Waiting on God

John 11:1–15 (NIV)

1Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

2(This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.)

3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

4When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

6So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,

7and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

8“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light.

10It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

11After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

12His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”

13Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

14So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,

15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Intro:

If you are anything like me, you hate to wait.

When I come to a red light, I will pick the lane with the fewest cars.

When I go to the store, I will look for the check out line containing the fewest people.

When I am using the microwave, I will stop it a few seconds before the timer reaches zero.

When I step in an elevator and press the button for the floor I want, I will hit the close door button because I don’t want to wait for it to close.

When I use an escalator, I will walk up it, instead of waiting for it to take me up.

When I have an appointment with someone, I want that person to be on time.

When I make a phone call, I do not want to be put on hold. I think you get the picture: I hate to wait!

Regardless of what I want or like, waiting is a part of life.

I have to wait in traffic.

I have to wait in the doctor’s office.

I have to wait in the elevator.

I have to wait on the phone.

I have to wait on the microwave.

There are times when we just have to wait.

Waiting is a part of living in this world. It is also a part of living for the Lord. Did you know there are times when God will make you wait?

There are times in our lives when we pray and the Lord seems to answer us almost immediately.

There are times when we may not get the answer we want, but it still seems as if God moves swiftly in the situation. But, there are times when God makes us wait.

You see, there are three possible answers to the prayers we pray.

• God may say “Yes!”

We like it when He says “yes” to our requests.

When we pray according to His will that will always be the answer we will receive. “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him,” 1 John 5:14–15.

We can ask anything we please, but if it isn’t His will, it will never happen.

If it is His will, it cannot be prevented from coming to pass. Ephesians 1:11 says, He “… worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”

• God may say “No!”

We do not like it when God refuses to grant our requests, but there are times when He will not give us the things we desire.

“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts,”James 4:3.

Often, we will asks for things that are not God’s will for our lives. He can see farther down the road than we can, and He knows what is best for us.

Can you imagine how horrible your life would be if God really did give you everything you asked Him for?

I heard about a mother who walked into her one-year-old son’s room and saw him reaching as far as he could reach for an object that was dangling just over his face.

When she got closer, she discovered that object was a black widow spider. What kind of mother would she be if she had allowed that baby to reach that spider?

God doesn’t always give us what we ask for, but he always gives us what is best.

“When children first start to color, they have two problems. First, they might choose colors that are inappropriate. Secondly, once the colors are chosen, they have a difficult time keeping the colors within the boundary lines.

As they mature and keep on coloring, they learn to keep within the guidelines and to choose the appropriate colors, resulting in a satisfying picture.

As children of our Heavenly Father, our prayer life often resembles a child’s coloring.

At first, we don’t know what to pray for nor do our prayers stay within the guidelines of His will.

As we mature and continue praying, though, we pray for the right things and stay within His will, resulting in a satisfying prayer life.”

There are times when you will have to accept God’s “No!” You may not like it, but you will either accept it, or you will live your life in disappointment and defeat!

sometimes…

• God may says “Wait!”

For me, this is the hardest answer of all! In case I didn’t tell you, I hate to wait!

There are times when we ask for things whose time has not arrived. We are on target with His will, but we are not on board with His timing.

Now, don’t get me wrong; He heard you when you prayed, and He is moving in your situation, but He is doing it on His schedule and not yours.

There will be times in life when His answers, at least from our perspective, seem delayed.

That is the case in the passage before us today.

The times when God says, “Wait!” these are the times I want to examine today.

I want to make a few observations from our text and preach on the thought of Waiting on God”

I. The Waiting was weighty

Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that His friend Lazarus is sick. Evidently, they are concerned that Lazarus may die and they want the Lord to come and heal Him, vv. 21, 32.

After all, Jesus had healed total strangers. It only makes sense that He would run to the aid of a true friend.

This family had welcomed Jesus into their home and they had served Him, Apparently, they assumed that He would come to them immediately when He heard they had a need.

These folks did what you are supposed to do when there is a need in your life. It is God’s desire that we call on Him.

They had a serious request! Let’s face it, when we have a need, it is always serious to us!

They did what they were supposed to do: they took their burden to Jesus.

Now, just like us, they expected Him to come at the snap of their fingers and do exactly what they wanted Him to do on their schedule.

Isn’t that how we feel? Isn’t that what we expect? Well, it’s not what happened here, and it’s not always our experience either!

Let me just remind you that God is not obligated to do what you ask Him to do.

God is not obligated to do what you tell Him to do.

In fact, God does not have to do anything!

That is a lesson they learned through these events and it is a lesson we need to learn as well.

A. The Waiting for God to Work

These two verses do not seem to go together. We are told that Jesus “loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazaruz”, then we are told, “when He had heard that he was sick, he stayed there two days still in the same place where he was.”

The Lord’s response to the condition of Lazarus and the request of his sisters does not make any sense to us.

Of course, we know that Jesus did not have to be there to heal,

Mary and Martha thought He did, Let’s not be too hard on them.

If we can’t see the hand of God moving in response to our requests, immediately, and according to our request, we think He isn’t working at all. God is always at work.

B. The Waiting produced Wisdom

The Lord was able to see what the sisters and the disciples could not see.

He was able to see beyond the crisis of the moment to the glory God would receive through the crisis.

He knew what was on the other side of the pain, the problems and the pressure.

He knew the outcome before the crisis even reached its peak.

God knows more about our situation than we do.

• “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good,” Pro. 15:3.

• “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do,”Heb. 4:13.

Our duty is to learn to trust Him, even when we cannot figure out what He is doing and why He is doing it.

The Lord knows the outcome of our crisis before our crisis is even born.

Our sole duty in regard to the waiting times of life is summed up in the words of Jesus in Mark 11:22, when He said, “Have faith in God.”

In John 14:1, He said it this way, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”

The Psalmist said in Psalm 62:8, “Trust in him at all times; you people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.

also..

C. The Waiting revealed the Wonder of God

It brought more glory to God for Lazarus to die than if he had been healed!

No doubt, the Lord’s delay broke the hearts of Martha and Mary.

It brought unimaginable chaos unto their lives. They could not comprehend why the Lord had delayed to come at their request.

Now, Lazarus is dead and they are devastated. Just looking in from the outside on this situation, it seems like the Lord’s reply is harsh, cold and insensitive.

Isn’t it the same for us? When the Lord says, “No!” Or, when the Lord says, “Wait!” It is hard for us to grasp.

It is hard for us to accept. It seems to us, from our vantage point, that the Lord doesn’t care.

It seems like He is unfeeling. It seems like He is being insensitive to our concerns. But, that is just how it seems!

God’s way is always the right way, and His plans are always the best plans! God always cares about what touches His people,

Conclusion:

In her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells of a night when German and English planes were dogfighting above them in the skies over Holland.

After hearing her sister Betsie stirring in the kitchen, Corrie raced down.

For an hour, they sipped tea together until the sky was silent. Corrie returned to her bed in a darkened room.

She ran her hand over the pillow and felt a piece of metal. There was a ten-inch piece of metal that had fallen onto her bed.

She rushed to tell Betsie:“Betsie, if I hadn’t heard you in the kitchen …”But Betsie put a finger on my mouth.

“Don’t say it, Corrie! There are no ‘ifs’ in God’s world. And no places that are safer than other places.

The center of His will is our only safety. O Corrie, let us pray that we may always know it!”There are no “ifs” in God’s plans, but sometimes, there are “waits”.

When He says, “Wait”, we must continue to trust Him, to look to Him and to wait on Him until He does whatever it is that He desires to do in our lives.

Blessed are the people who learn to wait on the Lord!

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint,” Isa. 40:31.