that there was a purpose to the delay. Yes, which is good for many of us to know that when God is delaying something, there is a purpose to this.

And that was the purpose, was to bring God glory and people to belief. That's the purpose. To bring God glory and people to belief. Now, God's timing is precise, and the reason that we can trust in the precision of God's timing is twofold. The first is that he created time. Can I nerd out with y'all for a moment? Go ahead. Can we go deep for just a second? Yes. God created time. Everybody say create. Create. So God created time. And I learned in high school physics that our world consists of time, space, and matter. And that matter consists of solid liquids, gases, and plasma. And so we have time, space, and matter. And in order for time, space, and matter to even exist, they all have to come into being at the same moment. The reason why is because if you had time and space, but no matter then what would go into space. If you had time and matter, but no space, would it matter? Then where would you put the matter? If you had space and matter, but no time, then when would you put the matter in the space?

So in order for us to have anything that we've seen today, we have to have time, space, and matter all coming together simultaneously. And it took scientists so many years to figure this out, when they could have just picked up a Bible, they didn't have to go far because in Genesis one, one, it says, in the beginning time, God created the heavens space and the earth matter. And so because God created it, then he is not confined by it. He controls it.

The creator of a thing knows that thing better than anything. That's right. Which is why we can trust not only that he is the God of time, but the God of timing. That is why we can trust his timing. We can also trust his timing because he operates outside of time. Everybody say operates, operates, operates by operating outside of time. Here's what I mean. We as human beings see time as sequential. We have a past, a present and a teacher. We have a beginning, a middle Andy. And so when we have something in our present that is threatening our future, then we say, God, I need you to move right now. Right?

Not realizing that God doesn't see time sequentially, he sees it simultaneously, meaning that he has already taken into account the past, the present, and the future within the fabric of our lives. In fact, in Isaiah 46, 9, here's what it says. It says that remember the former things of those long ago, I am God and there is none like me. I make known that end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. I say, my purpose will stand and I will do all I please. What this means is that nothing catches God by surprise. God never learns anything, every detail, every twist, every turn in our lives has already always been known preach, which gives us thank you, which gives us the assurance that God's timing is informed and intentional, right? It is not by chance. And so when we are caught in the eminence of our challenges, it is natural for us to desire an immediate response. But God in his omniscience, because he is all knowing and sees the entire timeline of our lives, every decision, every action, and every intervention is orchestrated not just for the immediate need, but for his greater and ultimate good.

So why is this important? How does this apply to me today in July 30th, 2023? Because God has created and operated the time in which we are living in, he can be trusted with the precision and the perspective of his timing. We have to have the assurance that whenever there is a delay, when it feels like God is running late, that it is for a reason. It certainly was the case with the historian Lazarus, wasn't it? Because notice here in the scripture that Jesus said, Lazarus, his sickness will not end in death, but will be for God's glory. But just because he said it wouldn't end in death, didn't mean it wouldn't pass through.

So what's interesting about this scripture is that during that time, Jewish tradition believed that when a person died there, the spirit of that body hovered over the body for three days, and that it was possible for that spirit to go back into the body and revive the person. That's right. But after the fourth day after the body starts smelling and decomposing, the person is dead and all hope is lost or so they thought, because then what God does, what Jesus does is he pulls up to the scene on day four, and now he knows that whenever he does this miracle, he won't have to share this miracle in his glory with superstition. He won't have to share this glory with tradition, he's going do what? Only he can do.

His timing is precise. Scholars say that when Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb, he says, Lazarus come out, and scholars say that he had to say Lazarus because if he wouldn't have then every tomb in Israel would've opened up, and bodies would've just started coming out because all creation responds to the voice of God. And so the miracle happens when Lazarus is raised from the tomb. But can I be honest with y'all? Yeah, that is a micro miracle. That is a small miracle. And the reason was because it was temporary. Lazarus was raised then, but he's dead now.

It reminds me of the two fish and five loaves. It was a miracle, but by seven o'clock the next night, those people are like, I'm ready to eat again. Right? It was a temporary miracle, right? It was a micro miracle. The macro miracle actually happens in verse 45 where it says, many of the people who are with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen. Everybody say this. Why did I say this? It's because it was this particular thing that happened that made them believe in Jesus. That's right. Notice it says, these are the people with Mary. These are the people who are at the house. These are the people who are mourning. These are the people who are at the funeral. These were the skeptics because they said, if this man could have healed a blind man, he have healed Lazarus, which showed that even the miracles they were aware Jesus did was not enough for them to believe, but it was this, it was this, this that caused them to believe in Jesus. And the reason why that's important is because on July 30th, 2023, today, those same people are in heaven right now worshiping God, giving him glory for eternity. Soul saved lives change. In fact, it's so funny, Inver, in chapter 12 of John, the religious leaders are plotting to kill Jesus and Lazarus.

But if you look in the Bible, guess what? You can't quote Lazarus. That's right. Lazarus never says anything. Lazarus over here probably thinking, man, I just got out of there. But Lazarus didn't say a word throughout the entire narrative of scripture, but his story said, enough people started sharing the gospel in droves because of Lazarus's story. Hear me clearly. God will get the glory out of your story. If you don't see God's glory, it is not the end of your story. So oftentimes we believe that we can determine something is good or bad based off of a singular circumstance, but that's human thinking. And I'll illustrated with this final story, that once upon a time, there was a man who was a farmer and he had a horse. And this horse would be how the man provided for his family. It would be how the man would get in and out of town. This horse was this man's way of life. And one day the horse runs away and the neighbors come to the man and they say, oh, this is such bad luck that your horse ran away. And the man said, we'll see, Tom will tell

The next day the horse comes back with three rare wild horses. And so now the man has these wild horses. His net worth has skyrocketed. And so his neighbors come to him and say, oh my gosh, this is such good luck. And the man said, time will tell. A few weeks later, the man's son, the farmer's son, is riding one of the wild horses, and the WildHorse bucks him off, kicks him in the leg, breaks his leg, hospitalizes his son, and the neighbors come to the man and say, oh, this is such bad luck. And the man said, we'll see, Tom will tell. And then months later, the military comes into the town and they're recruiting young men for war, but because of his son's broken leg, his son is deemed unfit for service. The town fights in the war, and everybody who fights in the war dies. And the man is told by his neighbors, oh my gosh, your son is fair. What? Good luck. What is the point of the story that we cannot determine something as good or bad based on a singular circumstance while we don't see something as good? The paradox is that we know that all things work together for good,

And we do not serve a farmer, but we do serve a shepherd. A shepherd who leads us a shepherd, who guides us, a shepherd, who loves us, who lay down his life for us, and it's in that shepherd. It's in his goodness. Even though it's a paradox, it's in the precision of his timing that we can trust him and believe in his plan for our lives through the power of prayer. I'll close this message out with the old Gospel song from the Great Daddy Peoples in 1994. It says He's an on time God. Yes, he is. He's an on time God. Yes, He is, he may not come when you want him, but he'll be there right on time.

He's an on time God. Yes, He is.