Christ in the Waiting

Church, how are we doing? Come on, come on, come on. Anybody been to Universal Studios? Okay. Cool, man. 11th service, man. You guys have been. This is the amusement park service. So there was a new ride when we went. There was a brand new ride, and it was like Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike or something like that. So it was like the thing, okay, I'm telling you, you guys showed up. It was like the, it was the thing you got to do. Like, hey, if you go now, you got to go, you got to do the new ride. You got to go on the new ride, you know? And so I'm like, okay, well, I don't want to miss out on the new ride. It's in Harry Potter world. I know some of you are like, Harry Potter, like, sure, like, what are we talking about right now? We're casting out demons right now. But anyways, it's the new ride. It's the new ride, and we wanted to do the ride, but the problem is on the app, you could see it was like four-hour wait. I'm like, not going to do it. We are not going to spend four hours of our day waiting to ride this roller coaster. So we're watching. I'm saying, hey, you know, maybe it dips down. Lo and behold, at some point in the day, two-hour wait. Two-hour, okay, we'll do two hours. We'll wait two hours.

So we kind of run across the amusement park to get in line for the Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike ride, okay? There we are. And they do such a good job of like, when you're in line, they're entertaining you, different things. You know, it's a theme park, and so it's a themed park, and we're sitting there waiting. So two hours, an hour goes by, all right? So we've waited an hour, got another hour left, and a voice comes over on the PA system. May I have your attention, please? Due to technical difficulties, this ride is now closed. Like, wait, what? And it's just, you know, may I have your attention, please? Due to technical difficulties, this ride is now closed. And so now, and immediately, like some people in the line, they're like, oh, we're out. Like, they just leave. Like, people in front of us, people behind us, some people wait, and then another voice comes on, and it's like one of the employees, and she says, hey, you're welcome to stay in line, but we don't know when it will open again, okay? This is a different kind of waiting. So when you're waiting for two hours, your expectations are set. You're like, hey, I know I'm gonna be in line for two hours. I know that, you know, in two hours, I'm gonna be on the ride. I'm waiting with the hopeful anticipation of what I'm desiring is going to come within the time limit of which I am expecting. But waiting and not knowing the when, that's a different kind of waiting, because then you're stuck with like, okay, is it gonna be like 15 minutes? Is it gonna be another hour, and then we wait another hour? Like, I would wait for two hours, but I wouldn't wait for four hours, and I'm at a deficit of information, so I don't have what I need to know to make a decision, right? And this is a lot of the kinds of waiting that we do.

It's waiting when we don't know the when. And what happens when you don't know the when in the waiting, you start to doubt. And when you begin to doubt that your desires are to come to fruition, your doubt turns to cynicism. This is the natural progression. You wait, you doubt, you're cynical, okay? This happens in all kinds of waiting that we do. But what I want to show you in the hope that I want to give you from the scripture today is how Christ moves towards us. He meets us in the waiting as our waiting is drifting toward doubt. And so we're in a series called Christophany. Now, a Christophany is when you look at the Old Testament, and you see this character there, often called the angel of the Lord. An angel, the angel, not an, the angel of the Lord appeared and said. And then you can look at the word for Lord. Often it's Yahweh. It's the very word for God himself. Now there's debate around this. Was this Christ? Is it a theophany? Which a theophany is when God appears to someone. Here's my own personal conviction. When God appears to someone in the flesh, that is Jesus Christ, the one who walked this earth 2,000 years ago, okay? So what I think you're going to see today, what I believe is Jesus Christ having a conversation with Abraham. We're going to be in Genesis chapter 18, if you want to turn there. And we're talking about how Christ moves towards those of us who are waiting before our waiting turns to doubt, or as our waiting drifts towards doubt. We do a lot of waiting here.

As a kid, you wait for Christmas. It feels like an eternity. So much hope and anticipation. Like as an adult, it's like Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. As a child, it's like Christmas, 365 years, Christmas, you know. And as adults, we wait for Amazon packages, right? As adults, we wait for someone to respond to our text messages. The three little dots pop up, and you're like, okay, give me the answer, give me the answer. Like, it's not, doesn't take that long, bro, just respond. Give me a thumbs up, thumbs down, something, right? We wait for that response. We wait for grades to be posted. We wait for tests to come back. We wait for test results to come back. And some of the waiting is a bit more serious than that, right? As you wait for a healing, you wait for a pregnancy, you wait for a child to be born. You wait for a path of recovery or for anxiety, depression, OCD to lift. You wait for that season to pass. You wait for someone to ask for forgiveness. You wait for a relationship to be restored, for the difficulty in marriage to be healed. You wait for a prodigal child to return, someone who you taught, you showed them the way they should go, but then they departed. And now you're just, you're waiting for them to come back and you're like, how actively do I wait here for a loved one to know Jesus? And the reality is, sometimes we're left on read. Sometimes the three dots appear and then they disappear, right?

Sometimes we're tracking the package on Amazon and we hit tracking and it's like, sorry, no tracking information provided. And then it says delivered, but the package isn't there and it was delivered to the wrong address or it got lost in the mail. And sometimes it's another month. Not pregnant. Sometimes it's another season goes by and they don't seem closer to Christ. They seem further from him. Sometimes it's another month and our marriage isn't in a better place. It's in a worse place. And is this not going anywhere good? Sometimes it's a another season goes by and you're like marriage. Like I have no marriage. I have no dating. There's no first kiss. There's no first date. There's no engagement. No one's asked me out. I'm not sure they notice me. God, I don't sure you notice me. And you're left waiting. In the text today, you're going to see how not to respond. And I hope we're going to learn from example how to respond. What does it look like to respond with the rightful hope with the rightful faith because the reality for all of us as followers of Jesus Christ here under the sun, we are going to do a lot of waiting. And I think we often ask in the midst of this, is God good? Is he trustworthy? Is waiting still worth it? And what I want you to leave here with today is a lot of hope because I want to show you all of the promises from Scripture, not all of them because there's too many, but many of the promises from Scripture that are offered to those of us who wait on the Lord. And so as we move in Genesis 18, we're going to look at how Christ comes close in the waiting, how Christ is counterintuitive. And then before you leave today, how Christ confronts the Cynic,

but the confrontation might be different than what you think. So don't just hear Christ confronts the Cynic and think, oh great. Think, okay, what is the hope that the Scripture has for me here? This is a descriptive text, not a prescriptive text, meaning we're going to look at a historical narrative. There's not any imperative commands. There's nothing in this text that says, Christian, this is what you need to do. We're going to learn from the example of Abraham and Sarah and we're really picking up on the story that John started last week as he was showing us how God sees Hagar in her suffering, in her wondering, in her fleeing, and how God moved close to her. We're going to pick up on that story just several years later. And so to set this up, God promised Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant is land, seed, and blessing. Think about it as a geographical territory. Descendants, you're going to have lots of children and grandchildren, and then my hand is going to be on you. Like I'm going to be watching over you. There's going to be herds of livestock. There's going to be provision. vision, people are gonna look at you and see that you are blessed by the creator of the heavens and the earth. He says this in Genesis 12 to Abraham. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your offspring, I will give this land. So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. So God tells him in Genesis 12 that you're going to have descendants

and then he reminds, Abraham's 75 years old at this time. He reminds him about 10 years later, okay? You're gonna have descendants. Abraham and Sarah, they're older now. They're like, oh, God needs our help. We've gotta help him. And so they say, hey, Abraham, you should have a child with our maidservant, Hagar. And that's what we talked about last week. Hey, God doesn't need your help to keep his promises. Okay, he's not looking for your assistance to do the miracles that he's promised. Now, Abraham is 100 years old. He's been waiting, how long? 25 years. Listen, I wait on God 25 minutes. And I'm like, why, oh Lord, have you forsaken me? You know, I'm like, I'm sitting there at the, you know, Hagrid's magical creatures motorbike ride. I'm like, Lord, why have you turned your face from us? You know, I mean, I don't want to wait. They've waited 25 years. And we'll go, verse one. The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. He's there, it's hot, it's the desert. Tents open, flaps blowing in the wind and the breeze. He's gonna see three men.

But here where it says the Lord appeared, that's the summary statement. The Lord appeared, that word Lord is Yahweh. No question, this is God. God appears to Abraham in the appearance of a man with two other men. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. He said, if I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, do not pass your servant by. Here where it says Lord is Adonai. Adonai can be a word for God, but it can also be a title of esteemed person or in a prestigious position. Let a little water be brought and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me go get something to eat so you can be refreshed and then go on your way now that you have come to your servant. Very well, they answered, do as you say. So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. Quick, he said, get three sails of finest flour and knead it and bake some bread. Just like a husband today. Hey, I've invited people over for dinner. What are we having? It's always a fun surprise. Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice,

tender calf and gave it to a servant who hurried to prepare it. He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree. It seems, it seems like extravagant hospitality, potentially Abraham recognizes the Lord and treats him different. But I would offer to you, this is normal. And it was certainly normal in this day and really still to this day in the Middle East. I can remember when we were there, we were cautioned about complimenting someone just if somebody has one goat for their whole family to eat, and you're like, well, that's a great looking goat you have. They're like, here, it's your goat. You take it home. You know, we wanna give it to you. And you're like, no, I can't. And I remember somebody grabbing me by the arm and bringing me into their house. Like, here's our bed, sleep here. You can stay with us as long as you want. And I'm like, no, I mean, this is your bed. Like, there's just like this incredible sense of hospitality there. I think the church could learn a lot from them.

And in fact, the scripture says in Hebrews 13, verse two, do not forget to show your love to your neighbor. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for by so doing, some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Why does the scripture tell us to show hospitality to strangers? Because it presumes we will. Because it just says, hey, that's normal for those who follow Christ. And in doing so, you will at times host angels. That's what's happening here. I believe you have Christ with two angels. Later on, you're gonna see those angels go to Lot, to Sodom and Gomorrah, and Christ vanishes from the story. That's why I would say we would call this Christophany. What happens as Abraham and Sarah wait 25 years from God's promise, as Christ goes to them to remind them, and he's gonna offer them greater clarity, and that's my first point, is that Christ comes close in the waiting. Christ comes close in the waiting. I want this to be hopeful to those of us who are here today who are waiting that we would learn how not to respond, but also how to respond, and so how to not respond. Don't grow doubtful. Don't grow cynical. Hope in the Lord, because doesn't Jesus, doesn't he, because you say, well, is that really from this text?

Well, no, let's zoom out from the text. Does Jesus not have a track record of moving close to those who are waiting, right? In Mark 5, there's the woman with the issue of bleeding. For 12 years, she's been humiliated walking through the town when Jesus heals her. There's the man at the pool of Bethesda, the invalid who sits there, pulls out his mat every day for 38 years, waiting when Jesus moves close to him. There's Bartimaeus, the beggar on the side of the road, blind, whose only lot in life, his hope, is that passerbys, passerbyers, would offer him enough to sustain his life, that he might continue to live as a blind man begging on the side of the road when Jesus comes near to him. For years, he's been waiting and heals him, okay? You have this impassioned moment where Mary and Martha's brother has died. And the conversation, it looks so honest and gritty. Had you been here, he'd still be here. Where were you? Where were you when we needed you? And Jesus says, Lazarus, come out, get up. And then maybe my favorite, Simeon, his entire life has been waiting for the Christ child to show up. And one day, they bring in young Jesus, right? He's here.

Why all the waiting? Because his followers of Jesus, we are a people in waiting under the sun in the broken world that we live in, where there's diagnosis and death, disease, and divorce. We do a lot of waiting here. But can I just say something about Jesus? He's here. But can I show you some of the beautiful promises from the text for those who wait on the Lord? Isaiah 40, verse 31 says, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 64, no eye has seen any God beside you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. Lamentations three. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him. To the one who seeks him, it is good to wait patiently for the salvation of the Lord. Psalm 37, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. For those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. Galatians six, a great passage for those who have been faithfully sharing the gospel with a family member or a friend far from God. Also the passage that our elementary class is learning this month. Let us not become weary in doing good

for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. And then in Hebrews six, the author of Hebrews in speaking of waiting on the Lord uses Abraham and Sarah as the example here in the New Testament. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. And so after waiting. patiently, Abraham received what was promised. If you are in a season of waiting on God for a relationship, for a healing, for a salvation, for someone to return, okay, for a job, for a promotion, if you are in a season of waiting from the Lord, do not pull back from him, but press into him. The season of waiting is for you to grow and foster your relationship with Christ. This is the time, you are without excuse, you don't have the distraction of the thing you're waiting for, right? Maybe when it shows up, it will be busier, it will be crazier, it will be more difficult. So in the waiting, press into Jesus. May this be the season of the most thriving relationship with Christ you've ever had,

the most intimacy, the most growth, the most love bursting forth for God that you fostered in your time with him. Use the waiting to be with Jesus. Verse nine, the men ask, where is your wife, Sarah? They asked him. There in the tent, Abraham said. Then one of them said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife will have a son. Well, there you go, that's different, right? That's like, they come over the, they're like, the ride will be restored in 15 minutes. I mean, now you have clarity, you know, it's like, oh, okay, now I know how long I need to wait. Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent. Surely she's overjoyed, she has clarity, she knows. Which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, and after I am worn out and my Lord is old, will I now have this pleasure? What I think Sarah's saying here, I read this in studying this passage, is she's not saying, will I now have the pleasure of having a child? She's saying, but my Lord and I don't even do what is necessary to have a child.

So she starts making, she's like, hey, God, let me tell you all of the reasons why you can't do what you're saying you're going to do, right? Let me tell you why you're wrong, and in fact, laugh at you. And I want to say that God isn't just willing to work through impossible circumstances. Sometimes he intentionally waits until circumstances become impossible. Okay, let me say it again. He's not just willing to work through impossible circumstances. Sometimes God, who is God, waits until the circumstances become impossible for him to act. Because he doesn't work like we do. And so you don't need to make excuses. You don't need to help him. You don't need to come up with natural explanations for a supernatural God. Christ is counterintuitive. That's my second point. Christ is counterintuitive. He doesn't work within our natural barriers. He doesn't work within human logic, and we're often expecting God to work in a certain way in a certain timeframe, but his means, his methods, his economy, and certainly his timeframe are different than ours. Like he does things different

than we expect him to do things. Like what I need you to know, and to believe, and to really feed in our faith is sometimes, and I'll just dare I say, often God stacks the cards against himself just so he can flex. Like just so he can show everyone that he's God. His ways are not our ways. His foolishness is wiser than our wisdom. His weakness is stronger than our strength, and he doesn't do things the way that we would do things. And you've got countless examples of that. God, all your people, they're in slavery. It's like, okay, here's what I'll do. I'll just unlock their chains and open the door. No, 10 plagues, one plague, two plague, three plague. Okay, you ready? Okay, okay, take them, take them, take them, take them. Red Sea, what now? Like, how is this a part of your plan? Well, watch me. It's like, that's a giant. We need an army. No, you need an 18-year-old with a slingshot. Well, that's weird. That's a fortress, the strongest fortress in the land. We should get the jackhammer. We should get the sledgehammer. We should get the crowbars.

No, get the trumpets and your walking shoes. I want you to walk around it seven times and then just play a tune and shout, and watch me be God. The Midianites, Lord, they're terrorizing us. Whatever shall we do? I know what Gideon's like, I know what I'll do. I'll assemble an army of 32,000 soldiers, and God's like, no, that's too many. He's like, is this enough? God's like, yeah, it's too many. Okay, 25,000 soldiers. No, no, it's too many. 9,000 soldiers? Too many. How about 300? But they're not going to lift a sword, and you're going to win. It doesn't work like you work, man. You want more examples? I mean, Naaman has leprosy. How do you cure leprosy? Go wash in the dirty river seven times. It's going to get infected. Yeah, if I'm not God, it would get infected, but he's going to get healed. That's what's going to happen. He's going to be healed. Why does he do these things in such counterintuitive ways? Why would he have Abraham and Sarah wait 25 years before giving them a child? Sarah did not forget the promises of God. She forgot his power. She forgot how powerful he is. And so this is the joy of the Christian life.

You have no idea today how God is going to surprise you. As you live and walk in faithfulness, you don't know what marvelous, wonderful, miraculous things God's going to do today. And I could probably ask you all for examples. If you look backwards of how you've seen this happen, I'll give you kind of a silly one in my own life. When we moved here, the first week, week one, Friday, I get in my car, I drive up here, it's eight in the morning, 8.30, and there's like no cars in the parking lot. I'm so confused. And so a part of what God used to move us here is I had read a book called Embracing Obscurity, and the author's anonymous, which is brilliant, and you don't know who wrote it. And it was me, but anyway, no, it wasn't, I'm kidding, that's not true, that's not true. But I had read this book and I just was like, okay, Lord, I think we're supposed to just, not just, but we're supposed to go and shepherd these people in a field, like I think that's what you want from me. And I just thought like, and I was going to delete Instagram and just like never speak anywhere else and just like hunker down here. And I was like, this is what I think you want, like as best I can tell. And so like, let's do it, I'm in, let's go. Get here, week one, it's Friday, show up, no cars in the parking lot. I'm confused. I'm like, why? Where's the staff? Where's everybody? And I get up to the door and I've got my key and I look in there and there's an alarm, you know, blinking. And I realized I don't know the alarm code and I was like, I'm not going in. And so then I'm trying to figure out like, what's happening? Oh, we're closed on Friday.

That was a new rhythm for me. I didn't know, but we're, the staff is off on Friday, the church is closed on Friday. And because you know, everybody's working on Sunday and so they get Friday, we get Friday and Saturday off. And so I like go home, the kids are in school, I'm like, what am I going to do on Fridays? And I go on Instagram and there's this like new question feature where you can like, you can say, hey, do you have a question? I'll answer questions today. And I like sang this really dumb song, like it's the Friday Q and A and, and, and then it kind of became a thing and I had no idea. And like now if I'm speaking at Passion or speaking in DC or wherever, they're like, you know him from Friday Q and A. I'm like, that's like, that's my identity now, I guess, is like, I'm the Friday Q and A guy. And it's like, I never saw God working in that way. Like I had no idea, like I had my expectations and my thoughts and my reasonings of what faithfulness looked like. And God said, can I, you know, it's like, can I just kind of surprise you with something? You know, can I do something? And so it's like, that's what, as we go through the. Christian life, it's like, God, how do you want to surprise me today? And what is my role to have my head up and looking for what you wanna do today? Cause you're God and I'm not God and we are your workmanship created in Christ Jesus to walk in the good works, which you prepared in advance for us to walk in Ephesians 2.10. And so we're just looking, say, hey,

what is it that you want to accomplish today? And might you use me to accomplish that today? So how does God want to surprise you today? Verse 13, then the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, will I really have a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Underline hard. Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son. Okay, is anything too hard for the Lord? What a beautiful question. It's actually more beautiful than that. Cause that word there in the Hebrew is Pele. And that word nine out of 10 times is interpreted wonderful or marvelous. Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? And I understand why the translators, that wouldn't make as much sense to us, but I just think it's really beautiful to put that in front of you. Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? Like, is there anything too good that I can't do? It reminds me of Ephesians 3, verse 20, the prayer. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? And then verse 15, Sarah was afraid,

so she lied and said, I did not laugh. But he said, yes, you did laugh. Can you imagine? You're talking to Jesus. And you're like scared. So you're like, no, no, I didn't laugh. He's like, yes, you did laugh. You did. Period, the end. And so my third point is Christ confronts the cynic because he does. Christ confronts the cynic. This is where waiting can go, but it doesn't have to. But where it can go is you wait, you doubt, you grow cynical, and then you have to sin to cover up your cynicism. And in her case, she lies, right? But when we go to life group and we're jaded and our heart's hardened and we're frustrated with God, but we still got, oh, and he's so good and he provides everything. And man, blessed be the name of the Lord. And it's just like, it's not helpful to anybody to live in that contrast, right? And so you don't have to do that. You can remain in this place where, Lord, I know that you're good and I know that you have good for me because listen, there is nothing too wonderful. There is nothing too wonderful for the Lord.

And this is the part I want you to pay attention to. He is going to exceed your expectation. Let me say it again. He, God, the creator of the heavens, the earth is going to do immeasurably more than you can ask for or imagine, I'm certain of it. Unless you think I've gone off on the prosperity gospel, whatever. Oh man, you're here for a moment. You're here for a moment. And I know it feels so real and important and big. And you're like, I've got to get married and I've got to experience that. And we've got to have children and we've got to do this. And if this doesn't happen exactly as I planned it, then God's not good. But I'm telling you, God is good. I promise you he's good. And one day, much sooner than you realize, you're not even, dare I say, you're not even going to remember. You're not even going to remember. You won't sit there before God with your fist and say, how dare you? You will not. You know what you will say in that moment? It was all worth it. It was all worth it. This and your presence. There's nothing too wonderful for you.

There's nothing too wonderful for you. So we live with hope. Listen, just real talk. The body of Christ, it's such a beautiful place of tension. And, I want to share my perspective with you, because it may be different than yours, just where I'm looking. Every week, every month, every season, every season, there is great celebration, sitting beside great waiting, sitting beside deep, unfathomable grief. Every season, every season a child is born, every season a couple waits, and every season someone buries a child. It's the beautiful, horrible tension of the body of Christ, that someone here is sick and dying, while someone here is healed and celebrating, while someone here just got back from a funeral. Every season, a prodigal returns. I'm interested in this Christ that you told me so much about, while one flees further, while one runs. Every season, and it's the tension under the sun that we wait in. And I think every waiting under the sun is really us waiting for the return of the son. Because there was another pregnancy,

another impossible pregnancy that brought forth our Lord. And led Him to death for our sins. And an impossible reality raised Him from the dead, giving us the hope of eternal life. And so I gotta show you something with these two, because, you know, she laughs, right? And maybe you're here and you're in a season of doubt, and you feel beat up right about now. So let's talk about how Christ confronts the cynic, because what he doesn't do is, oh, you wanna laugh at me? Well, then no more. No, what he does is he gives them a child. Who was it? Who was it? What's their child? Isaac, what's his name mean? The one who laughs, laughter. Okay, God got the last laugh. Genesis 21, Sarah said, God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. And she added, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children, yet I have born him a son in his old age? And I think I read this, and if I'm honest with you, I'm like, they weren't faithful. These guys weren't, they doubted every turn, they laughed at him. I mean, they're guilty of worse than Ananias and Sapphira. You know, I'm just like, what in the world?

But that's not what God's word says. Hebrews 11, by faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place, he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going, by faith, he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise, for he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. And by faith, even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful, who had made the promise. And so, no, she didn't, and so from this one man, and he is as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and as countless as the sand on the seashore, because God is faithful when we're not faithful, and we read about them, and we're like, they weren't faithful, but that's not what the Bible says. Like a momentary season of doubt doesn't mean you have to be remembered as a doubter. A momentary season of cynicism doesn't have to mean that your epitaph says cynical. Like right now, you can change that. No matter your age, no matter your season, right now, you can lift, in fact, just do it, just to humor me, lift your chin a bit, put a big smile on your face.

You, even you, everyone, I'm serious, but I'm gonna see a big smile. You're not smiling. I don't wanna call you up here, but I will, like a big smile, okay? God wins. He, you can have hope. He wins. He wins. Right? In the end, he has the last laugh, and we laugh with him. In summary, Christ comes close in the waiting. Christ is counterintuitive in his methods. And Christ confronts the cynic. But the confrontation is loving and hopeful, restorative. This week, this week, this week I have a conversation with a couple, a spiritual leader that I look up to and his wife. And he's telling me the story of a long grueling season of infertility, where you just sit and you don't know the end. And so you don't know how hard to try and what to do and how much to spend. And then they get to a place where they adopt and they adopt again and they adopt again. And he said this to me, he said, we were in this place where we were like, why us Lord? Like, why did this happen?

He said, people all around us were getting pregnant and pregnant out of wedlock, unwanted pregnancies and we wait, why us Lord? Why did this happen? And then they adopt their first child eventually. And he said, oh, it had to happen. And then they adopt their third child. And I said, oh, he said, we're just now at a place where we can say, we never would have thought we can say, we're glad it happened. This week, called by a friend, another God fearing couple, faithfully pursued. God raised their children in church, did everything they could so that their kids would know Christ. And one of them just went off the rails and said, I'm gonna do what I wanna do when I wanna do it. And they just brought so much destruction into their own life. And it was by far, he said, the hardest thing we've ever gone through. And he gets in a terrible relationship, which turns into a terrible marriage, which turns into a terrible divorce. And he continues to run. And then just in the past few weeks, he turned around. And he said, I wanna take an interest in this Jesus I heard so much about growing up. And he just came back. Yeah, it's amazing.

This week, I'm talking past seven days, guys. My friend has prayed for his father more than I've ever seen anybody pray for anyone. True story. It's contagious. I mean, I prayed for his father so much just because of how much he's prayed for. For over 20 years, over two decades, he's pleaded with God to save his father. And just in the past two years, out of an unforeseen circumstance, somebody shared the gospel with his dad. He'd shared the gospel with his dad countless times. Somebody shared the gospel with his dad. His dad placed his faith in Jesus Christ, right? This week. This week, he went home. This week, his dad went home. And yeah, it makes that moment a lot sweeter as we sit in the grief and the tension of the void that he leaves. And thus is the body of Christ. And so we wait. And every waiting that we do under the sun is really a misplaced hope and waiting for the son who's gonna come back and fix all of it. And so Lord, we wait for you. We wait for you, Lord. Fix in our hearts a steadfast hope. Help us to pursue you, to know you, to love you.

You've come once in the form of Jesus Christ here on the earth, would you come again? But we know that you are not slow in keeping your promises as some understand slowness, but you're patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. So Lord, help us to be faithful in your patience with us and your waiting for us. Help us to be faithful and help us to wait with hope. Help us not to grow weary in doing good, but trusting you as the God of the harvest. Would you bring forth the harvest, Lord? Someone here needs a healing, would you heal them, Lord? If someone here is desiring a pregnancy, is desiring a pregnancy, I pray that the next test says pregnant and that you would sustain that life, bringing them into this world made in your image. If someone here is waiting for a restoration of a relationship, then would you do it right now as we sing this song? We love you, Lord. We hope in you, Lord. We wait for you, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.