Trusting God's Timing: A Journey of Faith

"Chapter 8, John 8 through almost the end of chapter 9, Jesus is unpacking that idea of what does it mean to follow? What does it mean to follow him? In fact, in verse 12 of chapter 8, he says that he is the light of the world and whoever follows him will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life and that's what comes when you and I give our lives to Christ. Now, in chapter 11, and we will begin that reading this week, Tuesday, I believe we get to chapter 11. I'm going to preach on chapter 11 today. Chapter 11, John shifts again. So, you had believe, chapters 1 through 5, then follow, chapters 6 through about 10. Now, he begins to talk about what does it mean to really love God?" [00:12:19] (57 seconds) Edit Clip


"What does love look like? He has his discourse with his disciples and you're going to learn so much this week as you unpack it. And over the next few weeks, we'll look a little more at these ideas, but we begin to understand what John was showing and what he was trying to prove is that when you believe and you follow, you will be assured in your heart that he is the Messiah, the one true, he is the one true and only son of God that gives eternal life. And that leads us to a place of truly loving him, trusting him, surrendering our life to him. And when we do, it gives us triumph, victory, the abundant life in every area of our life. And he's going to show in our chapter today, chapter 11, that it gives us even triumph over death itself. Life over death, especially spiritual death. But even in natural, physical death, he has the power to bring life. Can I hear amen? So today, as we look in John chapter 11, we're going to look at it. It's 44 verses. I'm not going to read it all to you, but it's a long chapter because the story carries and we follow. But there's several principles we want to take out of it. It's real, it's raw, it's moving, and we're going to look at it from the movie, The Chosen. We're going to watch two clips. We're going to see the first part, then the final part of the resurrection. Online family, we may lose you. The social sites seem to not like us showing The Chosen, and they've been blocking us. But open your Bible to John chapter 11. Everyone, but especially online family, you can be skimming through that as we watch this video. If you get blocked, I hope that you'll be able to rejoin us. Everybody, let's look to the screen, and let's watch The Chosen." [00:13:16] (123 seconds) Edit Clip


"Well, today it answers for us some very, very key questions when we talk about why is there evil? Why is there suffering in the world? And what does that mean for us? Now, remember, John is writing in these portions of Scripture, in the book of John, and he's helping us to understand what does it really mean to love the Lord? If we believe and we're following, then what does our love look like? And so today, I want to propose to you that real love trusts." [00:24:43] (35 seconds) Edit Clip


"It trusts Jesus, first of all, in the difficult times. Even when we don't understand, when we're afraid, when we're walking through the uncertainties of life, love trusts even in those difficult times. Can I get an agreement? Now, this is a theological truth. It's a truth that's called the sovereignty of God. That God, that he is sovereign. I truly believe that for many people in their mind, their concept of God is too small. Really, they have God as someone that's unconcerned, uninvolved. He's weak. He's limited. He really doesn't feel what we feel, and he really doesn't do anything." [00:25:18] (49 seconds) Edit Clip


"Where were you when I created the earth? When I created the light, the sun, and the moon, the stars? Where were you when the miracle of life was created? And where God goes in that conversation to Job is, God says, Job, I don't owe you an explanation. Now, we don't like that today because we're used to explanations. We're used that our answers, that we get answers to our question. We're used to tapping it in to, you know, chat GBT or an AI program and getting instant answers. And yet God is saying, in fact, in Psalm 24 and verse 1, God says, the earth is mine. It is the Lord and everything in it is mine. It is all mine and all who live in it, it is mine." [00:27:16] (52 seconds) Edit Clip


"Martha said, I know that you are the Messiah. I know that you're the Christ. And it's got to move from the head to the heart in the time of pain and suffering. When it doesn't make sense, when we're wondering where are you and why, in those difficult moments, in those crisis moments in our life, you've got to move it from the head to the heart and know. Know that nothing happens by happenstance. Know that God has a purpose in all, in the sorrow, in the sickness, in that situation, that God is in control. I may not understand why. I may not understand his timing and what's taking place. But I know that I know that my trust, my love is in Jesus. And in those difficult times, I will not lose faith. Can I get an agreement?" [00:28:18] (52 seconds) Edit Clip


"Now, that's not a political statement, that's a reality and a fact. It's there, God created it there, but with the growth of mankind and some countries or places keeping more than sharing with others, it's not fair to blame God for our negligence. It's man -made. Now, there's natural evil. What do you mean by natural evil? Well, there's hurricanes and earthquakes and tornadoes and fires and outbreaks of disease and different things naturally that happen that aren't the cause of somebody doing evil that brings harm and hurt to somebody else, but it's nature in itself. And as odd as it may seem, natural evil is also the result of sin." [00:32:52] (52 seconds) Edit Clip


"Genesis chapter 1, when he created the world, it says, he said, God said, Genesis 1, it is good and it is finished. What he created was good. But then we go into the fall of man in Genesis 2, and by the time we get to Genesis 3, it says that there were thorns and thistles and man would work from the sweat of his brow and there would be child labor and pain because of the sin that came into the world. Now, this is what I know. Romans 8, 22 says, all creation, Romans 8, 22, all creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time. What does that mean? Natural evil, that which comes upon the earth. And we know in the end times, it will get more and more and it will increase more and more. So spiritual maturity is learning that God in the midst of evil and suffering and the trials of life, that you're going to be glorified. The one thing that we all have in common is that we have problems and circumstances, there's pain, there's suffering, there's sickness, there's death, there are things that are happening and the question is, what is our perspective when we're walking through it? Spiritual maturity is not avoiding the pain, but it's seeing that God will be glorified in it. Can I get an amen in that? So the first thing that we see is that love, God's love that leads you and I to trust him, we trust him and we believe in him and even in the difficulties of life and when we're afraid, we can know that God is there. In fact, Paul said, Paul said wrestling with a thorn in his flesh, wrestling with these probably same issues of why is there pain, God, take it away. He said, my, my God has shown me that his grace is sufficient for what I'm going through. The second thing, we're going to show you the resurrection of Lazarus in just a moment. The second thing is..." [00:34:42] (129 seconds) Edit Clip


"that we've got to learn to trust, and love leads us to trust God's timing. Say timing. Even when it don't make sense, we trust his timing. Remember, they come to, they come, they send word to Jesus that Lazarus is sick, that he's going to die, and it said that he stayed, as we already said, two more days. He stayed. Now, he loved Lazarus. Lazarus was a friend." [00:36:52] (29 seconds) Edit Clip