“Remember! It's Not Sorted Out Yet” | Sunday AM | Sis. Evie Drost

From First Corinthians four five.

First Corinthians chapter four verse five.

And the word of the Lord says this.

Therefore, if you'd like to stand, I don't know what your custom is here, you you might want to.

First Corinthians four five.

Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God.

You may be seated.

In October of 1982, I won't ask you to raise your hands, but how many of you were alive in October 1982?

I was, I remember this with great clarity.

In October of 1982, there were seven Tylenol capsules in the Chicago area that were tampered with and laced with potassium cyanide.

Anyone remember this?

Seven people died.

This created mass panic and complete consumer mistrust.

How could this happen?

How many more people would die?

How could buyers ever trust Johnson Johnson again?

The public lost complete faith in the company.

Its market share plummeted by 30 percentage points with a total loss of 80% of its volume.

This branch of the company was now teetering on the brink of complete destruction.

When this crisis happened, Johnson Johnson had 31 million bottles of Tylenol sitting on store shelves.

Had a value of more than a hundred million dollars.

In today's money, that would be$300 million of product that they had out on the shelves.

But Johnson and Johnson knew something.

They had to do something because they were losing the faith of their customers.

They were losing the trust of the people.

So they had to think about what they were going to do.

So they came up with a strategy.

They implemented a response strategy using systematic sorting.

So what they did was they recalled all 31 million bottles of Tylenol.

That's a lot of bottles of Tylenol.

They recalled every single one of those.

And then they set up a sorting strategy where they took those bottles by their batches, obviously starting with the Chicago area, since this is where people had died.

And they started to rigorously test these Tylenol capsules in their labs to see which ones were poisoned.

And through this sorting implementation that they did, they were able to concisely see this did not happen in our factories, this did not happen on the manufacturing process.

This happened on the store shelves.

And they were confident of that because they had sorted through all those different batches that they that they had out on the shelves at the time.

They destroyed all 31 million bottles, but the thing they got out of this sorting was they could now assure the public with full confidence, this incident was isolated.

This is not us.

We're not messing up.

We don't have some rogue person manufacturing Tylenol.

We know it was an outsider, and you can have confidence in that.

Well, thank some guy that put cyanide in it in Chicago, okay?

But it put confidence in the people.

Okay, they're doing something about this.

Something is being done.

Johnson Johnson was able to restore the public's good faith in them.

And within six months, they reclaimed all of their market share, almost all of their market share, and they were back on track.

Now you maybe even today you took a Tylenol.

Maybe yesterday you took a Tylenol.

And you took that piece of that pill with all confidence.

I don't think there's probably even a thought in your mind, oh, maybe there's cyanide on it.

Because Johnson and Johnson took on a strategy to deal with the problem, and it they used a sorting strategy.

This incident in American history, it caused a lot of panic, but it was fixed through this sorting strategy.

And today I want to share with you a very simple reminder.

It's a very simple reminder, and if you just say it, you're like, yeah, I know that.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.

But it's of such high importance in our spiritual walk, in our faith walk.

We must keep this before our faith eyes.

And this reminder is remember, it's not sorted out yet.

It's not sorted out yet.

Now last night we had this lovely meal.

Lovely.

That steak was amazing.

And there were there were some hitches in the cooking.

I'm like, man, if you're telling me this isn't your best steak, I want to come for the best because that was amazing.

But I know that there was a plan that went into that meal.

There was a grocery list, there was some vision, there was some thought.

Well, can you imagine if you're gonna have some guests over?

You've got your grocery list, you know, we need we need steak, we need potatoes, we need green beans, we need sugar, we need, you know, and you're all excited because you're getting ready to have these guests over, and you walk into the grocery store to buy your groceries, and you look around the store, and it's a mess.

Nothing's sorted, nothing's categorized, everything's just everywhere.

The mayonnaise is next to the peas, and the sugar is next to the coffee creamer and like everything, and you're just like, oh my word, I'll I'll I'll never get anywhere in here.

I can't even figure this out.

I'll be here in hours.

You're gonna turn around and leave, right?

You're gonna go to a grocery store where things are sorted, where things are categorized.

Because life is easier for us as humans when things make sense to us.

We need categorization to function in everyday life.

If we don't have categorization in a human sense, you're gonna be very lost, very non-efficient, very confused, right?

But one of the challenges of faith is that it requires that we believe and strive without completely understanding everything, without everything making perfect sense.

This is one of the biggest challenges of our faith because we want to understand.

We want it to make sense.

2 Corinthians 5 7 says, For we walk by faith, not by sight.

One of our linchpin scriptures that we use in Christianity.

But what is that sight?

Are we talking about what I see with my physical eyes?

It's a little deeper than that.

That sight means your understanding, your comprehension of things.

See, faith looks into, faith is eyes are eyes that look into what human understanding can't quite see or perceive.

If you ever talk to an atheist, they will tell you, well, I don't believe in a higher power.

I don't believe in design, in intelligent design, because there's no concrete evidence.

It's all just theory, it's all just what is going on.

They are demanding to know, they are demanding to that it makes sense to their carnal mind.

This is the complete opposite of how faith works.

One of the most difficult areas of faith for Christians is this, and this is this is sort of the theme of today.

One of the most difficult things as believers as we walk with God, and faith is a journey.

You will be tested in different ways in different hours of your life in different seasons.

One of the hardest tests is why does God allow bad things in his kingdom?

Why?

Why, if I'm in the body of Christ and we're supposed to be striving to be like Jesus, loving one another, as the scripture says, known by our love one for another.

You know, people supposedly pursuing holiness and the things that the Bible teaches, but I look around and sometimes I see different things.

Sometimes I experience different things.

And this can really get under our crawl, like they say in some places.

This can really get into our faith and start to peel away at it, erode it and shake it.

We live in confusion sometimes as Christians because we ask, why do we suffer injustices?

And more than just outside the world, you know, David, the King David talked about this.

I understand if it's people out there, but those of my own house, those that I went to the house of God with, those are the ones that hurt me?

Those are the ones that turned on me.

This is much harder than if it was somebody outside.

Why does God use sinful people?

Because sometimes he does.

We don't really like to address that, but sometimes people are doing things for God, and behind the scenes there's sin, there's things that are not going on.

Why does he allow for people to have power that maybe you look at and say, I don't know why that person would have power?

These are questions that can throw our faith off.

But see, the Lord told us, he warned us in his word that he was going to allow this in his kingdom.

He told us.

Matthew 13, 24 to 30.

It's a little long, but I'm gonna read fast, okay?

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, there appeared the tares, then appeared the tares also.

So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field?

From whence then hath it tares?

He said unto them, An enemy has done this.

The servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

But he said, Nay, lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them.

Lest both grow let both grow together until the harvest.

And in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.

I remember very clearly my first tares experience.

I was raised in a Christian home.

My parents were not pastors, but they were very godly people, very involved in church, very dedicated to God.

They were not perfect people, but they were not hypocrites.

What they believed, what they what they pursued, it was real.

I grew up watching it.

They were very true-hearted, genuine, sincere people, as I believe you are here today.

They had hearts for God.

So I was raised in that home, and you know, I was blessed.

I was so blessed in my godly upbringing.

But then I went to Bible school.

As soon as I graduated from high school, I went to Bible school.

And the church that I attended was at Bible school was a dynamic revival church.

I mean, it was packed wall to wall.

Powerful moves of the Holy Ghost, people being baptized, receiving the Holy Ghost every Sunday.

It was, I was just like, wow, this is, I mean, I had a good church, but this was another level, right?

I was just like, wow, you know.

So, of course, in my young mind, I'm like, wow, you know, this man, this preacher, he has to be like right up there next to Jesus, you know, to be having this kind of stuff going on, you know.

Well, I was sort of privy to some of the background information because one of my friends was very close to the pastor and his family.

And I started I was young, but I started to pick up some things, and I was like, this doesn't feel right.

So something feels off here.

And I was just like, and my spirit started to get disturbed, but of course I didn't know for sure, but I was picking stuff up.

You know, sometimes you pick stuff up, and I was like, okay, well, then it it came out publicly that this pastor was having a moral failure on a grand scale for a long time.

I was so devastated.

I was my faith, my faith was just like, I don't understand this.

How how can this be?

I was in those services, I know, I know what went on in those services, but now it's proved that this man has had gross moral failings.

And I it shook my faith.

It shook my faith because I'm like, God, why do you allow this?

Why?

Why would this happen?

It it affects your faith, and you find yourself saying, I don't understand this.

This doesn't make sense to me.

Why would God allow that?

Let me tell you something.

If there's a situation in your life that when you think of it, you say these things to yourself, that is faith in a storm.

Your faith is struggling to stand in that storm because it's questioning what's going on.

I don't get it.

Where's God?

Where's justice?

Your faith is struggling because by nature we are judgers.

We we just are.

That's human, right?

We are judgers.

We try to make sense of our hurts, we try to make sense of our environment, we try to make sense of ourselves, we try to make sense of other people, and I'm not saying, and those things in themselves are not all bad.

We we should be seekers, we should be learners.

But God, in his word, when it comes to certain situations, he calls us to a higher level of faith when it comes to our judgments, to our perceptions about situations.

Romans 12, 19.

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

Now, this scripture is interesting because it says, give place to wrath.

There is a place for your wrath.

You know, I have seen people go through very difficult situations, hurts, betrayals in church, out of church, and they go into a state of denial, almost like the sacrificial lamb.

Well, I deserved it.

Well, they're really close to God, and it's okay, and when it's blatant injustice, that that's unhealthy, right?

You take that, that's gonna come out in some distorted way in your life.

There is a place to say that was wrong.

They did wrong, that was not godly, that was not according to God's word, the way they handled that, the way they did that.

And I'm angry and it hurt.

There's a place for that.

But where is that place as a Christian for that wrath?

It's under the blood of Jesus, it's under the face that we carry in our hearts.

And it's easy, so easy to stand up here and say, I know, and it's so hard to do.

It's so hard to do because there's something in us that strives for justice.

Every human spirit strives for justice, longs for justice, wants to see justice, especially when it's been against you.

But the Bible tells us there's a place to be angry.

You can own your anger, but what are you gonna do with it?

Are you gonna start seeking vengeance?

And you know, vengeance looks different for different people.

You know, some people it's like, I'm gonna go tell them off.

You know, they're like right there about to cuss them out, you know.

Ah, you know, they're just like other people, well, I won't say nothing, but I'm gonna beat them to a pulp, you know.

Then there's other people that won't do or say anything, but ooh, in their mind.

Think and think and think and think and think and ruminating on that thing.

It's just eating them on the inside.

Just okay, God, when are you gonna do it?

When are you gonna strike them down?

Come on, God, come on, God.

All of those are different types of human vengeance.

We're longing for vengeance, we're long, we're longing for something to happen to even it out.

But a Christian that walks in faith has to learn this skill of I put it under the blood, I put it under faith.

Because the Lord has promised He'll sort it out.

He has promised, I'll take care of it if you give it to me.

If you can you can man up, you can woman up, and you can give deliver it up to me in faith, then I can take care of it.

But as long as you're holding on to it, I can't do a whole lot.

Why?

Because you've taken my place.

But if you have that faith that says, okay, God, this really hurt, this isn't right, I recognize it's right, I'm hurt, I'm angry, but I am making a choice to put this under the blood of the cross.

You bring that person to repentance, you deal with their heart, you deal with my heart, and that is how faith triumphed.

Faith triumphs.

Now, I'm gonna tell you something that might be a little humorous, but it has helped me so much in my life in these situations.

So I'm gonna share it with you.

I call it, maybe it maybe it doesn't sound quite right, but I call it my little faith hack.

Okay.

If something happens in my life that hurts my spirit, you know, this is some what we're talking about, and you know, I'm a ruminator.

I'm not gonna go really say a lot usually, or like I'm just gonna be quiet, but in my spirit, oh man, you are getting it in my spirit.

Don't ask my husband about that, okay?

So, you know, I'm in my mind and I'm just thinking about how wrong it was, and you know, like that.

And then I came up with this, or the Lord gave it to me.

I'm gonna say this little faith hacks.

So, so when I recognize I'm having that thought, that that hurt thought, that lack of faith thought, that why would God allow that thought?

In my mind, I take it and I sort of wrap it up.

You know how the Bible says, bring every thought unto the obedience of Jesus Christ, bring it captive unto the obedience of Jesus Christ.

I bring it captive.

I was like, okay, thought, I see you.

I'm gonna get you and I'm gonna wrap you up.

And I wrap it up in my mind.

Okay?

Now, how many of you know what it's like to go to the bank and you drive through the teller that they have that tube and you shoot that little container up with your card and your check in it, you know, press a button and you know, when you're a kid, that's fun.

Because back in the day, I don't know if they still do this, but back in the day, they'd send it back with a lollipop if they saw a kid in the car.

So I, you know, I grew a love for those little containers, you know.

I'm like, let's go with mom, not in the bank, outside the bank.

Let's go, you know, I'm a lollipop, you know.

But those containers, and so I call this faith hack the God tube.

So I take that thing that I've wrapped up, recognized, identified that's not right in my spirit, and in my mind, I get, I drive up to God's bank.

And I open, you know, I open that little door, you know, and the container's there.

You gotta grab it, you gotta grab it.

It doesn't jump in your car.

Grab it, open it.

I put that thing that I wrapped up inside of it, I close it, put it back in, and I press that button.

I say, okay, God, I'm sending this up to you.

I'm sending this up the God tube.

This is going up to you.

I don't know where it's going, I can't see, I don't know.

But God, I have faith that you're gonna receive it and you're gonna take care of it.

You're gonna lay it down and you're gonna say, Okay, Evie, I got it.

I got it.

It's gonna be okay.

Don't worry about it.

And let me tell you, sometimes you gotta drive up to God's bank many times for the same thing.

But keep driving there.

Keep driving there.

Don't stop.

Send it up to God to, because you know what?

When you do, he does get it.

He's like, okay, thank you, child.

I know that cost you, faith costs, I know that was hard, but you know what?

I got it now.

I got it now.

Hebrews 12, 15 says, looking diligently.

This is what I mean when I say you got to keep driving up to the God bank.

You gotta be diligent about this, because as long as you live, you're gonna be vulnerable to offense.

This is humanity, right?

Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God.

And isn't it interesting how it doesn't say if God's grace fails you?

See, this is how sometimes we spin it with the devil's help.

Well, the church failed me.

Well, that person, they failed me.

They were supposed to be a Christian and they failed me, so I'm just not gonna serve God.

Mm-mm.

Look what the Bible says.

It doesn't say the grace of God failed you, it says you failed the grace of God because you didn't treat it in faith.

Lest any root of bitterness spring up to trouble you.

See, this bitterness troubles us, these offenses trouble us, and thereby many be defiled.

See, here's the irony.

If I don't sit submit my heart to the blood of Jesus, then I go from being a wheat to a tear.

Because now I am defiling others.

Now it's others around me that are saying, Well, I thought she was a Christian, and look at her attitude.

Ooh, the Mouth on that girl?

Wow.

And I thought she was a Christian.

Wow, the way he does that, you know, that's not right.

And I thought he was a Christian because maybe there's a root of bitterness that's governing our lives, governing our words, governing our attitudes, our actions, our relationships.

And we don't even realize it, but we've gone from being a wheat to a tear.

And that's why I'm here today to tell you, don't become a tear.

And if you recognize, yeah, I do have that.

And you are not unusual if you have this.

This is a problem with all humanity.

But if you recognize that thing is eating me up, I can't let go of it.

Be careful.

You're going into tear mode.

And that's not what you want.

You do not want that.

It's hard because it requires faith.

And here's what's really hard about faith.

Faith requires patience.

I think that patience, being patient in faith, is one of the hardest things because life and time and our minds and the enemy works through that time to erode the faith.

We can start off strong.

Oh, the Lord's with me.

I know He's with me.

I'm victorious.

But after a year, it's like, yeah, I'm victorious.

After two years, I think I'm victorious.

After three years, I don't know if I'm victorious.

That's okay.

That's human nature, okay?

But this is why we have to keep renewing our minds, renewing our faith.

Every day, saying, No, today the Lord's giving me the measure of faith.

No, today the Lord is with me.

Today the Lord has that thing that I sent up to him.

He's got it.

It's on his roster.

I might not see him dealing with it right now, but he's got it.

It's in his hands.

And we have to renew that faith.

1 Timothy 5 24 says, Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men they follow after.

We've got to remember that.

Sometimes you can see things happen and you're like, oh yeah, God's doing something in that situation.

But sometimes you never see anything.

They live and they die happy, good, successful lives, and you're like, and they did me so wrong.

The Lord says, be patient, because there's a sorting day coming.

It's gonna come.

I am faithful to my words.

Your job is to have faith in the waiting period, faith in this life.

Thomas R.

Schreiner was a scholar and theologian who said, Life does not make sense without the judgment.

This is so true.

Because many times spiritually, our lives can feel like we're standing in front of a shelf full of Tylenol.

And we're like, okay, I want something to leave my headache, but I don't know which ones are good and which ones are bad.

I I have mistrust.

I've been hurt in the past.

I've been betrayed in the past.

I I don't know.

I I thought that brother was trustworthy.

I really put a lot of faith in him, but he turned his back on me when I really needed him.

That sister who's always in the altar jumping, who would have thought she started those nasty rumors about me?

I don't know who's safe.

I don't know.

I'm not sure.

I want the body of Christ.

I need the body of Christ.

I know there's a lot of good in here.

There's a lot of true goods, but I don't know who is what and what is where.

One of the most fearful and at the same time promising verses of the Bible is found in Hebrews 9.27.

And what makes the difference is what side are you on?

Are you on the tear flesh demanding side?

I want justice now.

I'm not gonna trust God.

I'm gonna try to figure this out myself.

Or are you on the faith side that says, yeah, it hurts, yeah, it's hard.

But I'm gonna take that higher road.

I'm gonna trust God with it.

It all depends on which side you're on.

Hebrews 9 27, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment.

See, the judgment, and there's two of them, but the judgment, that's sorting day.

That's sorting day.

And it's so easy to forget about it for our own lives and also for other people's like, well, they got away with it.

They did terrible things to me and they got away with it.

Look, they died and nothing happened to them, and they got away with it.

Oh, oh, oh, no, no, no.

Wait a minute.

The most important day is sorting day.

Not any day on this earth.

Sorting day is coming for every single one of us.

Which side are we gonna be on?

The sheep or the goats?

See, when we forget about sorting day, we start to make more of a mess of the situation at the end of our own lives.

Because we lose clarity, we lose trust, we lose joy, we lose opportunities that we could have, but we can't get to them because we're filled with this bitterness.

We lose relationships, we lose faith, because we've allowed hurt and bitterness to consume our faith.

And sometimes people stay in church and stay functional and stay, but underneath they're consumed with hurt, consumed with bitterness.

But keeping that sorting day in mind helps us to become more and more Christ-like.

Because now we have clarity, we grow in trust, we obtain joys, we seize opportunities, we repair relationships, we advance in faith because we keep it in the forefront of our mind.

Sorting day's coming, sorting day's coming, and all the injustices and all the hurts and all the stuff that I don't understand in this life.

We pray to God that those people repent and find grace.

And that's a whole nother lesson because sometimes we don't want them to repent.

Because it's like, well, then the Lord's not gonna do anything to them, and that's not fair.

Well, that's a whole nother lesson, but I'm not going there.

Let me just say this: if you have a heart like Christ, you want them saved.

If you if you have a heart that echoes the heart of God, you're like, yes, let them kneel, let them be saved.

That's the greatest thing that could happen in this situation.

First Corinthians 4, 5.

This is what we started with.

We're gonna end with it.

Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart, and then then show every man have praise of God.

I want to encourage you today, send your hurts up the God tube.

Because on sorting day, on that judgment day, you know what's gonna happen?

That tube is gonna come back to you with some lollipops in it.

Like the scripture says, you will receive praise of God.

Man, you know it's so tempting in life to want the praise of men, and of course, it's nice when you know when we're affirmed by people.

That's not a bad thing.

We should validate in the church and love each other, but sometimes we can just put that above the praise of God, you know.

But how beautiful to think about that day when you receive the praise of God.

When you're standing there and you're like, here I am, God, you know, I'm saved by the blood of the Lamb, and I did my best to keep your commandments and to walk in faith, and you helped me, thank you.

And he's like, I know, I know, I got a lot of tubes from you.

I got a lot of little containers coming up my tube, and there's a whole bunch up there, but I saw it.

I saw your obedience, I saw your humility, I saw your faith, and today I praise you.

Today I say, Well done, well done.

You did, it was hard, I know, but you did it.

You did it.

You're here, and you're a testimony to my grace, to my goodness, to my justice, and to my promise that I'll make it all right.

He will make it all right.

One way or another, he's gonna make it right.

So do not let the enemy consume you with bitterness, with hurt, with resentment, with vengeance, because he's turning you into his.

No, it's time to say I will not live this anymore.

I don't know how.

I've carried this for years.

I feel like I can't let go of it.

I'm telling you, you can, by the grace of God.

You gotta make a decision.

Today, I'm wrapping it up.

Today I'm bringing it captive.

Today I'm putting it under the blood of Christ, and today I'm sending it up the God tube.

I'm not gonna go there again.

Every time it comes to my mind, I'm gonna say, no, that's erased, that's up there.

It's not here, it's up there, and the day's coming, he's gonna make it all right.

But I'm gonna live in joy and I'm gonna live in peace, and I'm gonna live in victory, and I'm gonna live following the spirit of God in my life.

I'm gonna live stepping into new territories where before I was afraid to go there.

I'm gonna live listening for what God is telling me to do, not what my pain is screaming for me not to do.

How many are willing today?

How many say, Yes, that's what I want, and that's what I will do.

And I promise you the Lord will help you.

He will not leave you out there floundering in your pain if you try to give it up.

He will help you, he will comfort you, he will strengthen you, he will send you the right people at the right time, and you will see his restoration, you will see his glory if you're willing to send it up to God too.

He gives a lot of good lollipops, even in this life.

I found that to be true.