Miracles | Waiting On God

We don't like to wait.

That's not revelation.

Nobody likes to wait.

I actually read this week that the average person is going to spend, we spend several days a year just waiting in lines.

That's not traffic.

That's not on hold.

That's not anything else.

That's just like waiting in lines over the course of a normal life.

You spend some studies say as much as a year.

There's some that say up to several years of your life is spent waiting.

We don't like to wait.

We get annoyed when we're waiting.

For most of us, that's why we've left bad reviews on Yelp and Google, is because we had to wait.

That's that's just the way that it is.

So today I'm going to talk a little bit about this idea of waiting.

This is this is the this is the tension with this.

As much as we don't like to wait, that's life.

We do have to wait.

And oftentimes, as followers of Jesus, we're waiting on Jesus.

We're waiting on God, it seems like.

And uh we we have things that we're asking for, believing for, and and yet there's this period of time where we seem to be in limbo.

And I'm we're today, we're gonna go to Luke chapter 8.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

And we've been there already through this series, and uh it's a it's actually an interesting chapter.

In fact, when you when you read this chapter, it's a little bit of a lesson on how to how to read your Bible, quite honestly, because most of us, when we read our Bibles, we usually read it just sort of like as individual stories.

We look at this story and wonder what's this story have to do?

And then we sort of it just sort of rolls into another story, and we just assume that these are all just different stories meant to give us some moral lesson along the way.

But actually, the way that the Bible was written, the way especially the gospels were written, but honestly, the entire Bible, there's a narrative that that sort of overarches the entire story.

And when the authors put this, put these books together, as we're gonna see in in the book of Luke, when he puts these together, they're not actually in chronological order all the time.

In fact, that that's a common way that it was written.

It was written not necessarily to write it so that you would be able to document Jesus' life in order from birth to his resurrection, but it was intended to be told in a way that told you a story.

It was meant to communicate something maybe bigger than what you're actually reading initially on paper.

And so when you read Luke chapter 8, there's a there's a several stories.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

It starts out with Jesus teaching and he's going through the scene, and then it then it moves on to these miracle stories.

It's really incredible.

We we opened up just a couple weeks ago talking about one of these.

He's he's teaching in Israel, and then he gets on a boat to go across to this to Gentile territory, and he's while they're on this boat, the stone comes, and the storm comes, and and everyone's freaking out, and then there's Jesus and he calms the storm.

So everybody's most people are familiar with that story, and then he gets uh to the other side, and there's this guy that's then basically demonized, he's being oppressed with demons, and he delivers this person.

He delivers this guy from demons in a nation, by the way.

That's not technically that's not Jewish territory.

And then, and then what we're gonna talk about he comes back onto the other side of the sea, and there's two more stories.

He heals a lady who's been suffering with this illness for 12 years, and then at the same time later on, just a few minutes later, he raises this little 12-year-old girl from the dead.

And so here, just in this little chapter, you have all these teachings, the wisdom of God being expressed, and then he calms a storm and he he he delivers this person from demons and he heals somebody who is sick and he raises somebody from the dead.

And one of the messages through all of that is that all of these things, like God has authority over all that.

He has authority over nature, he has authority over demons, he has authority over sickness, he has authority over death, all of these things, and not just not just in the areas that are designated as his, but in everywhere, every nation, in every place, regardless of borders, regardless of whether he's welcomed or not, Jesus has authority.

That's one of the overarching messages.

That's pretty good news.

Jesus has authority over all of it.

But at the last two, there's there's another message, and and you see these two people who have been waiting, and they're waiting.

Two of them were in very different circumstances, one of them waiting 12 years to be healed.

The other one, the the clock is running out on his 12-year-old daughter.

So, yeah, we're gonna pick this up.

This is Luke chapter 8, verse 40.

Luke 8:40

Got your Bibles, you can follow along.

It says, Now, when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him.

They were all expecting him.

Yeah, this is this is uh I what I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you sort of a field guide for waiting.

That's what I that's why uh to kind of think about it today.

I'm gonna give you a field guide for waiting on God and sort of four anchor points as you're as you're going along.

You know, you know what's interesting is like I I love this.

There's a crowd waiting for idea.

God loves crowds.

He he loves you, he loves us as individuals, but Jesus loved the crowds as well.

He he did, he he wasn't repelled by the fact that there were crowds.

He loved, he loved the crowds.

And not only that, they're all there on the shore, and they all have expectations of him.

Every one of them.

They all have something.

I don't know, maybe word got out that that he calmed a storm, maybe word got out that he delivered this guy from demons.

I don't know.

Maybe it's just the teaching that we read about previously.

I I don't know.

I don't know what it is.

Maybe, maybe word has just got out that he fed 5,000 people recently.

I don't know.

But he shows up on the shore and everybody has expectations.

I think we could all relate to this.

And by the way, expectations are bad.

In fact, I would say this is one of the anchor points when you're waiting on God is to expect.

This is a this is an important part of waiting on God.

Expect.

Slide, slide, thank you very much.

Expect.

There it is.

If you're taking notes, you can write them down.

Expecting.

Expect expectations are good.

It's good to have expectations.

In fact, in fact, this is one of the markers of when Jesus would roll into town.

There's there's a story of Jesus going into a town, and people had very little expectations of him.

So guess what?

He didn't really do a whole lot.

That's what the Bible says.

Why?

Very little expect expectations of what he was going to do.

You know, for us, we have expectations.

We all have expectations.

Some of us have very small expectations of Jesus, which is maybe why we haven't seen Jesus do a lot in our lives.

Some of us have really big expectations, some of us have wrong expectations.

I prefer a schedule.

Jesus doesn't seem to care about schedules, I don't know.

He more like reminds me of that he's like my savior, but for some reason he doesn't really pay much attention to my schedules all the time.

Yeah, we we expect all we expect Jesus to be fast.

Come on, somebody.

But he doesn't seem to be concerned about being fast.

He he seems to be concerned about being faithful.

So we we come with expectations, it's not it's not all bad to have expectations.

The story picks up.

This is verse 41.

Says then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader.

So he's a synagogue leader, he's a he's a public figure, he's somebody who has a reputation.

People know who he is.

He says he came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about 12, was dying.

Isn't it amazing?

It's amazing what kid pain will do to you.

I mean, this is a synagogue leader.

He has he has a reputation.

I imagine he's got a little bit of an ego.

I imagine he's got he's got some his sense of dignity, but it's amazing what kid pain will do to you.

Kid pain literally throws him at the feet of at Jesus' feet.

It doesn't matter anymore.

Nothing matters isn't it isn't that amazing?

When you when you feel when you experience enough pain, suddenly your pride just doesn't matter anymore.

That's amazing to me.

And here's Jairus falling at the feet of Jesus as Jesus was on his, he begs him, come to my house is what he's begging him.

My daughter's about to die.

As Jesus was on his way, on his way to Jairus' house.

That's what he's doing.

He's on his on his way to Jairus' house.

The crowds almost crushed him.

And a woman was there who'd been subject to bleeding for 12 years, but no one could heal her.

She came up behind him.

I love this.

It's just like, why did she do this?

What compelled her to like think like this?

I she came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak and immediately her bleeding stopped.

She was healed immediately.

I don't know what, I don't know what I don't know what compelled her to do that.

You know, all of us have expectations.

Well I have expectations.

The real question is, do we have the correct expectations?

Do we have the right expectations?

Let me let me give you a correct expectation that you see in both of these stories.

The correct expectation, this is one of them, is that with Jesus is always better.

With Jesus is always better.

Now that sounds simple enough, but that's not our first inclination when we have unmet expectations.

Well, we've all, I'm I'm we have all I'm convinced, we've all been in this spot before.

We feel like we're doing all the Jesus things, but things aren't working out.

We're not tempted to go, you know what, I'm just gonna double down and I'm gonna be extra faithful.

Nobody ever says that.

We're like, my goodness God, if you don't come through, I'm done with this.

That's it.

We use your well, our first inclination is maybe without Jesus we'll be better because this with Jesus business isn't actually accomplishing what I thought it was supposed to accomplish.

With Jesus, I love the fact that we just sang a song about that this morning.

With Jesus.

With Jesus is better.

That's the expectation.

I see that in both of these stories.

You have gyrus.

Again, it's amazing what pain, where kid pain will take you.

It'll throw you at the feet of Jesus.

It'll just make you go, you know what?

I have nothing to lose at the feet of Jesus.

With Jesus has to be better than the alternative.

I don't know what compelled this lady to sneak up behind Jesus and and touch the edge of his garment.

Maybe she read the last chapter of the Old Testament and she read that in his wings there's healing.

That's the same word for the edge of the garment.

Maybe she read that.

I don't know.

Maybe she's like super, she's like a super scholar or something, and she knew that.

I have no idea.

I don't know what compelled her, but for both of them, they both seem to have this revelation that wherever Jesus is, with Jesus, following Jesus, around Jesus, touching Jesus is better, is better than the alternative.

And both of them, it's amazing, Jesus meets them both right in the middle of these expectations.

You know, when it comes to waiting on God, I think for a lot of us, especially when we're in that like the that lurch, the in-between.

I like to call it that.

I always call it the in-between season.

It's amazing when you're not getting what you want, when you want it, it's like panic starts to set in a little bit.

Or you get a little antsy.

I can't be the only one that gets a little bit antsy when I'm like waiting on.

It's like, man, what is taking so long?

I start problem solving.

Come on, I got a like, I know you, okay.

You got this a bunch of problem solvers in the room.

You start, okay, what maybe I did that wrong.

Maybe I ought to do this.

You know what?

This Jesus thing is just not and and and you his his pace isn't matching what you prefer.

And so you allow your panic to get the best of you.

And see, and this is the second anchor point, and it sounds like way too obvious to be one of the four anchors for how to wait on God, but but it's one of them because we just do a terrible job of it, and it's well, it's actually wait.

You actually have to wait.

I know that's a novel thought.

Part of waiting on God is actually waiting.

It's amazing.

I I can't tell you how many times I've had conversations with people over the years, honestly, over the last 10 years.

Could be something as simple as, I don't, I'm I'm debating whether to move.

It could be something as simple as I don't know if I gotta date this person.

And they'll come to me, somebody will come to me, and they'll ask me what I think.

And and it and normally, but normally my normal advice in those moments is, you know, well, there's what I want to say and then there's what I should say.

So sometimes we're like, Do I should I move?

And I'm like, no, the Lord told me you're never supposed to move.

That's what I want to say, but that wouldn't, that wouldn't be honest.

I can't say that, you know.

So so I don't, I don't say that.

But what I'll usually do is I'll say something like, let's take a week or two.

Let's let's take a few weeks.

What's the rush?

Are you in a rush?

Is this is it sometimes that's happened.

Sometimes you your employer gives you a week.

It's like you better make a decision now.

I get that.

But but if you don't have that, let's let's just wait for a moment.

It's amazing how many times somebody will come to me the literally the next week and they'll be like, Well, the house is up for sale.

We're moving.

It's like, wait, what happened to the waiting?

See, what happened to us praying together and waiting for the Lord to speak to us?

Whatever happened to that?

We don't like to wait.

We like to jump to problem solving.

Problem solving.

You ever I've ever at work?

You're wake up one day, you're like, man, today's gonna be a good day at work.

I got some things to do, but but it's simple.

I know I got this one thing.

If I get this one thing done today, today's gonna be a good day.

You ever have one of those days?

I got this one task, it's it's big, and if I get this done, it's gonna be great.

And then as you go about through your day, you get about 10 real quick interruptions.

You know what I'm talking about?

Hey, real quick.

It's just I just got something for you.

It's like, oh yeah, real quick.

That sounds good, you know.

Ten real quick interruptions later, it's 5 p.m.

and you have not done your one thing.

Come on, relate to this.

That is exactly how gyrus feels right now in this story.

That's where he's at.

Here he is, he's waiting.

He's on his way.

Jesus, come to my house.

My 12-year-old daughter, her good the clock is ticking.

Come to my home.

In fact, it's not even that far.

Let's run.

That's what I'd be thinking if I was him.

Let's run to my house.

That'll be good.

Instead, Jesus is like walking, walking slow enough to be interrupted.

It seems like a few times, but at least for this one story, we know for sure here he is being interrupted.

This is what you call a test.

Now, I we don't like this word because usually when we when we think of this word test in the context of God, we always think of it in terms of like God's gonna test you so you can prove yourself.

That's what we that's usually how we think of it.

We think of it in terms of proving yourself.

God's testing me.

I remember when I was getting my undergraduate degree, I had a professor who walked in first, it was this first day of his class for that semester, and he comes in there and he says, Day one, there's a test.

I was like, You gotta be kidding.

This is the signed up for the wrong class, clearly.

So I'm like, we sit down, we take this test.

Every one of us, we absolutely failed this test.

It was horrible.

I was like, why are we why are we taking a test?

I don't know any of these things.

And he gets done, he gets done great, he goes, just it's official.

All of you have failed the test.

And he says, I'm not gonna count this against you.

Now you know that you know nothing about what I'm going to teach you this semester.

Isn't that good?

Now you know.

And the last day of class came around, guess what?

There was a test.

It was the exact same test we started with.

We all took it.

Guess what?

We all passed.

He goes, now you know that you have retained the basic ideas of what it is I've been trying to teach you for the last few months.

That's a test.

That's a God kind of test.

He's wanting to show you something, he's wanting to reveal something in you that you don't actually know.

He doesn't need you to prove yourself.

Trust me, he knows everything about you the good, the bad, and the ugly.

When God tests you, it's actually for you.

It's for you.

And that's what's happening in this moment.

Jairus is watching while Jesus is walking, watching Jesus talk to people, be interrupted, and yet his daughter, he could probably feel it with every fiber in his being.

His daughter's about to die.

See, church, this is the this is the moment you need to trust.

Trusting is for when things don't make sense.

That's actually when you trust.

That's some of us are just, oh, I trust God.

I trust God with my future.

And it's like, no, you trust God with your future.

You say that because you feel like you got your future completely mapped out.

That's a little different.

That's a little different than going, I trust God with my future, and I lost my job yesterday.

That's a little different circumstances.

Trust is actually for those moments when things don't make sense.

So here he is.

He's being delayed.

Delays, more delays.

I don't know about you, but I'm a bit irritated.

I'm I'm irritated for Jairus right now.

It's just like, my goodness, here we go.

We're still waiting.

First, it's a delay.

Now it moves into something that feels a little bit more final here.

And you skip down to verse 49.

It says, while Jesus was still speaking, so Jesus can't even wrap it up.

I mean, he's not even now, he's not even being just interrupted.

He's having like, I guess he's having like teaching moments here.

It's just I'm irritated for him.

Someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader.

Your daughter is dead, he said.

Don't bother the teacher anymore.

It's it's over.

No, no, no point.

Your daughter is dead.

That's by the way, that's a that's the voice of cynicism.

That's what that is.

It's like, it's too late.

Uh, Jesus missed it, Jesus was too slow.

Move on.

That's what that is.

Some of you work with this person.

This is the person that you're just like, every idea, they're just like, yeah, that's not gonna work.

Nah, nah, I don't think so.

They're never gonna do that.

It's like, that's stupid.

We can't change that.

It's like, my, my goodness.

Like, but in fact, cynicism, I'm free to commit, is like their spiritual gift.

That's what they do.

Maybe that's why they're in our lives.

I don't know.

They're just there, they're just there to put speed bumps in your life.

Like, oh my goodness.

If without these speed bumps, we could just be cruising.

But no, you got a guy, you got the guy with the gift of cynicism in his in his life.

And I love how Jesus responds, by the way, to this.

Look at this.

Hearing this, because Jesus heard that.

He knows exactly what the voice of cynicism says.

He knows exactly, he knows exactly what the loudest and most confident voice in your life is saying to you about what can't happen, what will happen, what's most likely to happen, what's reasonable.

And upon hearing all that, Jesus says to Jairus, don't be afraid.

Just believe, and she'll be healed.

Don't be afraid.

Believe.

Don't be afraid.

By the way, that's one of your indications when when you know it's not the voice of your savior, oftentimes when you know that it's not the voice of your shepherd, it's the voice of sin.

The voice of cynicism will it'll do that to you.

It'll it'll stoke fear.

It'll it'll stoke fear about what the it's like, oh my goodness, my teenager's going off a little bit sideways.

The voice of cynicism will come along and be like, and that's all she wrote.

That's the end of it.

Fear starts gripping you, like, oh my god, no, no, no, no.

Hold on a second.

No, no, no, no.

That that Jesus is going, don't don't be afraid.

Believe me.

I have a feeling, I just have a feeling that that I guess I can only imagine.

That's your third anchor, by the way.

Believe.

I just have a feeling that in this moment, because I'm a father, I've got three daughters, two sons.

I can't even imagine with the how I would take that news if somebody comes to me and just says, your 12-year-old is now dead.

I I just have to believe he he was probably in a little bit of shock.

And I just I feel like I could just see Jesus.

He's right almost like maybe behind the guy with the voice of cynicism.

Hey, your daughter, your daughter's dead.

Leave leave leave the teacher alone.

And I could just imagine Jesus over his shoulder just going, right here.

Look at me.

No, no, no, no.

Believe me.

Don't don't believe that believe me.

Noise.

That's a lot of noise, fear.

By the way, this isn't some Disney princess movie line.

Just believe.

That's not what Jesus is saying.

He's like, if you just only believe like deep down in your heart, and just really believe for the sake of believing, anything's possible.

This isn't that.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying, believe believe me.

Trust me.

Don't just believe for the sake of believing.

I think some of us, this is what we're especially for those of us who are on the fence about our faith, on the fence about Christianity.

I think this is what a lot of us think Christianity is.

It's a bunch of people who just want to believe something so they can feel better about going to sleep at night.

And it's like, no, no, no.

This isn't believing for the sake of believing.

This is about believing the person who came back from the dead.

Believe Jesus.

Trust Jesus.

That's what he's saying.

You know, if I I I like driving.

I like to drive.

I enjoy driving, which is very convenient because in North Dakota, you driving, you know what I'm saying?

And nothing's close.

Okay, so if you want anything, you got to go a long way.

So I enjoy driving.

And uh, you know, imagine the check engine light comes on on your car, check engine light comes on, and you're about to drive across the state.

And your neighbor comes out there and he goes, looks at it, kind of listens to it, and he's like, Ah, I'm sure it's fine.

You'll be good.

Take your trip across the state.

You're like, I don't think so.

I don't think I'm gonna listen.

But if that guy's a mechanic that you trust, and he looks at it and he goes, Don't worry about that.

It's just this little O2 sensor thing over here.

You'll be okay, just get going.

Suddenly I'm like, okay, why?

Why?

Because it isn't believing for the sake of believing, it's a believing the person who has authority, it's a believing the right.

Voices.

Whose voice do you believe?

We're gonna talk about that here in just a moment.

That's a big that's a big question.

Whose voice are you?

He said the voice of cynicism, but Jesus says, Whose voice are you gonna gonna believe?

Look at verse 52.

Because there's multiple voices here, there's lots of influence here.

Says, meanwhile, he goes to his house, he goes to Jairus's house.

I love this because here you go, Jairus is going, with Jesus has got to be better.

So he doesn't abandon Jesus.

How quickly we abandon Jesus in that moment?

How quickly do we go, I got the bad news, I it didn't work, and we move on.

How quickly do we determine that with Jesus is not better than without Jesus?

We just move on.

I love this because Jairus just makes a decision.

He clearly makes a decision with Jesus is clearly still better.

Even in the face of the most horrific news any father could ever hear, he's determined that with Jesus is still better.

Meanwhile, all the people, this is at Jairus's house, were wailing and mourning for her.

I love how Jesus responds.

Stop wailing.

Stop it.

I love that.

Just stop it.

Okay, everybody needs to calm down.

Stop it.

He says, She's not dead, she's asleep.

She's not dead, she's asleep.

And of course, some people preach this, and it's just like she's like, my goodness.

They kind of come down on these people because look what they do.

They says they're asleep, and then look how they respond.

They they laugh at him.

They laugh at him because they know something.

They know how to check a pulse.

That's what they're not stupid.

They know she's dead.

I'll be honest with you.

I I I feel like I've I'd like to think I'd be gyrus in this story.

That's what I'd really like to say.

I'd like to say I would be gyrus with Jesus, full of faith.

I believe you, Jesus.

I feel like I might, if I'm really honest, I might be one of these people laughing, unfortunately.

Because I'm just like, I know I ain't stupid, Jesus.

That girl's dead.

Jesus isn't denying reality.

Jesus doesn't live his life in denial.

He's very, he's very aware of something.

He's not denying reality, he's declaring that he has authority.

For them, she's never waking up.

For for us, for many of us, for these people, death is the end.

For Jesus, death is a commandable enemy.

That's he's not saying she's asleep because he doesn't understand the difference between sleep and death.

He's saying, I'm here, and this is not the end for her.

She's merely sleeping.

I think that for a lot of us, this is where we're at.

Because we have these moments where our circumstances, our life, it could be work, it could be marriages, it could be kids that seem to be in the left field right now, it could be any number of things, and it just feels like it's a bit too far gone.

I think we I think all of us got some of these.

For most of us, it's probably a relationship.

That's that's the majority of us.

It's a relationship.

It just feels like it's that's way too far gone.

It's unreachable, it's untouchable, there's there's really no hope there.

And and here's the reality.

The reality, just like just like everybody who's laughing at Jesus knows the reality of that situation, apart from Jesus, you're exactly right.

You're exactly right.

It is pretty hopeless.

But this is what Jesus is saying.

He's saying, no, no, no, that's for you, but not for me.

It's it's too garden, it's too far gone for for you, but it's not too far gone for for me.

Some of us, I we have a pretty eclectic church here.

Eclectic just in a lot of you, a lot of different church backgrounds here.

I mean, we got people that are former Presbyterians in this place, we got former Baptists in this place, former Charismania people in this place.

You know them because they're just start doing this in the middle of service.

You're just like, oh, I know your background.

Come on.

That's my background, so I always get to make fun of them, okay?

We got all kinds of different backgrounds, church backgrounds.

Some of you have come out of a church background where when you're asking God for a miracle or for healing, it becomes a very like self-condemning approach.

Oh man, I just, maybe I just, I'm not believing, I don't have enough faith.

Oh man, you know what?

I screwed up last week and he probably knows that, and that probably delayed my miracle, and now I'm not receiving.

We just get this like, we may honestly make this whole idea of like receiving healing and receiving a miracle and receiving God's intervention, Jesus' actual intervention in our life becomes all about whether or not I actually lived up to it and actually did all the right stuff.

Ah, I I it's like, and I and if you're like me, I've had so many of these moments in my life where I'm like, no, no, no, I believe, I believe Jesus can do anything.

Come on, I believe God can do anything.

I mean, if he's God, he can do anything.

The part I struggle with, and I'm sure you do too at times, it's like, yeah, but will he do anything for me?

That's do you see the bridge?

I don't doubt that God can do it.

Jesus, I believe you can do it.

I believe that.

But if I'm honest, I'm I'm just kind of wondering if that's what I'm gonna see in my own life.

I'm gonna give you a prayer to pray.

This is a great prayer.

Jesus, I believe you.

I do believe you.

Help me overcome this like unbelief that's in me.

Some of you, you're you're way too black and white about this.

You're it's it's a it's like all or nothing for you.

Wait a second, you're wondering?

You don't have enough faith.

Hold on a second.

I can have faith that Jesus moves and still be wondering if he's gonna come through for me.

I can hold both of those and I can come to Jesus with both of them, and I can pray both of those things.

Jesus, I do believe you.

Help me with this part over here that I'm struggling with.

You can do that.

Jesus, help me with that.

And then here's that word wait for God's response.

You actually gotta wait.

You know, that's in-between season.

The in-between season that a lot of us find ourselves in.

It's not just some proverbial desert that you have to walk through because that's the gauntlet that Jesus requires of you.

It's actually an intentional season that's meant to form you.

Go back to that test, go back to that season, go back to what God wants to show you in that.

Again, it's actually it's actually for you.

But you got you gotta wait.

Some of us gotta do a better job of managing our disappointments in these seasons, too.

Because if you don't, if you don't manage your disappointments, your disappointments will manage you.

They'll get a hold of you, bitterness will get root in you, and you won't even notice it, but everyone around you will because it'll start being in all your conversations.

Yo, yo, yo, hear something.

You won't even be able to help it.

You'll make all of it about you.

You have a little bit of like kind of a just like a sharp edge to your conversations a little bit.

That's your that's your disappointments beginning to manage you a little bit.

You gotta manage your disappointments.

See, a wrong expectation is that Jesus is gonna do it my way on my time with no interruptions.

That's a wrong expectation.

Some of us have even gotten in the habit of critiquing God.

Well, man, you know what?

Well, I just don't know about this.

Because if I were God, I would do it this way.

If God were real, then why would he do it that way?

What are we doing here?

We're critiquing God.

You know, if God is who he is, just by definition, just definitely God.

If if that's real, if he's real, if God is who he is, then by his very nature, it means he has a perspective over things that you and I are incapable of having.

And so when I think I can do it better than God, it's not that that doesn't make God wrong.

It just means I don't see things the way he sees them.

Can I give you two ingredients behind what leads to critiquing God?

Let me give you that there's two things that end up leading to a critique of God.

Your pain plus your lack of perspective.

Our pain and our lack of perspective come together and we start getting critical.

We start getting critical.

The way out of that is humility, by the way.

That's the way out.

It's humility.

Allow God to heal your pain and allow him.

That's one of our prayers.

We pray it almost every weekend.

Eyes to see and ears to hear.

Do you know what that is?

It's hearing things the way Jesus wants you to hear them, seeing it through his lens, seeing what he's trying to show you.

That's that's his perspective on your life.

Managing our disappointments.

Here's the fourth one.

Here's the fourth anchor.

It's a little bit more subtle than the other ones.

The other one's a little more obvious.

This one's a little more subtle.

It's your attention.

It's attention.

What's getting your attention?

You know, again, I go back to here's the voice of cynicism that shows up.

Jairus, she's dead.

Here's Jesus.

Hold on a second.

Believe me.

Jesus shows up onto the shore.

All the crowds are there, and it says that the crowds are about to crush him.

They're crushing all the voices, all the people, all the questions, all the demands.

That's crushing.

That's called noise.

What's getting your attention?

What's getting your attention?

We don't ask this enough because we live in a culture right now.

We are inundated.

Inundated.

I bet you 25% of the room has already checked the news this morning while I was preaching.

Don't raise your hands.

Don't tell me.

We can't help ourselves.

We're just inundated with noise.

What is getting your attention?

I want to give you a I'm going to give you something really practical because this is this is a season of Lent.

This is we're leading up to Easter next week.

This is Palm Sunday.

This is a week where as Christians we're we're we're we're intended to reflect on what Jesus did for us.

That he came here, that he died, that he rises again, he comes back.

But some of us, we haven't even thought about it.

Because everything else has our attention.

I want to give you a really practical thing this way, this week to do.

I'm gonna challenge you this week.

For all the noise that you have going on in your life, I'm gonna challenge you to fast one source of noise this week.

Just one.

That's pretty come on.

That's that's that's an easy that's a step right there.

That's not five steps, that's one step.

Fast, fast a source of noise.

I don't know what it could be.

There's probably some really obvious ones.

Social media is probably up there for most of us, right?

The doom scrolling.

Maybe it's your cynical friend, but they're my best friend.

Yeah, you might need to fast that for a while.

I've just said, yeah, but this is my peep, are they?

Maybe you need new people in your life, quite honestly.

Maybe that, maybe that's why, maybe because you got one foot in the Jesus way, but yet you still got another foot in the voice of cynicism, your circle of friends.

And it's just like, I'm just telling you, what's getting your attention?

Because you split that.

The Bible's real clear.

You're just gonna be all over the place.

You're gonna stay on this roller coaster that you feel like you're on.

Fasting, a source of noise, and and going, I'm gonna do it the Jesus way, is is not some life of just pure exclusion.

I can't do any of the fun things.

No, no, no, no.

It's it's a life of stability.

It's an invitation to experience a level of satisfaction in your life that you haven't actually had the opportunity to really experience because you're you're you're kind of all over.

You're on this roller coaster.

Yeah, when you're waiting for something, I I don't know.

I've I've never done this.

I don't ever do this, but we're gonna do it right now.

I why don't you if you're waiting for something right now, why don't you raise your hand?

You know, we're not saying what it is.

If you're waiting on something, you're waiting on God.

You got you got something you're waiting for, raise your hand.

There you go.

All right, there you go, raise your hand.

We're all raising our hands.

My goodness.

That's right.

We're waiting on God for something.

Do you know what happens when you're waiting on God?

You already know this.

Little voices come in, they go, quit, move on.

This is dumb.

This is just stupid.

Just stop.

You know what?

You know what, do you know what I think Jesus is saying through this story?

Do you know what I think Luke is writing when he writes this story?

He's going, no, no, no, no.

Waiting on God can be holy.

Waiting on God can be spirit-filled.

Waiting on God can be the thing, and in this in the place, in the season that Jesus transforms you.

That's the waiting season.

I'm just telling you, keep going, keep waiting.

Get your attention on the right things, raise your expectations for goodness' sake.

Your expectations are probably too low.

Get the right expectations, raise your expectations, be willing to wait, though.

Like just press the brake for a moment.

Slow down.

Slow down for a minute and trust him.

Trust Jesus.

He's got you.

He's got you.

Let's pray.

Jesus, help us.

All these hands, all these, or so many of us in the room.

You you saw it, you see us, you see us before we even raise our hands.

You know exactly.

You know, y'all, you know, all of us who didn't raise our hands.

We're waiting and we're asking.

We got kids who are sick.

We got marriages that are on the rocks.

We got kids that are out in the left field, it feels like we've got we got all kinds of things.

We're needing a new job, we're needing something fresh.

We need, we're we're lonely because we don't have friends, we're lonely because we don't feel like we have family, we're lonely.

We have all these things that we're navigating in our lives right now, and we're waiting and we're asking.

And so we just take a moment and we just go, I expect you to come through for me.

That's my expectation.

I don't know when, I don't know how, but I just take a moment and I just reaffirm that my expectation is rooted in your faithfulness, not not in not in my calendar, my timeline.

It's in you.

It's in you.

Give us the strength to actually just be able to wait, to resist problem solving everything all the time, and just give you an opportunity to come through for us.

And we believe.

We believe you.

We believe you can do it, we believe you will, we believe you can.

We believe that when you said that you would, that you're still planning to, even though it doesn't look like anything's happening.

We believe you.

But if we're honest, we're kind of wondering if it's really gonna happen for us.

Jesus, we believe you, but we need your help.

Help us with our unbelief.

Help us with that part of us that doubts from time to time.

Help us with that part of us that that wants to give a little bit more, too much real estate to the voice of cynicism in our life.

Help us.

Help us with that.

But we do trust you, especially when it doesn't make sense.

And would you, by your Holy Spirit, would you make known to us that voice of noise, that source of noise in our life that we just need to say no to this week?

I don't know what that is.

Maybe it's our social, maybe it's social media, maybe it's any number of things.

It's a relationship, it's the news, it could be anything, whatever that is, would you make that known to us?

Would you, by your spirit, give us the strength to do that, but also remind us every day to say no, to say no to those things so we can put our attention on you this week.

On you.

You know, we could pray all about having the peace of God.

We can pray all about experiencing peace while you're waiting on God, how to wait well.

We can we can talk all about these things.

We can talk about Jesus coming through for you, we can talk about Jesus doing a miracle for you, we can talk about healing, we can talk about all of those things.

But here's the here's what it is.

If you experienced all of that, but you don't know Jesus, the Bible says that you just gained the world and lost your soul.

And the point of all of this is Jesus.

It's a person, it's him, and it's actually being with him.

If you never committed your life to being with him, to doing your life with him and modeling it after him and following him wherever he leads you.

If you've never made that kind of a commitment to follow Jesus, just make this prayer your own.

Just tell them in your own way.

Jesus, I give you my life, and I'm committed to following you forever.

Thank you for saving me.

I believe you died for my sins.

You died on that cross, and then you were buried, and you came back to life.

And you said that if I follow you, you raise me to a new life with you.

And so I give you my life.

I'm all in and I'm all yours.

Thank you for saving me.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Come on, everybody said.

Amen.

Amen.

Like we mean.

Let's put our hands together.

Thank you, Jesus.