Sunday September 5th – Sermon Notes
Sermon Title: “Dealing with Delays”(Click Here for Full Sermon)
Pastor Richard J. Brown
Scripture Reading: John 11:1-6
Delaying with Delays. What do you do in the in-between time? You’ve mapped out your life. You have set your vision about what you’ll do this year or next and then something like Covid-19 happens and you are in a holding spot. How do you deal with delays? One of the hardest things for Christians to do is to wait on God. One of the hardest places to be in is when you are praying and you feel like God is silent. How do you deal with the delay?
These people weren’t strangers to Jesus. It’s one thing to ask a stranger to help you – they aren’t obligated to help you – they don’t have a history with you. But the Bible says that Mary, Lazarus and Martha spent time with Jesus; Jesus had a known association with them. This is therefore a strange text. Further, one of the most special things you can have in life is a space, to find acceptance and love that’s always accessible. This was true of Jesus who was kind of a loner – foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head (Luke 9:58). He was on a mission; Jesus came to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God – He didn’t live the life everyone lived. So to have a space where He could go and resort was a special space. To have a place where people won’t laugh at your dreams or your confidence is rare. If you can find such a space, you will do whatever you can to protect that space. We have precious friends that if they are in need, we will respond straight away. That’s not true of everyone. There are just certain people you will interrupt a meeting to respond to. This was Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, Jesus’s closest friends. The Bible says He loved them. Later on in the scripture, we see that Jesus wept when He arrived at the tomb where Lazarus was and the people said, “Oh how He loved them”. So it was strange.
The message was sent to Jesus that Lazarus was sick – it didn’t say for Him to come. The simple statement that they were in a crisis was enough for Jesus to come. They bargained that it would be enough for Him to just know that they were in a crisis, that they were in a hard place, a sick place, and a scary place. It’s just enough for Him to know. It is impossible for you to say you love someone and abandon them at the same time. That’s why it is a strange text and a strange story. Jesus receives the word that His friend was sick and the Bible says that He stayed where He was for two days. Scholars believe He wanted to ensure that Lazarus was indisputably dead so that He could receive more glory from raising Him from the dead as opposed to being healed. If you read the Gospel of John, you realize that Jesus is moving on His own initiative. Jesus is precise, He is always looking for a precise moment to move. There is always a plan; sometimes it is a hard plan and a difficult plan. Sometimes God will act strange towards you and it isn’t that He doesn’t care, but He will bring you out with more glory and power than before. A delay does not mean denied. It doesn’t mean that it won’t happen for you.
When we look at the Gospel of John, we see that Jesus was always looking for His precise moment. His first miracle was turning the water into wine at the marriage of Cana. Jesus’s mother came to Him at the wedding when it became clear that there was no more wine. Jesus answers His mother and says my hour has not yet come (John 2:4). He was saying to her that she ought to let Him handle this His way – that it was not time yet. The hardest thing for us to hear is “Not now”. Especially when you feel like you are in a crisis. How many people are impatient? We don’t like waiting. We want what we want and we want it now and if we have to wait too long for it, we don’t want it again. Can you imagine dealing with a situation where your loved one is sick and the one who has the solution is delaying. When Martha sees Jesus, she flips the switch. She says, “If you were here, my brother would not have died”. If we are honest with ourselves, as believers, we have dealt with disappointment with God.
God knows what you are going through and sometimes He puts you in a situation where you are delayed. You have to know there is a plan, Jesus is always looking for precision because precision will reveal the glory of God. Jesus knew what they didn’t know. Jesus knows the end from the beginning. He knows when to deliver you out, when to change your circumstances; you need to have faith in Him to know that He has a plan. He may not come when you want Him but He is on time. That is how you deal with a delay. He shows this pattern of not being rushed. We see Jesus in the working of miracles at Cana; He begins His signs and wonders and many believe in Him. Death is a transition. Death is a dismantling of man’s glory so that the glory of God can be manifested. Death is a period where everything ceases and stops but death is not the end. Jesus waits until after Lazarus is dead so that the moment of precision can reveal dead things. There are some things that you have to allow to die in your life so that you can live. That delay is delaying you so that you can give up some stuff; so that the bad habit, and the bad relationship can die. Because He knows that if you are going to be successful in your future, something will have to die. He’s not allowing your dreams and aspirations to come through because He is waiting for some stuff to die. What do you do when Jesus delays you and you’re in an inbetween season of your life? In the middle can be frustrating; you are too far ahead to move back but you can’t see forward. You feel stuck in your life, yet you are delayed but not denied. How do you deal with a delay when a delay feels depressing? If you wait on the Lord He shall renew your strength; you shall mount up with wings like eagles, you shall run and not be weary, you shall walk and not faint. There is still a plan for your life, your set back is nothing more than a set up, for a comeback. Anyone ever come back from hard times?
You have to learn to deal with a delay. Declare you are navigating through this in between time. Declare that you will arrive in a healthy place, in a healed place on time.
There are 6 critical factors that you need to know.
- Watch your supplications – another word for prayer. Don’t pray craziness over your life. Moses dealt with a delay, Moses said, “just kill me now God” (Numbers 11:15). Don’t be dramatic. Watch your impact bias. Don’t curse yourself and say things will never change. Trust God.
- Watch your speech – watch what you say. Job found himself in a calamity and he cursed the day he was born. When you’re delayed, don’t talk a lot. Just be quiet and wait on God.
- Watch your speculations – your thoughts, your meditations, what you’re thinking about. When you are in a season of delay you can’t make emotional decisions.
- Watch your steps – what are you doing and where are you going? Because steps always take you to a destination and what you are doing right now may take you to a place you never bargained for. You have to believe that God loves you enough to know more than you know.
- Watch your sight. Watch what you give attention to. Many people are losing their mind. Watch what you are focusing on and involving yourself in. What’s grabbed your attention while in this season of delay?
- Watch your spirit – watch your attitude. We see Martha’s attitude come shining through.
Especially since we are stuck in the middle, we have to watch our spirit. Weeping may endure for the night but joy is coming in the morning (Psalm 30:5). Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil (Psalm 23:4). Watch your attitude while you are stuck in the middle. We are all dealing with delays in our life. To some extent, we’re all frustrated because we are too far in to turn back. Watch your supplications. Watch your speech. Watch your speculations. Watch your steps. Watch your sight. And, watch your spirit.
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