Waiting for a Miracle

it is so good to gather together if you're new or if we haven't met my name is Chris Beal and uh this is actually my 20th year on staff at Life church so kind of a it's a bit of an accomplishment and I currently serve 18 of our campuses and honestly like my calling is to Pastor the pastors and just to be able to pour into these people that are serving campuses I also lead this little thing called The Legacy team which is made up of about 500 folks that are Business Leaders and people passionate about leveraging resource to accelerate the mission of the Gospel through the local church and I just I love our Legacy team uh what I'm most proud of uh is this picture these people behind me this is my family and uh Cindy and I just celebrated 30 years of marriage in January she was 14 when she said I do and by three incredible sons of which I am the shortest man in the bill home I've got an incredible daughter-in-law Ella and then there's this one little girl Ivy Sloan my first granddaughter and I'm telling you this girl has my heart any grandparents in the house at all of our places is the best thing ever when you become a grandparent uh she calls my grandpa name is yaj but she pronounces it Raj even though my name is Chris so it's a really long story so this week we are starting a series looking at the miracles of Jesus leading up into Holy Week and ultimately celebrating the resurrection on Easter Sunday and just for a little bit of working context Jesus or God rather through Christ in the beginning was God right he created all things and when he created the world he created an order There are rules that govern the natural world there's gravity which are you know our adolescents have to learn the hard way first and second law of Thermodynamics the fact that the Earth rotates around the Sun the moon rotates around the Earth all of these things are natural laws that God created and any time we see a miracle is when we see God choosing to operate outside of the natural order that he himself created I love this quote from Tim Keller he writes we modern people think that Miracles are the suspension of the natural order but Jesus meant for them to be the restoration of the natural order because before sin entered the world before there was death before they were suffering before there was disease the supernatural was known as Tuesday right it was all beyond the natural and today we're going to look at one of Jesus's last miracles in the Gospel of John chapter 11 and I'm going to tell you there's no way to preach this without actually going through the entire chapter so I need the intellectual thinking caps on let's jump into John chapter 11 verse 1. now a man named Lazarus was sick he was from Bethany the village of Mary and her sister Martha and in parentheses he writes this Mary whose brother Lazarus now lays sick was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair so the sister sent word to Jesus 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 I love kind of the passive aggressive tone of Martha sending a message to Jesus like like Jesus the one you love is sick she didn't say my brother is sick it's like City Bill back in the day when I would come home from work and she's like hey can I just tell you what your son did today at school like anybody this is what we do this is how we talk when we need you to do something it's not my brother is sick it's the one you love is sick so little context Bethany was a small village about um two miles to the east of Jerusalem interestingly you have to kind of go through the amount of Olives or Gethsemane to get there as mentioned this was the same Mary that poured perfume on Jesus's feet and wiped his feet with her hair and Lazarus was nothing special he didn't do a TED Talk he didn't write a book he didn't wasn't a speaking circuit he was just a guy and I love that and he happened to be one of Jesus's favorite people time after time he would find himself in their home sharing a meal and just being together so we keep going scripture says now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus just want you to be clear they're Jesus's people I just want you to know he loved them so everybody say so he loved them so much so when he heard that Lazarus was sick he stayed where he was I mean this this must be a typo in my bubble he loved him so much that he stayed where he was two days longer does your bible say that does that make any sense to anyone he loved them so much then I'm not gonna go I'm just gonna stay here the so that conjunctive word it puzzles me like I would understand it if he loved him so much yet well now it makes sense yet traffic was too bad right he loved him so much however he was afraid of getting arrested that would totally make sense to me what doesn't make sense to me is he loved him so much so he didn't go hmm so often those of us that are believing God for a miracle and I know many of you are have to first learn the lesson of how to wait on the Lord part of it you look back through the Old Testament you read through the new moment after moment example after example of God giving a vision a burden a promise and then crickets five and a half months ago we got a phone call late at night and it was our youngest son Seth and he said to his mom I've been in a wreck I uh I don't know where I am I think my back is broken the he's an electrician he works in the Solar industry and he worked a 12-hour shift long day pretty tired and he decided to go to Tulsa from OKC hour and a half Drive probably a little later than he should and he fell asleep behind the wheel for those of you not familiar with Oklahoma the speed limit of that highway is 80 miles an hour and so he's probably going 80 85 something like that and the person behind him said that um he just gently drifted out of his Lane on the highway and hit a exit sign and that exit sign kind of sliced through the car set up all the airbags and then the car went airborne and flying through the air T-Bones into an embankment but the airbags had already deflated and so what ultimately happened is he fractured his sternum had a burst fracture in his L1 vertebrae had a spinal cord injury several other fractures and it was as many of you could imagine a parent's worst nightmare we drove to Tulsa and it was the longest 90-minute drive of Our Lives and um and it's been it's been a it's been a journey for us one that we are still walking when we look at Mary and Martha and this season of waiting granted it's only a few days but yet when someone you love is suffering and hurting a few days feels like what a couple decades a long time what do you do when you've begged God for something like you're not asking for a Porsche or promotion like that's not the prayer you're praying you're not praying to find a husband or to pass your final exam you're you're not praying for God to bless your meal or to give you traveling mercies whatever can somebody tell me what traveling mercies are by the way like I've been a pastoral I still don't know what that means but like you're not praying that prayer like you are on your face before God said God I need you now I need to do this specific thing by this specific time because I can't imagine what happens if you don't what happens to your faith when you're waiting and it seems like God is not responding we got to the hospital and um I don't think I really knew how violent the wreck was until I went to the uh the salvage yard to get some of his personal items out of the car and I couldn't even find the car I couldn't even recognize it and I I literally got sick to my stomach and uh just had to get the stuff out of his car and go back to the hospital and in those days we did not know is he gonna walk we didn't know we didn't know is it going to need Cindy and I to take care of him like forever we didn't know and I just found myself in Cindy standing by a hospital bed waiting praying waiting praise something that God is teaching me is that the moment we attach our expectation to his purpose or the moment you attach how God loves you to what you need him to do for you you have chosen at that moment to live life with a troubled soul and some of you have come to church today with a troubled soul I ask you to do this and you didn't I'm begging you for this and it still isn't here what do you do in your faith when you've attached your expectations of God to his purposes of God you're living with a troubled soul can I encourage you the reason we have that is because his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts we don't want him to think like us or choose like us because as we're about to see in this story there's something a whole lot bigger going on than our current crisis so in the rest of our time we're just going to kind of unpack how do we reconcile a troubled soul so we fast forward two days and Jesus has a conversation with the disciples and he says basically hey our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep and I'm gonna go wake him up and the disciples like men Jesus sleep is probably doing so good I'll probably feel better and then he's like no he's dead and we're going to go to him and so scripture goes on we're going to pick it up in verse 17. of John chapter 11. so when Jesus came he found that he had already been in Tomb for four days everybody say four days now Bethany was near Jerusalem about 15 stadia away so many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary remember that as well a crowd is building they came to Mary and Martha to console them about their brother so then Martha when she heard that Jesus was coming she went out to meet him but Mary stayed in the house Martha then said to Jesus Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died this is the first thought of how do we reconcile a troubled soul if you are living there right now here's what we do we start with learning to pray honest prayers like really honest prayers this is God he came a few days late and I love that Mary and Martha are kind of like grieving in different ways Mary scripture says she didn't even leave the house some of you can identify like I've had this thing happen I've asked God for it he did do it the way I needed so you know what this Jesus thing I think I'm out tried it I'm good I'm just going to stay in the house from here on out and I get the response I really do Martha on the other hand makes a beeline to the gate of the village like a 75 year old Mall Walker with orthopedic shoes and she's just like I'm gonna where is he straight to him he doesn't even get through the gate and she stops him to say what she thinks about him and Jesus met them both right where they were some of you when you hear me say I want you to learn to pray honest prayers you might be like that makes me uncomfortable he's God that's irreverent I would say it's intimate God can handle your anger he can handle your questions how on Earth can you have intimacy with a God you are unwilling to be honest with like really honest [Applause] I'm saying the funeral has already happened right the cousins all talk too long the green bean casserole is in the Tupperware in the refrigerator they've all told the stories about hey remember that time when Lazarus was tanned it's hilarious and then Jesus shows up when we're waiting on God we aren't waiting for nothing and a Divine delay is not ever his denial often there's reasons behind that delay so when we're navigating that trouble Soul let's start with just praying honest prayers in this season this last five and a half months um I I guess I thought I told Pastor Craig this a couple days in he called me he says how you doing and I said I'm not good I don't know how my son's gonna be um I kind of thought I've been a pastor for 28 years so you know I'm thinking I've got like a doctoral degree in handling trauma I don't I'm broken I'm angry and I feel a little bit alone and Craig just listened and he cried with me and he encouraged me just talked to him talk to the Lord tell them how you're doing really and it looked a little different for both Cindy and I but it was in those first few weeks um that we just started um to tell them how he felt and it kind of started with why did you let this happen we are laying hands on him 10 times a day asking for total healing and he goes to bed every night in total pain why let's just start there just start there because the moment we're honest you know what you're doing you're opening your heart in a vulnerable way to a god that wants to be present in your struggle we just start to pray honest prayers secondly and this is going to get a little hard I want you to risk your heart and believe in him again hope again in verse 22 Mary just finishes by saying if you would have been here my brother wouldn't have died right the very next sentence the very next thing that comes out of her mouth in verse 22 she says even now I know that whatever you ask of God he will give you and Jesus said to her your brother will rise from the dead Martha said to him I know he will rise in the resurrection in the last day and Jesus looked at her and said I am the resurrection I am the resurrection and the life and the one who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and Believes In Me will never die and then he looked at her and said Do you believe this and she said to him yes Lord I have come to believe that you are the Christ the Son of God and he who comes into the world and when she had said this she left and called for her sister Mary secretly saying and he's calling for you and when Mary heard this she got up and came quickly to him it takes courage to risk your heart and believing again to Hope again and I love that Jesus met Mary and Martha right where they were as differently as they were handling this challenge and then in verse 33 guys this is so powerful so Mary comes and in verse 33 John writes therefore when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her were also weeping he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled and he said where have you laid him um it's about to get interesting and they said to him Lord come and see and then the shortest verse in all 66 books of the Bible but maybe for some of you the most important two words Jesus wet God wet the creator of all things Weeps he lived out The Sermon on the Mount In This Moment blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted I promise you this he was not weeping for Lazarus because he knew why he came there you're not going to weep over somebody you're going to come bring back to life but the nature of your God is that he chooses to enter into your sufferings there is a reason for which he may not remove it from you right now but then he chooses to plant himself and position himself with you in it the Latin word for compassion literally means to co-suffer to suffer with you he chooses to enter into your pain and every tear you have ever cried can I encourage you you have never cried alone you have never cried alone because he has been with you the whole time the whole time Church believe in him again risk your heart again is about three weeks in the hospital and there were some signs of improvement but we still didn't fully know how this whole thing was going to play out and there was this woman elderly African-American lady that worked in the cafeteria that had taken to Seth and she came up to Cindy one day after we were picking up breakfast and she said could I come on my lunch break and pray over Seth and we're like absolutely and so later that morning she came into our room Seth was at physical therapy so it was just Cindy and I in there and this woman began preaching to us and within about a minute I mean we are all just bawling and she invited us to come to church with her the next Sunday and we told her we were a little preoccupied at our own church but thank you but this woman changed the atmosphere of that room and frankly the trajectory of Our Hope she was preaching and we were crying and we were receiving and then Seth walks in after physical therapy a little freaked out by all the tears and uh he lays in bed and she says Seth I'm going to pray over you and she pulled out the oil and she anointed him and she began to pray Heaven down over my son and we were all just weeping and in that moment I know this is going to sound crazy but in that moment we had forgotten but had remembered that God is still good all the time that he is still a miracle worker that he is still the god that can look at hopelessness but he sees the Future Hope in my hopelessness and I'm telling you I wish I could remember who she was or tell you her name um and let me just say this don't ever underestimate the promptings that God puts on your heart in a normal course of the day because your obedience to that prompt could very well be a story that is told in somebody's life for decades and we will tell her story for decades it matters your obedience matters and from that moment on the speed of healing got fast and he started just crushing it in physical therapy and occupational therapy and the pain started going away and he was able to walk with a walker which we didn't fully know what the strength was going to be like and then you fast forward to today he has been back at work as an electrician for three months now we're only five and a half months later crushing it at the gym for the last three months and for those of you that are at Life Church Edmund that watched him walk into the auditorium you would have no idea he broke his back five and a half months ago because he is a walking Miracle what God did before he is fully able to do again he is a miracle worker and that leads me to my final encouragement that we get out of this text nothing is over until Jesus says it's over something in your life could look utterly dead and impossible nothing is finished until Jesus says it is finished John 11 verse 38. you guys still with me 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 it's been four days it's gonna smell we get so preoccupied in the natural even when we're speaking to the one who is the supernatural it's gonna smell lord by this time there's going to be a bad odor for he has been in there for four days this is significant because at this time in history the Jews had this belief not really sure where they got it but they believed that someone's Soul hovered over their body for three days after they died is it a coincidence that he came on day four sometimes he's going to wait until there's only one explanation only one and I'm speaking to somebody who's waiting right now you're not waiting for nothing I can't tell you what the outcome is going to be but I can tell you he is present with you and he has a purpose in it sometimes God will wait until the expiration of your expectation why so he could manifest his glorification the whole point the whole point of this miracle was to magnify and display his glory so that people would believe in him he's got a smell lord here's what Jesus says did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God so they took the stone away and Jesus looked up and said father I thank you that you heard me and I thank you 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 and when he said this Jesus called out in a loud voice Lazarus come out and the dead man came out his hands and his feet were wrapped in strips of linen and a cloth around his face and Jesus said to them take off the grave clothes and let him go sometimes he is going to wait until your expectation has expired so he can display his glory so That Others May believe as a dad I am I still have trauma Cindy and I both do every time Seth calls me and this picture comes on the phone chills go down my spine when he's going out to eat with his buddies at night um I struggle with fear I still do but son your story is just beginning it's just beginning I believe the anointing of God comes with a prerequisite of pain because when you when God trusts us with suffering it empowers you to serve others who are also suffering because you know what it is and I believe all of these challenges that you're still navigating are all a part of God's design to use you to impact other people and I don't know that I've ever been more proud of a human being than to watch you in these last five months there are some of you that are in this room you're like Chris this is great but I did pray and the cancer didn't go away I did pray and I fasted and the marriage still ended and I see the tears in the room right now and all I can tell you is God is present in your temporary but he's focused on the eternal he puts himself in this momentary challenge but he's thinking about heaven and he's thinking about your eternity like like what Mary and Martha didn't really understand yet is that this miracle wasn't about Lazarus it was about you because this miracle created two paths Jews were flocking to Jerusalem because they've heard of this miracle and at the same time the high priest Caiaphas that was the last straw for him Jesus has to die and following this miracle in John chapter 12 Mary anoints the feet of Jesus which is symbolic of his preparation for burial followed by the triumphal entry into Jerusalem followed by the Rest In The Garden of Gethsemane followed by the torture in the courtyard of the high priest followed by the crucifixion of him dying to pay a debt that he did not owe but you and I did followed by him hanging on a cross now finally saying these words it is finished I told you nothing is over until Jesus says it's over nothing is finished until Jesus says it is finished and when he said this once and for all he was declaring the miracle has now occurred and what is that death is no longer the end death no longer has a sting why because I am the resurrection and the life and he who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and Believes In Me will never die and then he asks us all the questions do you believe this father we come to you many with burdened hearts many with unanswered questions but got grateful for the power of your word to bring healing to our hearts just in a moment of Prayer how many of you would be honest and say I think I've got a bit of a troubled soul there's something that's happened in my past and I'm not sure I've actually let go of that would you just boldly raise your hand and just be honest before holy God hands everywhere God me too we don't understand why you allow things to happen we don't understand the purpose of the pain but we believe again that you are good all the time God use the challenges use the hurt to God build in each person struggling in this area with the depth of character and an intimacy that is unmistakable God heal our hearts and breathe life into our faith as we continue to pray I believe there's some of you listening to this message and if Jesus is going to say anything to you he would say what he said to Lazarus take the grave clothes off stop walking around like a dead man you don't have to Resurrection is now a possibility Heaven is now an option but we got to understand the problem and that is sin separates us from a holy God the penalty of sin is death Eternal separation from God but the promise of God is that while we were still sinners Christ died for us and that anyone who believes and puts their faith in the perfect work of calvary's cross their sins will be forgiven and they will be made new by the power of God because he loves you but it is not enough just to know this in your head you've got to believe it and ask him in your heart at all of our locations those of you watching on YouTube Church online if you're not sure where you stand with God I want to challenge you call out on him repent of your sin ask him to forgive you and he will make you brand new if that's you you want to take that step today I Want You To Boldly raise your hand right now and just say yes to Jesus just lift it up right where you are man I got you praise God for you lift it up will you so proud of you wiped the tears away just keep it up for a minute I just want to see you God I'm saying yes to you every voice in this place pray out loud without saying yes to Jesus father I need you I've sinned I'm asking you to save me Jesus I believe you died on a cross you didn't deserve to pay for my sin and you Rose from the grave to bring me life fill me now with your Holy Spirit that I could serve you always in Jesus name I pray somebody go crazy and celebrate they'll say yes to Jesus [Music]

Channel: Life.Church

Views: 49,043

Keywords: unanswered prayers, why didn’t god answer my prayer, does prayer work, faith in miracles, miracles, Sermon, Life.Church, Lifechurch, life church, life church sermons, church sermons 2023, chris beall, chris beall life church, waiting on god, god's delay, god's delay is not his denial

Id: 8r59sSmCevc

Length: 36min 53sec (2213 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 19 2023