Microwave Christianity

Open with apology to the church for the decision to sell the church and the decision to stay and move forward with God’s direction! (Tell of how I felt like ESAU and the birthright!)

Let me ask you a question, how many of you like to wait? I mean, how many of you like to wait on people for appointments, or wait on rides at an amusement park, or wait for a flight (whether you are the one riding the plane, or at the airport for the arrival of someone)? Or, my personal favorite, how many of you like waiting in traffic?!

I think that most people, if polled, would say that we don’t like waiting for most things, right?

Think about it, people pay extra money to avoid having to wait for things: like, paying extra for the fast line check in at the airport terminals, paying extra for the fast passes at amusement parks, extra for express line in concerts, theaters, etc.

Point being, we will pay for convenience because we do not like to wait!

However, as much as say that we hate to wait, we are semi-hypocritical about the same subject.

For instance, I am not a lover of having to stand in long lines to wait for things, and yet I actually slept overnight on a sidewalk years ago in Atlanta, in front of the Omni, for tickets to see Journey in concert!

Or let me even one-up that situation for you, last year, when the almighty Apple Corporation was about to release their newest device, the iPhone X, people stood in lines, not for minutes, not for hours, but days to wait, so as to get their hands upon the newest device.

(Show slide of guy camping: Before Apple even gave its keynote announcement on a Tuesday, Mazen Kourouche was camped out in front of an Apple store in Sydney, Australia to ensure his place as the first person in the world to buy the new iPhone. The 20-year-old software development student spent 10 days camped out in front of the store until the iPhone was released on September 22. He was accompanied by two friends who helped to ensure that, if he needed to step away from the line, he would not lose his place. Kourouche came prepared having bought food, a tent, a camping chair, and supplies for his mission!

Check this out, (show pic of Same Ole Line Dudes): a gentleman started this business in New York, called the “Same Ole Line Dudes”. They are paid by people to wait in lines for them, for whatever it is that they want and don’t want to wait themselves for. The founder, Robert Samuel, once made $14,000 in one day waiting for iPhones for people who wanted the phone, but didn’t want to WAIT for it!

And when it comes to the subject of waiting and the mindset of being made to wait, psychologists have studied this phenomenon and found that the frustration is not really the length of time that we spend in waiting , but rather, the frustration of waiting, is in the experience of the waiting; that is, how we spend the time while we are waiting!

In other words, they have found that if a person is bored, the time spent waiting, seems sooooooo much longer than it actually is.

Have you ever been placed on hold when you’re on the phone with a company and someone walks in and says, “how long have you been on hold”, and you answer, “it has been FOREVER!”

Then, when you pull the phone away and it has really only been 3 minutes!

Or, have you ever been in a auditorium and they ask for no one to talk for 30 seconds. (It seems like minutes have went by!)

Dee and I used to do an exercise regimen on video, P90X, and one of the things that you had to do, was put your back against the wall, cross one leg over the other and then slide down the wall until your one leg was at about a 90 degree bend and hold that for like 15 seconds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, some businesses have installed tickers in their institutions for people to watch the news , or other media, while they wait. In these cases, the average waiting times have actually increased, but the people say that they don’t mind the longer waiting times, because they have something to do to occupy their time.

Think about it, gas pumps now have video screens for people to watch while waiting to pump their gas!

Did you know that their are “drive-in” church services now. where you drive up, tune in your radio to a certain station and you listen to the minister’s message and then you can leave?!

The point being, WE COME FROM A GENERATION OF QUICK ACCESS, QUICK FIX, QUICK CONVENIENCE BASED LIFE-STYLES, where waiting is not the thing that we are raised to tolerate!

There are people who teach, that if you are a public speaker, then the optimal time frame for your message should be around 10-18 minutes. After that, you begin to lose the audiences attention and they do not want to wait on you any longer!

So, people are now looking for churches where the entire service is geared towards “quick and convenience”, with little to no waiting.

The message should be short and to the point and end promptly on time!

Some of the modern churches, have begun to curtail the length of the services, to meet the convenience based objective. Some pastors now intentionally shorten the length of their messages, because studies now say that the millennials have an attention span of no more than 10 minutes!

Have you ever seen people sit through a 3 hour movie and not budge, or a football game in double overtime in the cold rain and people will not budge, or sit in front of a video game for 9 to 12 hours solid?!!!

How and why is this possible? Simple, it is of interest to the individual and it is feeding their true desire and what their hearts are really longing for!

Now, I am not saying that we should strive for long services, for the sake of having them.

BUT, I am saying that we should never put a time constraint on the service, because in doing so, you eradicate the ability for Holy Spirit to come in and take over!

MAKE LITE REMARK OF A SERVICE WHERE HOLY SPIRIT SHOWS UP AND THE PASTOR IS LIKE, “MAN, IS WISH YOU WOULD HAVE SHOWN UP EARLIER. WE ARE ALL OUT OF TIME. DO YOU THINK THAT WE COULD SCHEDULE YOUR APPEARANCE AT 11:00 NEXT WEEK?”

Turn with me in your Bibles this morning, please to the Gospel of , (READ PASSAGE)

John 11:1–15 NLT

A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” But his disciples objected. “Rabbi,” they said, “only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?” Jesus replied, “There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world. But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.” Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!” They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.”

John 11:1–14 NLT

A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” But his disciples objected. “Rabbi,” they said, “only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?” Jesus replied, “There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world. But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.” Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!” They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.

Now, I think that most of us know this story from the Bible, the raising of Lazarus, right?

Well let’s look at a couple of other passages in this story and then I will make a very powerful point for you from it.

Verses 17, 21, 32 and 37 reads as follows, “ When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But some people said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

Here is my point in reading these particular verses together. They each show how and what the people thought should have happened.

That is, the people were expressing to Jesus, that if He would have come earlier, Lazarus could have been healed and would not have died!

Wouldn’t that have been much more CONVENIENT then having to go through the grieving process and having to hire the mourners (people were actually hired to come and grieve and mourn at the death of loved ones in ancient times and customs.?)

I mean come on, let’s be honest right now. Hands up if you have ever thought or felt like, God should done something the way that you wanted it done?

That is the situation here in this passage where the people are like, “Jesus, if you would have come when we called, this would have worked out much better!”

And then Jesus gives Martha the 5th of His “I AM” declarations, in verses 23-26, where we read, Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

Now what Jesus is saying here to Martha and all of those who are within earshot, is setting the stage for why He did what He did in this account, versus what they thought He should have done and the timing of how He should have went about it.

Now, verses 38-39, again, we see man’s limited understanding trying to intervene with God’s divine plan and in His divine timing.

New Living Translation Chapter 11

38 Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. 39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.

But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”

“Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”

Do you see it? “Jesus, what are you thinking. He’s already rotting and bloated and stinking. Why would you want to fool with him now? You should have been here 4 days ago!”

But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”

This coming right after Martha had just said that she believed in who Jesus was and even professed that He was the Messiah, the Son of God!

There again, we can say what we want to God and offer our lip service to Him, “OH YES LORD, I BELIEVE THIS AND I KNOW THAT. YA- DA YA-DA YA-DA!”

But, when the rubber meets the road and we are pressed to act or make a decision, do we still follow what we said to God and how we said we would react, or is our heart’s true condition made manifest?

Remember, the Bible says that God takes delight in obedience, rather than sacrifice.

In other words, He would rather you obey what He says, versus saying you will and then not doing it.

It may look good in front of people to raise your hands and profess His name, but He takes no delight in this, if your heart is not truly with Him!

In fact, the Psalmist records that the heart that God is inclined to and that He is looking for is as follows, “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

God doesn’t want your lip service and your hand gestures, He wants your hearts to be humble and devoid of the world and bent in the direction of His service completely!

To many people who ask and ask God for something and it seems that HE is not listening to you, take note that your heart’s condition can affect your prayers, just as the Bible says, “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.”

Obedience to God and a humble heart is what draws His attention. Not your public display of worship to Him, or your public tithing and giving habits, or your open professions of faith for Him. If your heart is not in it, then these are all DEAD WORKS!

HE WANTS YOUR HEART’S DESIRE TO BE COMPLETE SUBMISSION TO HIS WILL!

OK, verses 40-44, “Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a head-cloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

Jesus was letting the people know that God the Father was present and behind everything that they were witnessing. It is for this reason that He did what He did and the timing in which He did it.

So that HE would receive glory and thus, His heavenly Father would be glorified and in the process, everyone would be made aware that HE was in fact, the SON OF GOD!

And now, let’s go back and read verses 4-6 again and I’ll show you why this situation happened the way that it did and with the timing that it involved. (I’m going to read this from the ESV this time for clarity of the point.)

“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.”

Did you catch that? “So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.”

5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was

The word “so” at the beginning of verse 6, starts the action of what Jesus was going to do, but what was the reason He was doing it this way?

That is found in verse 5 and it is the reason for the “so” in verse 6. “ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”

DO you see it now? This would be an odd place to make this declaration, unless it was the reason for His decision.

Because of Jesus’ love for Martha and Mary and Lazarus, He stayed the extra 2 days, so that what was about to happen would bring them a GREATER revelation of who He truly was and of the power of His Father!

It was done in GOD’S TIMING, TO BRING GREATER GLORY TO GOD, THROUGH THE SON and it was done as an act of love to show the great power and authority of the God of Israel and His son, Jesus!

Martha and Mary and most definitely Lazarus, would learn that WAITING on God and His perfect timing, may not look the way that we want, or feel the way that would seem best to us, but ultimately it brings a more powerful end result and develops INCREASED faith in the believer!

Remember, Martha told Jesus, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

The PERFECT TIMING of God’s plan for Lazarus and his sickness and ultimately his death, would bring great GLORY to God and Jesus, but, it would would also serve to strengthen and grow the faith of Martha and everyone present who believed in Jesus.

God’s perfect timing caused a greater revelation of who His son was and thus it brought MUCH MORE GLORY TO HIS NAME, than if an instant healing had been performed!

The Father could have told Jesus as soon as He heard of Lazarus’ illness, to speak it out and Lazarus would have been instantly healed; just the account of the Syrophoenician Woman in and Jesus simply speaking it out and her daughter being healed and delivered.

And let me says this here, to many who have had, or currently do have a prevailing illness, or a negative report from a doctor.

You may be praying for healing and with great faith and expectancy, or you may be praying for healing out of desperation and uncertainty with no where else to turn.

In either case, understand this: whatever is about to happen will be done in HIS PERFECT TIMING and for HIS GLORY!

And it will produce in your life, if you allow it to, a greater amount of FAITH and STRENGTH and ENDURANCE!

But because He loves you so very much, He may require you to WAIT on Him. WAIT ON HIM AND FOR HIM!

Just like I apologized at the beginning and said that I had acted rashly and out of my own limited understanding with regard to the direction of our church, I didn’t wait on Him! And if I had not sought Him and His will and listened to Him last weekend and moved forward with the decision about the sell of the church, then our church would have missed all that God has planned for us and our faith and belief would not have been elevated to where it will go by following His timing and His will for us!

Sometimes, even when it is difficult and completely out of our understanding, WE MUST WAIT!!

The Word of God clearly tells us that it is God who moves on our behalf and strengthens us when the struggles of life become intense. tells us,

Isaiah 40:29 ESV

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Isaiah 40:29–31 NLT

He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

It is God who gives the believer their strength and the power and authority to withstand the attacks of the enemy and everything that this world comes against us with. And yet, His unlimited power and strength comes not through any doing of our own might and limited abilities, but rather through another process. In and of ourselves, we will become weak and weary and exhausted within this spiritual battle that we MUST engage in. Verse 30 tells us from this passage in Isaiah, “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.”

The answer for His power and strength for the believer is found in verse 31 of that very familiar passage, “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

and young men shall fall exhausted

Isaiah 40:31 ESV

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

We must wait upon the Lord, in order to receive His power and strength.

Because of our “microwave” societal view of Christianity, we have a very hard time with the concept of WAITING on anything, or anyone. (Let alone an entity which we do not see, or hear, or touch and who many of us scarcely ever really spend any time in conversation with!)

You know, think about this, based upon the level of communication that many people actually have with the Lord, could you imagine what their marriage would look like at that level of communicating? Or what about a person’s job and with their employer or other employees or their customers; would a spoken sentence or two every now and then be functional and build any rapport and allow for true work and business to take place?

The answer is a resounding “NO”, most definitely not! (Although, having worked with and in the public sphere for so many years, sometimes having no communication with some people would make perfectly logical sense!)

Anyway, the point being, we understand the necessity of having to communicate with others for functional, natural, physical life and yet these sources of communication are with those who CANNOT give us the strength and power that is needed to sustain and build up a weary heart and soul and spirit.

The ONLY one whom can do this, is the Lord Jehovah, Himself!

This is why the children of Israel called Him by different names, based upon how He would sustain and build them and deliver them and interact with them:

He is El Shaddai (Lord God Almighty)

He is El Elyon (The Most High God)

He is Adonai (Lord, Master)

He is Jehovah-Raah (The Lord My Shepherd) He alone watches over and protects us and feeds and sustains us!

He is Jehovah Nissi (The Lord My Banner) It is under the Lord and His covering that we defeat our enemy!

He is Jehovah Rapha (The Lord That Heals)

He is Jehovah Shalom (The Lord Is Peace)

Jehovah Tsidkenu (The Lord Our Righteousness)

He is Jehovah Sabaoth (The Lord of Hosts)

He is El Olam (The Everlasting God)

He is Jehovah Jireh (The Lord Will Provide)

AND MAKE NOT MISTAKE ABOUT IT FRIENDS, He is Elohim (God)! He is the THE ONE TRUE GOD!

He alone is our provider and deliverer and healer. The Psalmist said, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Listen to : “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth [shall be thy] shield and buckler.”

The word “truth” used here means - trustworthy, dependable, stable, faithful (YOU CAN COUNT ON HIM!)

The word for “shield” carries the understanding of - a LARGE shield, impenetrable and also, it refers to something piercing, hooked, barbed that inflicts pain (like a hedge of thorns or like Concertina Wire around a military base)

The word for “buckler” refers to - bulwark, wall, (a defensive wall that protects a defender), but it also refers to surrounding something and that it can only be entered by the WILL of the one who is surrounding it.

If you put these terms together, as in this passage, this is what you get: The Lord is faithful, dependable, trustworthy to cover you as an impenetrable shield that surrounds you like a hedge of thorns that keeps away by pain those who want to harm you and He is the one that surrounds you and only by His WILL can anyone enter that bulwark that you have your safety in!

God is faithful to those who WAIT on Him and for Him. As the believer in His Son, we have the blessed hope and expectancy of His Spirit guiding us and His mighty hand protecting us. The only way that the enemy can get to us, is by that of WILL.

Just like the story of Job, the devil could only get to Job, by the will of God.

And then God’s divine plan and the blessings of it came through a period of WAITING on God. But in the end, Job was blessed with double of everything he had before.

Job had to WAIT on God, just like Abraham had to wait 25 years on the promise of God, just like Joseph had to wait about 12 years on God and Moses had to wait 40 years in the wilderness and David had to wait some 20 years to become king!

We must wait on the Lord! We wait for His provisions and His power and His deliverance and His peace and joy His promises and HIS RETURN!

We are in a waiting period right now as His bride.

Let me close with this. One of the Hebrew words used for “wait”, (keevah), also means, to “hope in, to hope for”. Like in ,

Jeremiah 14:22 ESV

Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O Lord our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things.

“We set our HOPE on you”, “We wait on you”.

The Bible calls Him, the “God of all HOPE”. Paul said to “rejoice in HOPE and be patient (WAIT) in tribulation.”

says, “And now, O Lord, for what do I WAIT? My HOPE is in you.”

Is there a struggle in your life right now? Do you need a mighty move of God in your life for something or someone? Are you just flat out tired and weary from life and its struggles?

If so, that is because the enemy wants you that way; beat down and willing to yield.

If you will WAIT upon the Lord, He is faithful and in HIS TIMING, He will come and strengthen and protect and deliver and heal and restore and exalt you! YOU and I MUST WAIT and HOPE ON THE LORD!

And next week, I am going to cover another part of waiting. Waiting has a time component to it, but it also has POSITIONAL aspect. That is, God will put you into a place in your life sometimes that is difficult and a place where you do not want to be and yet, you must WAIT there in that place until God is ready to move you. It is what we refer to as the WILDERNESS or the DESERT!

Are any of you in a DESERT place in your life right now? A place you don’t want to be? Be here next week and we are going to look at this.

Whatever God has promised that will come, it will come! We are to seek Him and wait for it!

The Bible says, “ For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”

WAIT church, WAIT and HOPE in the LORD GOD!