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The title of today's message as we begin our series, "Joy Amidst Chaos," the title of our message is this, "A Question for God." Where are you?
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And I want to say to you that if you have found that God has been easily understood, Then I'd like you to come up and teach today.
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If you have found that God has always been on your schedule, come on up.
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If you have found that God has always taken your advice, the floor is yours.
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If you have found that God has always made sense, always, please, you have a leg up on me.
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I'll grab a seat.
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If you have found that God in your life has always prevented heartbreak, He's always come in and prevented a hard thing from happening in your life.
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Has that been your testimony?
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Please, if it has, educate us.
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If you have found that God has always given you all the answers, if you have found that God has always been immediate, and if you have found that God has always been obvious, And I'm just handing this over to you.
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Do we have anyone?
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Anyone?
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Well, I didn't think so.
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So I did prepare something for today just in case this would happen.
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Actually, I remember when I was a kid, very young, having some questions about God.
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And I remember somebody telling me, an adult telling me, very sternly, "Don't question God." And about 30 years later, I can stand before you and say, "With all due respect to that person who told me that, I completely disagree with that statement." I don't pretend to understand everything that God is doing.
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Have you noticed?
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being, I would put myself in good biblical company. When I read my Bible, I see throughout the Psalms, I see the psalmist crying out questions. Have you read that? I turn to the Gospels and I see the disciples constantly questioning Jesus. I turn to 2 Corinthians 12 when I see Paul questioning his thorn in the flesh.
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I see Jesus Christ on the cross.
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Anybody remember? Here's Jesus on the cross.
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Do you remember what He quoted from the Old Testament?
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Do you remember? Shout it out. What did He say?
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He said, "My God, my God." He shouted a question, didn't he? "Why have you forsaken me?" Fulfilling Psalm 22. But what I still see here is questioning.
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Questioning.
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Well, I want you to turn in your Bibles, and like the lesser-known beatitude says, "Blessed are those who sit near someone who knows where Habakkuk is." Turn in your Bibles to the book of Habakkuk.
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You're like, "Where is that?" It's okay.
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At the end of your Old Testament, there are 12 minor prophets.
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Now, they didn't work in a coal mine.
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They weren't under 18. Minor prophets just simply means this.
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The size of their writing was shorter.
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OK, Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel had longer writings.
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But after them, there are 12 minor prophets in your Old Testament.
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There's Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
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So he's going to be, go to the longer prophets in the Old Testament and take a right, and you'll find the book of Habakkuk.
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It's a little book. Is everybody there?
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You need to be in there. You need to have your Bible or a Bible in front of you, and you need to be going through the text with me.
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Everybody there?
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If anybody's not there, just go ahead and raise your hand and somebody will come around and find Habakkuk for you.
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All right, Habakkuk 1, verse 1 says, "The oracle that Habakkuk, the prophet, saw." That's the intro.
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His name comes from the Hebrew word for embrace.
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And like many of the minor prophets, very little is known about this man.
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And much of the information that we would know about his context would actually come from the writing.
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Scholars estimate that he wrote somewhere between 640 and 615 BC.
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You ready for a little history lesson?
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This would be before the fall of Assyria and before the rise of Babylon.
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At this point in Israel's history, remember that Israel was divided.
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Maybe you recall the story, but after Solomon and in Rehoboam's days, Israel actually divided into two kingdoms.
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The northern kingdom was called Israel, and the southern kingdom was called Judah.
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The northern kingdom had ten of the tribes, the southern kingdom had two of them.
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And one thing that they had in common amongst others, the one thing they especially had in common, both kingdoms continually turned their backs on God.
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And God promised in the Old Testament that He was going to judge them for forsaking the covenant.
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And God used the nation, the kingdom of Assyria, rather, to judge northern Israel.
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That would have been 722 BC.
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And eventually, in Habakkuk's day, the Lord was going to use Babylon to bring judgment on Judah.
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Why is this important?
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Because while Habakkuk was writing, the northern kingdom had already fallen, And you could hear the sounds of the enemies marching towards the southern kingdom while he was writing this.
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It was coming, it was right around the corner.
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So first of all in your outline, a question for God.
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A question for God, here it is, "Where are you when we need you?" Where are you when we need you?
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Look with me in verses two through four.
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Oh, Lord. How long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?
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Or cry to you violence and you will not save.
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Why do you make me see iniquity and why do you idly look at wrong?
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Destruction and violence are before me.
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Strife and contention arise, so the law is paralyzed.
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And justice never goes forth.
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For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted.
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Let's stop there.
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Habakkuk struggled.
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Do you see what he struggled with?
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It's really two things.
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But he explains what the two things are, but jot these two things down.
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Here was Habakkuk's struggle. Iniquity and injustice.
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Iniquity and injustice. Iniquity is sin.
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Habakkuk was looking around and he's like, "Okay God, we're supposed to be your people.
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We're supposed to be the people who know you and who love you.
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And all I see when I look around are people that don't give a rip about you.
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What do I see?
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I see sin.
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I see wrongdoing.
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I see destruction.
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Did you see that in verse 3?
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I'm sorry, verse 2.
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He says, "I cry out to you, violence." Like God, this isn't like people ripping the tags off of mattresses come and bring judgment.
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He's like, God, I see I see violence happening.
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And how long am I going to have to wait before you do something about this?
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I see strife and there's fighting and this isn't how life was meant to be.
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How long do we have to put up with this?
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How long are you going to put up with this?
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And then in verse four, he talks about iniquity.
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He says, "You know, I take a step back and look at our government.
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And do you know what I see in our government?
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Iniquity, injustice." So much so, in verse 4, he says, "The law is paralyzed.
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The law is paralyzed.
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The right thing that's supposed to happen isn't happening." So let me ask you, United States of America 2013, does any of this sound familiar to you?
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Does it sound familiar?
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Does it?
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That's why we're going into this book.
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That's why Habakkuk is so relevant to us today.
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God's word is timeless, amen?
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It is so obvious the things that Habakkuk was struggling with in his day.
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Have you been paying attention to what's been happening in our country today?
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Have you been paying attention?
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Have you picked up a newspaper?
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Have you turned on the news?
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Do you see what's happening in Washington?
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Have you been watching?
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Sin, iniquity and injustice.
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Iniquity and injustice.
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That's America, people.
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That's America right now.
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Iniquity and injustice.
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That's where we are.
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Have you been paying attention?
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Well take a step back.
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Look at the world.
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Let's just take a look at the world, first of all.
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They estimate there are about 100 million Christians being persecuted across the world right now.
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With worsening conditions, especially in Syria and Ethiopia, there was a report I read from 2011 that estimates that a Christian is killed every five minutes for their beliefs.
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Every five minutes.
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Think about that.
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Every five minutes.
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A Christian is killed for no other reason than, "I believe that the Bible is true.
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I believe that Jesus is the Son of God." Every five minutes.
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we say, "Why isn't God doing something about that?" Doesn't God know that his people are being slaughtered?
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Let's talk about America.
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Let's talk about abortion.
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Actually, before we get to the United States, Worldwide, do you know how many abortions there have been since 1980?
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1.2 billion worldwide abortions since 1980.
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Well, America, you know, just this year alone, and we just started June, right?
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We're not even like halfway through the year.
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Just this year alone there have been almost 500,000 abortions.
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They estimate approximately 234 out of every 1,000 births are murdered babies.
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Breaking it down, that's 3,288 a day.
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That's 137 an hour.
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Think about that.
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We'll be in church for about an hour and a half today, give or take.
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In this time that you've sat here, 137 babies will never get a chance to see life because they've been cut down.
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That's about 9 every 4 minutes.
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Or 1 about every 26 seconds.
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And those are just the surgical or the medical abortions.
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How long are you going to let this happen, God?
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How long are you going to look down from heaven and watch the senseless slaughter of the one demographic in the world that can't defend themselves?
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How long are you going to let that happen?
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You know, there are 12 states and the District of Columbia that have legalized same sex marriage.
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Massachusetts did it in 2004, but all of the rest of them have been since 2008.
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We are in a downward spiral.
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I know what God says the family is to be and marriage is to be, but we're going to redefine that.
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And if you would dare question our redefinition of marriage, then you're the bigot, you're the intolerant one, and you're the one filled with hate speech.
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Let's bring it in a little tighter.
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We went to the world, we went to America, let's bring it in tighter to the church.
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What's the state of the church today?
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Have you been watching the news?
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One of the largest churches in the world, it seems that the news is always pedophilia.
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You can look around at the landscape of churches, what do you see?
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Apostasy.
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You see a drift away from biblical preaching.
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You see more games and gimmicks than making disciples.
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I know the state of the church.
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God, this is a group that's calling themselves the bride of Christ.
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They're not acting like it.
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How long are you going to let this happen?
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Why don't you step in and do something about this?
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Well, let's bring it in a little tighter.
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Let's talk about yourself.
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There are some people sitting here today that are struggling with things like, "My spouse is resistant to Christ.
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You know, I have prayed and prayed and prayed for my husband to come to church with me, to seek the Lord with me, to open the Bible with me, to pray to anything.
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and my husband has been resistant since day one.
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How long are you gonna let this happen, God?
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Why don't you do something about this, God?
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Maybe for some of you, you have children that are not walking with the Lord, that you've been praying for them, and you've been praying for them.
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And God, I know my children, they know you or they know about you or both, and I've been praying for them.
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God, when's my child gonna have a breakthrough here?
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She's just been so rebellious.
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And I've had talk after talk after talk with her.
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And she insists on doing her own thing.
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God, how long is this gonna happen?
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You know, my son, he just keeps making stupid decision after stupid decision.
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And God, when are you gonna get his attention?
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As Habakkuk did, so do we.
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We pray and we pray and we pray and we pray the same questions.
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If we're honest, we pray the same questions that Habakkuk asked.
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In verse two, the questions are simply this.
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How long, God?
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Why is there no response, God?
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How could you allow this, God?
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Verses three and four, did you see the questions?
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God, how can you stand by?
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I was coming out of Costco the other day and I saw a guy struggling to get a, you know, like this monster TV in his van.
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And I'm like, man, I gotta stop and help that guy.
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And that was just, that's such a minor thing.
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We're looking at sin rampant in the world.
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And we're like, God, how can you just stand by and watch this happen?
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Why haven't you stepped in and done something about this yet?
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I mean, if we can be so concerned about a little thing, how can you?
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Here's another question he asks in verse 4, "Don't you see what's happening?
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Why do you idly look at wrong?
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You see it, or do you?" But the big question is how long, right? That's the question, isn't it?
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Because let's be honest, church, we know that God sees, don't we?
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We all in favor like, yeah, we get that. He sees.
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But the real question is, well, if he sees it.
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How long is he going to let it keep happening?
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Well, if you've ever asked that question.
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Again, you're in good biblical company, Psalm 6, 3, Psalm 35, 17, Psalm 74, 1, Psalm 84, Psalm 85, 5, Psalm 89, 46, Psalm 90, verse 14, Psalm 94 verses three through four.
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You're like, oh yeah, that's awfully psalmy of you, Pastor Jeff, but that's just like a psalm thing, right?
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Actually, when you get to the book of Revelation, chapter six and verse 10, the people that were killed for their faith, the people that will be killed for their faith in the last days, in the presence of God, do you know what they're asking him?
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Take a guess, shout it out.
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Take a guess.
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How long?
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Revelation 6.10, the martyred saints under the altar crying out to God, "How long?
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You see what's going on? How long is this going to happen? God, you are righteous and you rule. You are holy and all-powerful. God, you love your people and you promised to take care of us.
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So how can a holy, powerful, loving God allow things to go on as they are?
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In this world, in the country, in the church, in my family.
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I've prayed and I've fasted and my church has prayed and we fasted and my family has prayed and we fasted and why is there no answer?
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I'll never forget the heartbreak in this man's face.
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I was sharing the gospel with this man several years ago, and I could just see the heartbreak wash over his face when he looked at me and he said, "I tried praying and nothing happened." So Habakkuk here, right out of the gate, says, "God, I'm doing my part.
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Why aren't you doing yours?" And the thing is, we think that we have three options.
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We think we have three options.
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Either God doesn't know, or God doesn't care, or God doesn't have the power to do anything, right?
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Those are the three options we have.
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Either God doesn't know what's happening, like He's way up there somewhere.
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And like, has anybody emailed God lately to tell him how bad things are?
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because obviously he doesn't know.
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If he knew he'd step in and do something about it.
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Maybe the option is this, maybe God doesn't care.
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Oh yeah, God knows, I sent him an email last week.
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Like God, America's turning into Sodom.
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And his reply was, I don't care.
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Is that the answer?
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Or maybe God does know, maybe God does care, and maybe His response is this, "You know what?
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I would love to step in.
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I would love to step in and fix this, but you know what?
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I can't.
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Hands are tied up here.
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You're asking an awful lot from me.
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I mean, I created the world, and I hold all things together by the word of my power, but The thing that you're asking for is a tall order.
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I just can't do it, I'm sorry.
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Well, I don't really believe any of those.
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And let's look at God's answer.
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All in favor of God's answer?
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All in favor?
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I sure hope that's why you're here.
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All in favor of God's answer?
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Well, here it is, second on your outline, number two.
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The answer, I'm gonna read the verse And then I'm going to tell you what goes in that blank because I want you to see it in God's word.
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But the answer is in verse five.
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Now this is God replying to Habakkuk.
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Habakkuk's like, "How long, God, how long?
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There's sin and there's injustice and how long is this going to happen?" And God says, "Look among the nations and see.
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Wonder and be astounded, For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told." So God's answer to Habakkuk, write this down, "Wait and see." "Wait and see." That's God's reply.
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And you're like, "That's it?" I was all excited about this sermon series about tackling these really tough questions and that's it.
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Wait and see?
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Really?
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That's God's answer.
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Wait and see.
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That sounds like a non-answer.
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Do you know why that might sound shocking to our ears?
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Wait and see. Do you know why that might sound so shocking?
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Because we don't wait for anything, do we?
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True or false?
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True or false?
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Shout it out, true or false?
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We don't wait for anything.
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Some of you aren't convinced.
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How many people have stood in front of a microwave and wondered why it's taking so long?
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We have the technology to put our food into a box to radioactively like zap it.
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And we stand in front of it going, "Man, this thing's taking forever." We don't wait for anything.
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Here's one computer people.
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How many people have gotten impatient waiting for a YouTube video to load because they showed a commercial in the front of it?
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Has that happened to anyone?
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It happens to me sometimes.
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I want to listen to a song or whatever.
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I'm like, "I don't have that on my iTunes. I'll just punch it up on YouTube." and you punch it in there, and it's like, you can close this ad in five seconds.
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And I'm like, this is bull.
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I didn't log on to YouTube to watch this ad for five seconds.
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So I back click out of there.
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I'm like, I'm going to find some kind of homemade thing that somebody else made that's not going to have a stinking commercial on it, Because I ain't wasting five seconds of my day waiting for this Geico ad to run.
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We don't wait for anything.
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Still not convinced.
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How many people have done this?
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Somebody asks you a question and you're like, oh, I don't know.
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Let me look that up on my smartphone.
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And you go and Google and you punch it in.
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And the little thing's spinning like it's loading.
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And you're like, wait, wait.
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And then-- what do you say?
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Come on, tell me, what do you say at this point?
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What is taking this thing so long, right?
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You're all just being beamed down from outer space, right?
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On a satellite.
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What's taking you so long? Oh, forget it!
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We don't wait for anything.
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We go to a store and we want to purchase something that we don't have the money for.
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I could save the money over the next couple of months, or I could what?
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Swipe the credit card.
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Because we don't wait for anything.
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And I think that's why this answer might seem shocking to us.
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That Habakkuk's like, "God, this country's going down the toilet.
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Why aren't you doing something?" And God shows up and he says, paraphrasing, he says, Wait. Wait and see what I'm going to do.
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And you know what church said many times?
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Wait. Wait.
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Well, here's what you need to do while you're waiting.
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Drop these three things down. We're going to close with these.
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Three truths to embrace while you wait.
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Three truths to embrace while you wait.
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If you have a hard time with waiting, that's not on God, that's on you.
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And this is a way that the Lord can grow us, if you are willing to embrace these truths about Himself while you wait on Him.
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Number one is this, waiting now means something big is coming.
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Waiting now means something big is coming.
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(sighs)
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Do you see the Lord said to Habakkuk in verse five, "I am doing a work in your days "that you would not believe if told." God's like, "I'm working on something right now, "and if I told you what I was working on, "you wouldn't believe me." Okay, so how many people think that God was working on like this little thing?
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God's like, I'm working on something that is so huge.
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If I told you what I was doing, you wouldn't even believe it.
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You wouldn't believe it.
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You've heard the expression, that's too good to be true.
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Actually, in this context, God is saying, I'm working on something that's too bad to be true.
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We're gonna talk about that in a second.
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But for this purpose here, for this point, understand the big problems require big solutions.
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And God, please get this, God loves to show up in a way that leaves no doubt that he showed up.
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God loves to show up in a way that leaves no doubt that he showed up.
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Would you rather that God show up and do something that by tomorrow it's going to be explained away?
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Or would you rather that God busts through the heavens and does something that leaves no doubt that had to be God, that had to be God, that had to be God that showed up?
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I wanna flash back a little over a year and a half ago before this church launched.
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We were getting the things together to launch this church.
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And we didn't have the money to buy all of the AV equipment.
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And we were three weeks away from launch.
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So it was like the clock is ticking.
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We had nothing.
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I think at that point, all we owned was an empty trailer.
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That by faith, we were hoping God put stuff in it, but we had nothing.
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And we didn't have the money to go buy stuff.
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So through a mutual friend, I had spoken with a man who locally had said that he could work out a rent to own thing on equipment.
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He could say, "I can outfit you with what you need, "and you can just basically make monthly payments on it, "and eventually it's yours." And I thought, "Well, this is the answer to our prayer.
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"We don't have the money to buy it, "but here, maybe this is how God is going to provide it.
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"Wow.
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"So we're gonna have our stuff, "the church is gonna launch, and we're three weeks away." I was like, "Whew, that was just in time." So we have the meeting.
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I was with our previous worship leader.
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We had a meeting scheduled to meet with this guy that was going to rent us this stuff, right?
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And we showed up at the meeting and the meeting was at nine o'clock in the morning.
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And we showed up at the meeting and nine o'clock and 9.30 and 10 o'clock and 10.30 and the guy no-showed.
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The guy no-showed.
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Did I tell you the church was three weeks away from launching?
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This was our last ditch effort.
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Like, if this guy doesn't come through, we're going to have to delay the launch, and I think that our core group at the time was just going to feel like deflated.
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He no-showed.
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And I remember driving home, I called him and he's like, "Oh, I completely forgot about the meeting.
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I never do that, I never forget about that.
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That's really weird.
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How happy do you think I was?" On a scale of one to 10, one being ecstatic and 10 being I wanted to kick this guy in the face with golf cleats on.
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Where do you think I was on that scale?
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I had some unsanctified violent thoughts.
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I was like, how could you forget?
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This was a, ultimately for you, this was going to be a 20-some thousand dollar transaction.
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And you forgot that you had a meeting.
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I was not happy.
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A couple of days later, you know, I had two days to wrestle through this with the Lord, thinking, "God, you knew we needed this stuff, and why would this meeting not happen?
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And what are we going to do now, God?" And God, we're like, our backs are against the wall.
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And after a couple of days of that, I got a phone call from somebody who knew somebody that just so happened to be selling like a whole house full of electronics at rock bottom prices because basically he bought this stuff for his son to get involved in music and his son decided, "Nah, I don't want to do it." So he had all this like brand new stuff in the box.
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He's like, "I just want rid of it." Somebody bought all of that stuff and donated it to the church.
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So for those two days that I was struggling with, God, why would you allow this to happen?
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Can you see where God up in heaven was saying, wait and see?
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Can you see that?
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Because if we would have rented the equipment, we would have been like, well, maybe that was from God, maybe it wasn't, maybe that's just...
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God showed up in a way that there was no doubt that it was him that showed up.
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Waiting now means something big is coming.
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Number two, three truths to embrace while you wait.
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Waiting now means something big is coming.
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Number two is sometimes the answer doesn't look like the answer.
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Sometimes the answer doesn't look like the answer, meaning this, sometimes, do you know what our problem is?
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Sometimes our problem is this.
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We tell God how we want the prayer answered as if we know best.
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Don't mishear me.
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Are we to pray specifically?
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Yes.
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Does that always mean that God's going to take our advice?
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No, because He is God and I am not.
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So yes, we are to pray specifically.
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Yes, we're to bring our burdens before the Lord.
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Yes, He is a loving Father who wants to hear from His children.
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But sometimes he's not going to take our advice any more than you would parents for every request that your children bring to you.
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Maybe you're gonna meet that need that your child has, but you're going to do it in a way better than they even imagined you could.
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That's how God works.
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But here's the thing, children, sometimes the answer doesn't look like the answer.
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What do you mean by that?
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Well, look at the text with me again.
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God says, "Well, you think things are bad now, Habakkuk?
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It's about to get worse." Look at verse six.
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"For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans." That's another name for the Babylonians.
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You're like, "Well, who are they?" Listen to this description.
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That bitter and hasty nation who marched through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own, they are dreaded and fearsome.
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Their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
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That means they think they're pretty highfalutin, they think they're pretty awesome.
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They have an inflated view of themselves.
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Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than evening wolves.
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Their horsemen press proudly on, their horsemen come from afar.
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They fly like an eagle swift to devour.
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They all come for violence.
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All their faces forward, they gather captives like sand.
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At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh.
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They laugh at every fortress.
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for they pile up earth and take it.
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Then they sweep by like the wind and go on.
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Guilty men, whose own might is their God." What a description.
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They're bitter, hasty, dreaded, fearsome, fierce, violent, scoffing, self-glorifying people.
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Nasty people.
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And God's answer here to Habakkuk doesn't look like an answer, does it?
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Habakkuk says, "God, I see iniquity. God, I see injustice. God, how long?" And God's answer basically is, "Habakkuk, I'm working on a weapon of mass destruction right now.
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I'm not sending the Girl Scout troop of Eastern Iowa.
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I'm sending the nastiest people on the face of the planet your way right now.
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You can't see what I'm doing, but I'm doing something.
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Sometimes the answer doesn't look like the answer. Understand that.
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We're praying for things to go one way, and God's answer looks like things are going the going the other way. What do we do with that? Well, that's actually next week's sermon.
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How do we make sense of things when God doesn't look like He's doing the things that He usually does or that He should be doing? We'll talk about that next week. But understand this, sometimes the answer doesn't look like the answer. Sometimes the apparent inactivity is when God is doing the most.
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That he doesn't swoop in with an answer.
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Sometimes his answer is this, "Habakkuk, I'm rolling my sleeves up right now.
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"You're asking me why am I not doing something?
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"Oh, I am.
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"I am." Brace yourself.
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And then finally, three truths to embrace while you wait.
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Waiting now means something big is coming.
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Sometimes the answer doesn't look like the answer.
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Number three, suffering always comes before glory.
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Suffering always comes before glory.
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That is just the way it is.
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Have you noticed?
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That's the way it is in every realm of life, isn't it?
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Students, you wanna do great in your finals, right?
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How do you prepare yourself to do well in your finals?
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Study, study, study.
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What was that?
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Suffer, yeah.
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How many people like love studying?
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I'm not me, not me.
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Okay, Corrine, there's always one in the group.
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There's always one and it's usually family.
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Oh, don't laugh, you got family members like that too.
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Yeah, some people are studiers. The rest of us are not. And studying is like a pain.
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And, oh, and well, if you want the glory of the result of studying, that means you have to suffer through the studying. We get that when it comes to academics.
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Or what about athletics?
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Why are professional athletes constantly exercising and hours at the gym and honing their body and working with trainers?
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And once again, I know there are some people in here that like, yeah, that's my thing.
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I love working out to the point of nearly throwing up.
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I love sweating.
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I love stinking.
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I love being out of breath.
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I love running in this.
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I'm praying for you.
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Do you know what I'm doing while you're running?
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Not running.
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Me and my kids are looking out our living room window, like look at those people running.
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These poor people need a car.
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I'm just jealous because I used to be an athlete.
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But I know, in looking back, all those hours doing cardio and hitting the gym and going to the ring and training and all of that, all of that suffering was for the glory of the event.
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For the glory of winning.
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We're in the middle of hockey playoffs right now.
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Did you notice that?
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Why are these people grueling through 16 wins to the Stanley Cup?
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Why are they doing that?
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For that one moment of picking the cup up over their head.
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Right?
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Isn't that why they're doing this?
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Suffering always comes before glory.
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You work overtime.
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I love my job.
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I'm going to stay extra.
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I need the money so I'm going to work overtime.
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You'll suffer through that for the glory that comes.
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Suffering always comes before glory.
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But here's the real example.
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How about Jesus Christ?
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What's Jesus doing right now?
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Seated at the right hand of the Father, receiving all praise and glory and honor.
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You know, these songs that we sung this morning, do you know why we sing these songs?
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This is practice for heaven, because this is what heaven is, standing before God, before the Lamb, praising Him.
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That's what heaven is.
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But you understand, even in Jesus, before his glory came what?
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Before the resurrection came what?
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The most brutal suffering known to man.
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Jesus Christ died on the cross.
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A horrible death because God was pouring out his judgment on our sin.
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And Jesus rose from the dead to give us eternal life.
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But understanding there was no resurrection from the dead before there was the suffering.
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Suffering always comes before glory.
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So church, we need to get away from always praying the safe prayers.
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Typically, what do we pray for?
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We pray for protection.
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We pray for blessing.
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We pray for let nothing bad happen.
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keep everybody safe, when sometimes what we need to be praying is this, no matter how hard, no matter how painful, no matter how long I have to wait, Thy will be done.
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That was Jesus' prayer. Do you remember in the garden as He was sweating blood. Do you remember what his prayer was?
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"Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.
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Nevertheless, not my will be done, but your will be done." Jesus knew that God's will includes suffering before glory. So as I close, the question for you and for me is simply this.
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Are you willing to wait?
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I want you to think about the struggle that you're going through right now in your life.
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That relationship, that family situation that you're going through.
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It seems pretty dark right now, doesn't it?
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But the question is, are you willing to wait on the Lord?
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When you think about the church, when you think about our nation, are you willing to wait?
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Are you willing to rest in God's promises, knowing that silence does not equal absence?
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Are you willing to trust His schedule when it doesn't match yours?
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Because here's the thing, God will answer your prayer.
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Do you believe that?
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Because this is true.
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God will answer your prayer.
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God's not like me.
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You know, sometimes somebody calls me and it comes up on my phone and I'm like, "Yeah, I'm so not talking to that person." And some people think God's like that.
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Like we pray and God's like, "Oh, it's Jay Naur again.
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"I'm just going to ignore him."
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(laughs)
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And all the Naur family said, "No, no." God's not like that.
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God's not putting any of his children off like him.
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We'll be getting back to him anytime soon.
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God hears your prayers.
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He says, "Oh, I will answer it.
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It might mean you have to wait.
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It might mean my answer doesn't look like an answer.
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It might mean the suffering is going to come before the glory comes, but I'm going to answer." The only thing between you and your answer, do you know what it is?
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There's only one thing between you and your answer from God, and that's time.
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It's time.
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Time for God to work.
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Time for God to take all of these pieces that are surrounding this thing that's burdening you and put all these pieces together.
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Time to reveal himself gloriously.
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So we say, God, where are you?
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God's answer is, you don't see it yet.
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But I'm working.
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Wait by faith.
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And see what I'm going to do.
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Bow your heads with me.
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As our worship team comes forward, everyone bow.
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(sniffling)
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With your heads bowed and your eyes closed.
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(sniffling)
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I want every heart in this room right now pointed to one thing.
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What is it in your life right now that just hasn't made sense?
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What is it in your life right now that you have waited upon and waited upon pond. What is it in your life right now that you're going through that honestly, it seems like God has been absent? He hasn't addressed that issue. He hasn't shown up. What is it?
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Are you willing to wait?
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Are you willing to take God at His word to know that first of all, He loves you?
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He loves you.
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He demonstrated His love by dying for you.
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How will He not also with Christ give us all things?
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Are you willing to wait?
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Are you willing to trust?
