God is Always on Time, Phil Chan

Amen. Hey, good morning everybody.

It's always a little nerve-wracking

being up here. I don't know how

Christian does it every week. So, he's

amazing. How many you guys are getting

into the Christmas spirit?

You guys liking that? Yesterday, I took

my family uh and my sister who's

visiting from Chicago. Hey, Ruth. We

went to go to Upper Hastings Ranch where

my neighborhood is to look at the

Christmas lights. As you guys know, that

uh neighborhood was decimated by the

fires.

And my favorite thing was the sign up

front which says we lost 80 homes but

does not dim our Christmas spirit. And

we could see the resilience in our

neighborhood. And that was really

awesome to see. So, but that's what

we're feeling as we're approaching

Christmas uh this year. I want to start

off with a question for you guys even as

we're in Advent season.

Have you guys ever been on the edge of

your seat waiting for something?

Yeah,

some of you guys are waiting for test

results

or some of you guys are in job

interviews waiting for a response

or extra innings at a World Series.

Sorry, I triggered some trauma.

Uh this past January, um unbeknownst to

me, I was in the weight of my entire

life.

As you guys know, this January we were

expecting our fifth kid,

uh, Duke, and we were really excited and

we were on the edge of our seats. The

challenge with the fifth kid is that,

you know, Esther has done amazing giving

birth to four kids. Shout out to Esther.

With the fifth one, I was like, this

one's going to fly out of her.

Sorry, that's graphic.

Um, so his due date was January 16th

and it was beginning of the year and the

whole family's just on edge waiting. And

here's the conflict. Our fourth kid,

Titan, his birthday's January 12th.

And for some reason, I was like, the

last thing I want is to have twin

birthdays,

which I found out is only a problem when

you have a lot of kids

where like after a certain point like

you run out of months to do it, right?

Like there's 12 months and at some point

like they kind of they might collide.

Well, there's a real chance that it was

going to collide. And so we were like on

the edge of the seat. In my head I was

just like, "Yo, girl, just hold on.

Don't let that thing fly out. Just hold

on.

They got to have separate birthdays."

Well, it turns out there was a bigger

issue at play. On January 7th, um, I get

a text from my good friend Brandon,

who's also here, who wife just gave

birth this week.

I get a text from him. It says, "Hey,

man. There's like a fire in your

neighborhood. You got to go check it

out."

And so I was like, "All right, cool.

We'll check it out." I was like, "Hey

girl, just so bathe the kids. I'm gonna

go drive out and see what what's going

on with this fire." I pull in my car. I

pull out.

I as I pull out, I don't even make it to

the street. For on my street there's a

huge mountain and it is completely

ablaze.

I pull right back into my house and

everything within me as a dad is coming

alive at this point. I very calmly tell

everybody, "Pack your bags. We got to

go."

This would be fine

except the fact that my wife was nine

months pregnant

and she could be delivering literally

any moment.

So we evacuate our house. There is just

the craziest scene. The whole mountain

is ablaze. We live in Upper Hastings

Ranch. So just next to the foothills,

we see fire and ash and wind everywhere.

getting texts from friends that the fire

has touched down in the houses and we

are scrambling to find a place to land.

Thank God our good friend let us stay in

their back house. And for the next 24

hours I was not sure of a few things.

Whether number one whether my house was

still alive and number two whether I

could leave my four kids somewhere so

that I could bring my wife to the labor

and delivery because it can come any

minute. and my stress levels were really

high. Thankfully, the first night

nothing happened. We settled fine.

Friends were great. We worshiped. But

there was anxiousness in my heart.

There's the pressures of being a dad and

the care of my home. The next week was

me driving back and forth between the

guest house and my home, brushing the

brush off my house, hosing it down,

collecting important documents.

Also balancing the fact that we're in a

stranger's house. And when you have a

lot of kids, you feel a little

self-conscious that you're making a mess

or you're it happens. You know, they're

being rowdy or they're not being

respectful.

On top of that, I have my day job and on

top of that, other you hear of people

that actually lost their homes. You

know, friends Lamar, Matt, good friends

hearing that they lost their homes

and the anxiety of do I have a home to

bring my fifth kid to. It was just

finished Christmas and I literally like

this is what Jesus felt like. There's no

or Mary and Joseph rather. There was

like no home to bring them

and just the weak the the pressure of

mounting back and forth and not sure the

one thing on my mind was I needed a

place for my kid to get born. I did not

want my baby to be born in a stranger's

home and I was like I really wanted to.

So at some point, thank God they lifted

the evacuation orders in my sector and

as soon as that happened I I got to work

and I got air purifiers all over the

house.

I was struggling to find a cleaner and

nobody could come. And I don't know if

you guys know Rocky from our church that

used to be here. She was like, she

gathered all her friends and said, "I

was looking for someone like you." And

she came to my house and cleaned the

whole house.

That really um that really touched me.

And so Finally, we were like, "Okay,

evacuation orders are lifted. Let's move

back in." As soon as we moved back, um

was left with really unfortunate news. I

found out water was not portable.

And as soon as I came back, they didn't

tell us this, but they had to turn off

the gas. So, I was like, "We can we can

do this. Um we can survive. We can like

I have a gas top stove." And people were

offering to do a laundry, which if you

have four is actually the worst part

because your your dryer doesn't work and

I ain't hanging no clothes on no

strings. I'll tell you that

I'm not that hood. Okay. Um

so we moved back and thank God we moved

back around the 12th of January. It's

it's as you know it's Titan's birthday

and I remember being home for the first

time after a while celebrating Titan's

birthday. you got a cake. And you know,

kids, they don't know what's going on.

And this little 2-year-old just got the

dopiest smile just as we were singing

happy birthday. That was my first time

crying uh that year. You know, it's

everything you work for to see that

moment. Unfortunately,

the next morning, I was woken up with

not good news. I woke up with my

pregnant wife telling me that her throat

was burning

because the ashes in the smoke.

That plus not having gas, not having

portable water. I was left with a really

difficult choice. And the difficult

choice was whether I needed to evacuate

again.

And it's just the pressure of providing

and protecting my family. It was really

tough and it weighed on me. And I

remember texting my friends because I

was overwhelmed with the pressure and

the stress. And at some point I knew in

my heart that we needed to move out

again. And if you're expecting a fifth

kid, that's the worst thing you could

hear.

I remember that night when I decided

that we would move out. I

was just overwhelmed with emotion

and I was sat there at the dinner table

with my with my kids and they don't know

what's going on. were we're packing up

again, getting ready to go.

And I remember just being so

overwhelmed.

And I've never had a breakdown moment

like that in my life. But I remember

breaking down in front of my family and

almost yelling, "I feel like a failure

because I cannot keep you guys safe.

and in all the emotions of carrying the

weight

was just flowing through me.

It was um definitely the lowest point uh

of the year.

And I remember my second born so

amazing. Nobody asked her to do this.

She saw me weeping at the table.

She went and wrote on a piece of paper

and she handed it to me and she says,

"You're a great dad."

And of course, I wept again.

We move out

and just add insult to injury, my whole

family gets neuroirus.

Everyone's throwing up everywhere.

By the way, I'm only telling you half

the story. There's a lot more that

happened.

Finally,

portable water comes back, gas comes

back, and we move back home.

The day after we move back,

my wife goes into labor

and my son is born

on January 16th.

I tell you this story. This was this

story has marked me for the whole year

and I've shared it over and over again

because there's so many lessons to draw

from it.

I learned the limits of my capabilities

as a man.

I could literally try everything I

wanted to and I could not produce the

results that I wanted. I learned the

power of community. Just having Rocky

and her friends clean the house. I had

another friend offer me air purifiers.

But one of the things I learned most

that I want to leave with us today is I

learned

that God

is always on time.

God is always on time. Not necessarily

my time. That's key.

On his time. He is always on time. Not

in the way that I imagined. Not in the

way that I wanted. Not when I thought I

wanted it. But when it happens, and some

of you guys will know, when it happens,

you can only say you were on time, God.

One of the skills we have to learn as

believers, therefore, is to learn how to

wait on God

because he doesn't always move in our

timetable and when we want. I learned

this early on as a believer. When I

first became a believer, you know, you

start praying, right? You're like, "Wow,

you can ask God for things. That's

amazing." Like, and he'll answer. I

remember like, you know, the first two

were hitters, you know, like you said

your first prayer and it's like, whoa.

Like, God answered.

How many of you guys know that third

prayer

and nothing happens?

Like, what do you do with that? Right?

And I learned that, you know, answered

prayer is usually actually three

answers. It's yes, no, or wait.

And I learned that sometimes the measure

of a maturity as believers is actually

how well we can wait on God.

How well we do in the inbetweens.

Somewhere in between a need and

provision,

that is the test of our faith. I know

that our church has been going through a

waiting season. As you guys know,

Christian talked about our building. We

had this miraculous choosing of us. We

were so stoked and excited and we were

getting ready to move that last week and

right the last week at Willard and

before we moved to the new place

obviously they moved down from the deal

and we were in limbo and we went from

this huge celebration to a place where

it was like oh

we have to wait.

Our church is learning how to wait. And

I feel some of you here are in a waiting

season yourself.

Some of you guys are waiting for

provision.

Some of you guys have been waiting for a

position. Some of you guys waiting for a

spouse.

This waiting

is normal to our Christian life. And I

feel like the Lord wants to talk to us

about waiting today. So I want to invite

us into this passage where Jesus

actually has people wait and what we can

learn from that. Okay. I want to invite

us to read John 11 with me.

I actually brought my Bible. So it's

awesome. I've had this Bible since

college. It's really tattered. It's

awesome. All right. So, I'm going to

read the if you guys can bear with me,

there's a really beautiful story. I'm

going to read the whole thing because I

actually would have you much let's have

you leave here hearing the Bible than

hearing anything I have to say. Okay,

this is the story of Lazarus. Okay, here

we go.

Now, a certain man was ill. Lazarus of

Bethany, the village of Mary and Sister

Martha. It was Mary who anointed the

Lord with ointment and wiped her feet

with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was

ill. So the sisters sent to him saying,

'Lord, the the one whom you love is ill.

But when Jesus heard it, he said, "This

illness does not lead to death. It is

for the glory of God, so that the son of

God may be glorified through it."

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister

and Lazarus. So when he heard that

Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days

longer in the place where he was. Then

after this, he said to the disciples,

"Let us go to Judea again." The

disciples said, "Well, Rabbi, the Jews

were just now seeking to stone you. Are

you going there again? Jesus answered,

"Are there not 12 hours in the day? If

anyone walks in the day, he does not

stumble, but he sees the light of this

world. But if anyone walks in the night,

he stumbles because the light is not in

him." After saying these things, he said

to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen

asleep, but I go to awaken him." The

disciples said to him, "Lord, if he had

fallen asleep, he's going to recover."

Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but

they thought that he meant taking rest

and sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly,

"Lazarus has died. And for your sake,

I'm glad that I was not there so that

you may believe, but let's go to him."

So Thomas called the twin, said to his

fellow disciples, "Let us also go that

we may die with him." Now when Jesus

came, he found that Lazarus has already

been in the tomb 4 days. Bethany was

near Jerusalem, about 2 miles off, and

many of the Jews had come to Martha and

Mary to console them concerning their

brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus

was coming, she went and met him. But

Mary remained seated in the house.

Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had

been there, my brother would not have

died. But even now I know that whatever

you ask from God, God will give you."

And Jesus said to her, "Your brother

will rise again." Martha said to him, "I

know that he will rise again in the

resurrection on the last day." Jesus

said to her, "I am the resurrection and

the life. Whoever believes in me, though

he die, yet shall he live. And everyone

who lives and believes in me shall never

die. Do you believe this? She said to

him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are

the Christ, the son of God, who is

coming into the world." When she had

said this, she went and called her

sister Mary, saying in private, "The

teacher is here and is calling for you."

And when she heard it, she rose quickly

and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet

come to the village, but was still in

one place where Martha had met him. And

when the Jews who were with her in the

house consoling her saw Mary rise

quickly and go out, they followed her,

supposing that she was going to the tomb

to weep there. Now when Mary came to

where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at

his feet, saying, "Lord, if you had been

here, my brother would not have died."

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews

had come with her also weeping, he was

deeply moved in his spirit and greatly

troubled. And he said, "Where have you

laid him?" And they said to him, "Lord,

come and see." And Jesus wept. So the

Jews said, "See how he loved him?" But

some of them said, "Could he have who

opened the eyes of the blind man also

have kept this man from dying?" Then

Jesus deeply moved again came to the

tomb. It was a cave and a stone laid

against it. Jesus said, "Take away the

stone." Martha, the sister of the dead

man, said to him, "Lord, by this time

there's going to be an odor, for he has

been dead four days." And Jesus said,

"Did I not tell you that if you believe,

you would see the glory of God?" So they

took away the stone, and Jesus lifted up

his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you

that you have heard me. I knew that you

always hear me. But I said this on

account of the people standing around me

that they may believe that you have sent

me." When he had said those things, he

cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus,

come out." The man who died came out,

his hands and feet bound with linen

strips and his face wrapped with a

cloth. And Jesus said to them, "Unbind

him and let him go." Wof, what a story.

Beautiful story. Powerful story. One of

the most powerful miracles witnessed in

the Gospels when Jesus actually raises

from the dead. Basically, Lazarus is

sick and they're like, "Jesus, you're a

healer. you should come

and he doesn't come immediately.

I want to draw attention to one I think

is such a pivotal such a pivotal verse

that the writer actually makes notes to

denote. He says, "When Jesus loved

Martha and her sister and Lazarus, so

when he heard that Lazarus was ill, get

this, he stayed two days longer in the

place where he was." Isn't it

interesting that they make a note of

that? When you call for help, you're

expecting immediate to come, right? 911.

But the author actually makes a note

that Jesus intentionally stays two days

later.

What does that tell me?

The waiting

is intentional.

Jesus is actually setting it up so that

they have to wait.

Some of us when we're in a waiting

season,

we have this narrative in our head that

God has forgotten.

It's like, you know, you ever send a

text out and like they don't respond?

I unfortunately with five kids, I'm

like, my turnaround time is so bad these

days. It's like anywhere from 30 seconds

to one week. It's bad.

I feel bad for Sue and Christian. Like

their turnaround time can be up to two

weeks. It's like it's bad, you know? But

some of us like think God's like that.

Like like we sent a message out, but

like did you get it, God? Like did you

hear? And what I'm getting from this

passage is that the waiting is not

accident. The waiting is intentional.

Jesus is actually leaning into the

waiting. He's actually setting it up so

that everyone around him has to wait.

which tells me that waiting is a tool

that God uses for us.

Waiting is a common theme in the Bible.

As you know, he made the Hebrews wait

years before he delivered them out of

Egypt. After he told Joseph he'd be

second in command, he made him wait for

years after David was anointed king. He

made him wait another 16 years or so

before he would be king.

Waiting

is part of God's toolkit that he uses

often for his people. So if you're

waiting on something today, church, can

I just let you know that it's not an

accident?

That God intentionally sometimes uses

the waiting for our formation and

shaping of our lives.

Then the question is, how do we partner

with God in the waiting? One of the

temptations in our waiting is to be so

disillusioned and so disappointed

that we just give up. How many you guys

feel that temptation sometimes?

We can go from wait to impatience to

disappointment to disillusionment.

And I feel that there's something in

this here in this passage that I want to

show in terms of why does God have us

wait and how do we actually partner with

him in the wait. So I want to highlight

a few things that I want us to take away

in terms of how to if you're in a

waiting season as a church. What do you

do in the waiting?

The first is

waiting forms the theater of our faith.

I'm going to explain what I mean by

that. I I just love this response. So

Jesus goes out, right? Finally he after

two days he goes out and people He's

finally approaching the town where

Lazarus is. Okay,

here we go. Now, when Jesus came, he

found out that Lazarus was already in

the tomb. 4 days, Bethany was near

Jerusalem, about 2 miles off, and many

of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary

to console them.

Hear this. So, when Martha heard that

Jesus was coming, she went and met him.

But Mary remained seated in the house.

I just love this little detail. Both of

them experience Lazarus's death. Martha

goes out as soon as she hears Jesus is

coming, but Mary remains seated.

What interesting reactions in terms of

differences.

I mean like Martha just A+ disciple. No

offense in her heart. Just as soon as

she hears Jesus is coming, she just

runs. But Mary remains seated.

I find her response so much more like my

response.

It's interesting because her response

isn't evil. This is the the the Bible

doesn't say it's bad.

She is merely

hesitating.

Sometimes when we're waiting on God,

there is just hesitation,

right? Like she is somewhere, she's in a

liinal place. She is somewhere between

hope and disappointment. She's somewhere

between trust and distrust. She's

somewhere between I know you're good and

can I trust you?

And that hesitation

causes us

to think about what is actually in our

hearts. Waiting exposes

the condition of our faith. It actually

exposes it. I remember this one time

waiting actually exposed my own heart.

Uh I'm going to share a funny nickname

that my friends used to give me that you

should not share outside this room.

My friends used to call me the island

hopper.

Not because I love the Hawaiian Islands,

but because I had so many girlfriends.

Please don't tell anybody this

except for Yeah, shut the live stream

down. Um

I But that was like when I was a young

man and I remember I used girlfriends

because I had a bad upbringing and I

used girlfriends to tell me who I was

and to make me feel confident as a man.

But at some point in my college life, I

became more healed and the Lord started

radically changing my life and I stopped

dating for a long time which is which

was really healing and I started leading

a college ministry, the only college

ministry in my campus which was pretty

phenomenal. We saw people saved, we saw

people discipled. It was like one of the

highlights of my life. But as my fruit

began to increase,

my loneliness also started to increase

as well. because I realized that God

started giving me a vision for marriage,

not just girlfriends. And I desired like

a partner in life. It's funny, I

actually started learning how to cook in

college because I anticipated

that I would cook for my kids.

They are now the beneficiaries of those

skills. I'll tell you that right now.

Anyway, one year I remember feeling you

ever like ever if you're single, sorry

if this is hitting. You ever feel super

lonely?

Yeah.

Thank you. It hurts, right? It's like,

man, it hurts. I remember one night I'm

I guess I feel bad as a dude, but I just

felt super lonely. And I just remember

actually it was night all my roommates

went to sleep and I remember confronting

God. I was like, "God,

you gave me the desires and I'm waiting

for

a spouse, but I feel so lonely and

you're not providing and I'm just

waiting and waiting and waiting. What

gives?" And I wasn't super charismatic

at the time, but I remember really

clearly I heard God's voice speak to me

in the middle of the night.

I was asking him, "When will I get

married?"

And I felt the Holy Spirit say, "F

you're already married to me."

And I remember he was highlighting how I

had idolized that in my heart. I had

made that so important in my heart that

I became disappointment and

disappointing. There's something in the

waiting

which stuff comes out.

You see the problem with waiting is not

impatience. Some of us think I just need

to be more patience. Actually impatience

is a mask for the deeper things.

It masks our need for control.

It masks our loves. It masks our

anxieties.

It masks our idols. And waiting. God was

using that waiting to show me that I had

made an idol. I still had made an idol

of woman.

And it if it weren't for that, I would

not have been able to offer Esther the

gift of a heart

that did not make her my idol.

One of the most important things I can

offer my wife is that I love God more

than I love her. Because if I need her

to fulfill the things that only God can,

I'm going to both of us are going to be

utterly disappointed.

Waiting forms the feeder of our faith

because it gives us the opportunity to

see what lies underneath.

And sometimes God lets us wait so that

we can see those things. You know that

it's not so that he can see those

things. He sees them, but do I see them?

And God uses waiting to show the theater

of our faith. Amen. So if you're here

and you're waiting, can I just suggest

to you, what have you learned about

yourself?

Are you going to don't squander this

waiting?

What are you learning about yourself?

So waiting forms a theater of our faith.

Number two, waiting is an invitation for

intimacy. Waiting is an invitation for

intimacy. One of my favorite parts of

this passage is when so I told you that

Mary hesitated, but finally she gets up.

Okay, she finally gets up and as you

remember from the passage, she goes to

Jesus and says, "Lord, Lord, if you had

been here, Lazarus would not have died.

If you had been there," and I I just

love that passage because it's so raw.

That's why I love the Bible. It's not

glossy. There's just human emotion. It

is the collision of a heart that is

somewhat disappointed, met with a God

that claims he can do all things. And

there are questions in our hearts. He

says, "Lord, if you had been here,

Lazarus would not have died." And as you

know, what I love about Jesus response

is he doesn't give cookie cuttery

answers.

He weeps, too.

Like, he actually feels her pain.

There's something beautiful about

waiting, that pain that happens. I

remember when we lost the building.

Well, I Yeah, we lost the building here.

I was in a funk for two days just

personally. You know, we had our hopes

up and I was just grieving, you know, I

was grieving, grieving, grieving

opportunity, the loss of opportunity,

grieving all the work that went in,

grieving what it meant for our church

and our community and all the things.

Remember being sad and I remember also

sad because I felt kind of embarrassed.

I was like, no, we made a big

announcement and Chris talked about it.

I don't know if I want to make an

announcement. felt kind of embarrassed

that we told you we were moving in and

we had to send an email saying we don't

got church this week because we got no

we're homeless and so I was grieving I

was embarrassed and that Sunday thank

god Christian was like let's get the

leaders together and let's pray that's

what we should do and we were praying

we're praying we're just bringing our

heart before God and I remember the

spirit of God was in our uh we had a lot

of leaders in our group and Lamar shout

out to Lamar he's been just so clutch

doing all the examinations for the

building on our business strategy team

and he just had a fire and an uncction

from God where he just said he just

something blurted out within him. He

says, "We don't even want the building."

I'mma paraphrase, bro.

He says, "We don't want the building. We

want you.

We want you." And there's just this holy

roar like we don't want anything.

saying, "We just want you, God."

And the building was an excuse to lure

us closer to himself. I've been telling

people that when when we said yes to the

building, something came alive in our

church in terms of the apostolic

entrepreneurial spirit. But when when we

had a no, I felt something else came

alive.

I felt that our love for God came alive.

I felt that our dependence on God came

alive. You see, waiting is an invitation

for intimacy.

Waiting makes us ask questions like Mary

did. Where were you? You could have

saved my saved Lazarus. And the

questions that come out when you're

waiting you God, you ask questions and

you begin wrestling with God. How many

you guys have wrestled with God before?

The thing about wrestling is that some

of us think of wrestling as negative,

right? But when you think about two

people wrestling, they're jousting for

position. But inherent in wrestling

is intimacy.

You ask questions that you wouldn't have

otherwise asked.

And something tells me that the Lord set

this up so that Mary would actually draw

near.

Sometimes the Lord puts us in waiting

seasons

so that we would draw near to him.

more than the gift that he wants to give

us,

he wants our hearts.

And if there's anything I've learned is

that the hands of one who can actually

receive the gifts of God is one who

loves him above all else. Because so

often we will make the things that we

want an idol. And we will conflate the

gift with the giver.

We will take the gift and forget the

giver.

We will seek his hands before we seek

his face.

Waiting is an invitation for intimacy.

And if you're

waiting on something, I just want to

encourage you. God is waiting for you in

the waiting room.

He's not intimidated by your questions.

He was intimidated by the questions of

Mary.

He was ready. He wants that connection.

Waiting is an invitation for intimacy.

The last one is waiting is a opportunity

to be surprised by God's goodness. How

many you guys know that when God

provides, I'm going to get a lot of

amens for this one. How many you know

when God provides, it's almost never in

the way that we imagine,

right? It's almost never. I know a lot

of you guys have so many stories. Matt

shared a story of the fifth kid as well.

That's crazy. It's almost never in the

way that we imagined. I mean, if you

read this, we have the benefit of

reading this passage from the end to the

beginning, right? How many if you guys

didn't know the end, how many of you

guys would go, I bet you Jesus is going

to raise him from the dead,

right? There's there's no way you would

have known that. And then I thought to

me, okay, Jesus is trying to teach them

something. He's trying to make his

people

confident in his goodness.

So the question becomes,

just put your critical hat on for a

second. If you didn't know the outcome

of this passage that Lazarus would rise

from the dead, what would your mindset

have to be

in order to not be surprised by God's

provision?

What would your mindset have to be? I'll

tell you a few things that come to mind.

I'd have to give up my sense of knowing

what God would provide.

Some of us are so fixated on this thing.

I'd have to give up my sense of what God

provides.

I'd have to give up my sense of how God

is going to provide,

how it's going to work out, who's going

to be involved. And I have to give up my

sense of when God is going to provide.

I actually have to give up all those

things in order for me to not be

surprised by God's provision. But the

one thing

I'm not called to give up

is confidence in his goodness.

Confidence in his goodness. Because if

there's anything I learned in my life is

that God's goodness always comes

through. Not necessarily in the way we

imagine, not when we imagine, not what

we imagine.

But it comes through.

I remember this one time where this was

evidence in my life. I want to share a

story from the birth of my fourth kid.

No fires this time.

Uh this is my son Titan. And I was with

Esther in the delivery room. We had

we're holding him and enjoying this

moment.

And while we were there, I get a phone

call

and I look at the caller ID and I show

it to Esther

and she goes, "Pick it up."

Now, you have to understand the gravity

of that. I'm I'm simply trying to enjoy

the special moment of holding my newborn

child.

But who was on the call was my friend

Bailey.

Bailey was a childhood friend of mine.

We grew up both of us came to faith and

he was so instrumental in my own

development of faith. He had a radical

encounter with God. He taught me he

prayed for me. He prophesied over me. He

taught me the ways of the spirit. He was

uh a huge influence in my life to where

I am today.

But at some point, Bailey struggled in

his life. His parents were divorced and

that set a deep-seated depression in his

life that he could never shake.

And at some point in his life, he

started to walk away from God.

And I knew because he started ignoring

everybody, ignoring calls, ignoring me.

And he started develop he started

drinking. And at some point he left

everybody, left the church, left his

family and became an alcoholic.

I had not talked to him in over six

years at that point. And here I was at

the day my son was born getting a call

from him.

So I pick up and I go, "What's up,

Ailey?"

And he says, "Hey, Phil." I was like,

"What's what's going on, man?"

And he says, he says, "Phil, I'm coming

out of the hospital right now."

I was like, "Why? Why are you coming out

of the hospital, Bailey?

I had been," he said, "I've been

drinking so much that my liver got shot

and I fell unconscious and I've been in

the hospital for the last week."

And he began to tell me that while he

was in the hospital,

he had hit rock bottom.

and that he realized he had hit rock

bottom so much that he needed to turn

his life towards God again.

And somewhere in the unconscious place

of the hospital, he he said to himself,

"There's only two people I want to call

in the world right now when I come out.

It's my friend from Kansas City,

and it's you, Phil.

And I decided to call you."

And I was I have been waiting for Bailey

to come home to God for years. And

despite anything I would do, there's

nothing I could do. And I was like, what

are the chances of Bailey calling me in

the day my son was born?

And I remember the spirit of God just

put this uncction in me where I said to

Bailey, I was like, Bailey, it's not an

accident that you're calling me in the

day my son is born.

Just as God has ordained new life in my

family, you are calling me today because

he is giving you new life today.

And he is just weeping and weeping and

weeping.

And that was such a highlight of

the birth. I was just shocked at God's

goodness.

God's goodness never comes in the way

that we expect nor when we expect.

And he's so good. You know, this whole

Christian mentioned it, but this whole

building thing, we

it actually might turn back towards us

at some point, you know, which is crazy.

But in my heart,

I actually like I'm I feel so free of

the results right now.

like I don't really care, you know?

I just feel that no matter how it's

going to end up, the reason is is not

because I'm in confidence in us. The

reason is because if anything I learned

from the fires or this whole process is

that I've become confident in God's

goodness.

I become confidence in God's goodness

more than me. You know what I realize is

that we're anxious waiting for God

because we are playing checkers

and God is seated on the throne because

he's playing chess.

He's doing things that we would have

never have done. Let me just tell you

right now, the lease agreement for this

building is probably two times better

than we had before, which is insane to

me.

I was preparing this message and this

this phrase came to mind. I'm so

confident in God's goodness

because the ark of the universe bends

towards his goodness.

If anything, the more time goes on, it

is more time to prove his goodness.

And if you're you're sitting here and

you're waiting on God, if our church is

sitting here waiting on God, can I tell

you something today that if the story is

not good,

the story is not good, then God has not

written the final chapter.

He has not written the final chapter

because the ark of the universe bend

towards his goodness. And God is always

on time.

Come on, church.

Amen.

All right, worship team, can you guys

come up? That was actually my last line

of the sermon.

Um, can we stand in response? I know

we're running a little short on time,

but

I just uh felt led to have a few

responses for people in this place.

I know we've been talking about us

waiting on God, but this first

invitation is for some of you guys is

that I believe actually God's been

waiting on you.

I believe you're hearing this and you're

here and somebody brought you here to

church and you don't know why you're

here, but you're here for a specific

reason. Can I just say that God's been

waiting for you? God's been waiting for

you to come home. God's been waiting for

you to come to know him. He is a God who

loves you and wants a relationship with

you. And if you give your life to him

and confess your sins, he will give you

life and life eternal. And so if that's

you, I want you to talk to a friend that

brought you. But if you want to get

prayer, we're going to have prayer

people here to the right. So that's the

first. The second is that I want to talk

to the people that feel [music] like

Mary in this room.

The people that are in this liinal space

of hesitation.

Somewhere between hope and

disappointment.

Somewhere between doubt and faith.

I want to invite you to take one of the

responses from this passage

which is to draw near to God.

I want to encourage you. He is not

afraid of your questions and your

disappointment. Christian walked [music]

talked about it last week of bringing

our disappointments before God.

He wants your heart more than the gift

he wants to give you. So I want to

invite you, that's you

to talk, begin talking with God. If you

need prayer for our prayer ministry,

that's available to you guys. So, we're

going to spend some time in worship, but

for a church that's waiting, I want to

invite you to respond in the way that

you feel [music] led to. So, let's

worship.