What to Do When God Says Wait

Carlos Bale. Hey, big welcome to our Life.Church family. Got to tell you, three weeks from now, guess what's coming up? Three weeks from now is at the movies. If you're new with us. It is one of the most fun message series of the year. I'll explain what happens. In the New Testament, Jesus heals several people fromuating the living. They get what they deserve. Now back to Calvin. During the Bible legend period, Judas is the first man to recall the notable commandments of his fathers, but what happens in the New Testament, Jesus, he often illustrates spiritual truth with parables or stories. And at the movies, we do something similar. We illustrate spiritual truth with clips from movies that you love. And I'm gonna tell you right now, it is a very, very good time. We see more people come to faith in Christ during that series than any time of the year. It's the perfect time to bring people that don't normally come to church. Now, for today, we're in the message series called Book Club. Next week, we have Pastor Jobe Martin,

the pastor of church at 1122, an amazing preacher. Today, let me tell you who we have from Miami, Florida. She is married to a guy named Rich who co-founded VU Church, one of the most impactful churches in our nation today. She is a mom with four kids, Wyatt, Wild, Waylon, and Wolfgang. If you name your kids Wild and Wolfgang, you got what's coming to you. I'm just telling you right now. She's an amazing mom, amazing wife. She's an amazing communicator of God's Word. She is the author of a book that I think you should read. It's called Slow Burn, The Work and Wonder of the Weight, and her story of the work and the wonder of weight will minister to you and speak to you exactly where you are. DC, Amy and I love you. We honor you. We bless you. We love your church. We love your family. We love the work you do. We love your family. We love your priesthood. We love your ministry. We thank you. Yeah. What a spiritual purpose.

A mental purpose. We love the work you do. We love your promise. We love doing it and what you do. You lay it out for us. That he will bless you. That Jesus is the Lord. Remember, hey, when you lay your hand on, you get to lay your hand on me. You have a stolen idea. Love is the key to beginning. For that, you have to put your hand on me. Your pastors, Pastor Craig and Pastor Amy, thank you for your faith. Thank you for your fortitude. Thank you for the example of your marriage, your family. We love you and we're watching you as an example for our lives. God's put something on my heart today to speak to you. If you've ever felt stuck, if you've ever felt like you're in a wilderness, if you've ever felt like I don't know how I'm gonna get through this season, I believe with all my heart that God has allowed you to lean into this moment because he wants to speak directly to you today. I wrote a book and it's called Slow Burn. But this book is just the story of God's word impacting my life. When I was born, my parents, Denny and Deonza Duran,

they gave me a life verse. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31. It says this, they that wait upon the Lord, they shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and they will not faint. You know, Isaiah 40, 31, it's not just a birth verse for me. It's been a life verse for me. I've gotten in my hands a Bible that I was given on Easter when I was nine years old and scribbled inside and some really massive cursive is that verse, Isaiah 40, 31. We say that the word of the Lord stands true age to age. And sometimes we can think when we say age to age that's some huge period in time and history or that it's generations or centuries. But friends, I wanna tell you that in my life, age to age means from nine years old to 41 years old today. The same word of the Lord has sustained me again and again and again. And so it is for you because this verse and this Bible, I need it more today than the day that I was born. I'm learning how to live in the weight. I'm learning how to trust God. And it's truly a slow burn. Will you pray with me today? Lord, thank you so much for this moment. Thank you God that your presence is here. Lord, as we proclaim your word, there's freedom.

And God, I just thank you that. As we look to you, you are the author and the finisher of our faith, so write what you want in our hearts today. Establish something that we'll carry for every moment to come. We trust you, we love you, and Lord, we look to you. In Jesus' name, we pray. And everybody said? Come on, and everybody said? Amen. Well, last year, my husband turned 41 years old, and we had a family dinner at the house. We cut some cake, and then we sat outside on the deck telling memories. And while we sat out on the deck, I had like an epiphany. I realized, Rich, I think that we celebrated your birthday 20 years ago together in Cambridge, England, when we were studying together in college, and I think I've got the journal to prove it. And I ran inside, and I grabbed my journal. I went through my bookcase of journals. I came outside on the deck with this book, and I said, I've got it. And I flipped open, and sure enough, there was a journal entry from 20 years before when we were celebrating his 21st birthday. But as I began to flip through the pages, the last page, well, it has the goals

of a 20-year-old girl going back for the summer in between college. And, you know, I hope that, well, that you're impressed by these goals. To accomplish in two very short months things I wanna do this summer. Number one, read the entire Bible. No big deal. Number two, let's amp it up a little bit. Learn Spanish. See? Number three, go to all the boys' games. That would be my brother's games. I have five brothers. That's a lot of games. Number four, become a teacher. Number four, become a domestic goddess. That was a really popular book on cooking in that time. Number five, read an etiquette book. Number six, have a good job. How many of you know, you don't just need a job, you need a good job, amen? Number seven, visit my best friend in college. Number eight, exercise-arms defined. Number nine, sing in the choir. Number 10, get involved with youth ministry. Number 11, record a worship album. I mean, why not while we're at it? I didn't have a 12, I went straight to 13. Surprise mom and dad on their 25th anniversary

with a love song concert with the boys. Number 14, interview Papa on Grammy, my grandparents, about their life story. Number 15, hang out with my great-grandparents. Number 16, go to the hospitals with my grandfather to pray for people. Number 17, create a scrapbook of the year, yes. And drum roll please, number 18, orthodontist. Dash, figure out a way to straighten teeth without bracket braces. That's a pretty good list. Okay, 20 years later, can we all just be honest? What was I thinking? This is not a list for a summer, friends. This is a list for a decade, an entire decade. I mean, many of the things that I wanted to accomplish that summer 20 years ago, I am just now in my life stepping into today at 41 years old. And I'm still not a domestic goddess. Truth is, is that life has a way of showing us that it's not about short-term gratification or how fast you move, but about the one that is leading you, sustaining you, and establishing you every step of the way. And like it's been said, it's about the one that is leading you every step of the way. And like everyone's story, mine involves a lot of waiting. You see, I'm sure you have your own lists too, don't you? The things that you'd like to accomplish,

that you'd like to see God do in your life. But God uses long stretches of time to accomplish his will in us and through us, and in your life here and now today. He says, they that wait upon the Lord. It doesn't say they that always believe. It doesn't say they that can pray the best prayers or they that always win no matter what. No, it says they that wait. I'm in my 40s now, and you know, when I turned 40, I learned that the number 40 scripturally represents testing and trials. Oh, that's great. It's exactly what you want on your birthday card, right? You are in a wilderness. But in every testing and trial, one thing is consistent. Every person God calls and trusts with a purpose and with a destiny, they had to make a decision to wait. And not wait on a thing, but wait on God. For years in my life, through eight years of infertility and so many other seasons in my life, I just thought waiting was a season that I had to get through. Grit your teeth, hope that you can do your best and get to the other side. I didn't understand there was a theology of waiting if we look to the scriptures, but then God got a hold of my heart with a game changer. See, waiting is not a season, waiting is life. So now the question becomes, will you live in the wait?

Hear me today, waiting is not a curse, waiting is an invitation to experience the presence of God, to lean into his grace, to be formed by his good hands. I think of what Charles Swindoll once said. He said, we don't like waiting, but that's when God does some of his best work on our souls. Best work while you're waiting? Yes, it's called the slow burn. If waiting is life, then what does living in the wait actually look like? Well, I think that Romans chapter 12 gives us a pretty clear, honest picture. It says this, therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. You know, in Louisiana, I grew up with bonfires. My favorite hang time with friends was a bonfire. And I understand for people watching today, maybe that sounds a little foreign. So let me explain to you how we do it in Louisiana. We would plan a date and a time, we would get the wood, we would light that thing on fire and everyone gets their seats and everyone faces the fire. You can get a guitar, you can pull out the blankets, but the fire is the center of attention and it is blazing. Now, my husband, he grew up in Washington State and he did not grow up with bonfires. He grew up burning incense. And to this day, he burns incense in our house.

And it's so interesting because when people walk in, it's the first thing they notice. It's not what they see in our home, it's what they actually sense. Hear me, we are conditioned by culture to live for the bonfire moments. We are conditioned by culture to hold our breath until that moment that we are blazing with the glory of God, our goals came true, God proved faithful, but truly life is not about the bonfire moments. What if following God, your life actually looked more like smoke than a blazing fire? It's a slow burn, trusting God, leaning into his presence when things don't make sense, understanding that he is moving right here, right now in the wait. Why? Because the slow burn requires surrender. Somebody say surrender. Surrender. See the word incense comes from the Latin word incendia, which means to burn. And God instructs his people in the Old Testament to set up the altar of incense. And every morning and every night to place incense on the altar, a very specific blend. And as the incense burned, smoke would rise, and the worship and the prayers of God's people. The priest would come and they would take incense

and they would place it on the fire. And an interesting chemical reaction took place. As the incense was placed. on the fire, all of a sudden, the incense was transformed from the inside out. A fragrance within it is unlocked and starts to fill the holy place, marking every person who would come in. And as the smoke would rise, Jewish tradition tells us that the smoke would catch wind and travel for miles past the temple. Isn't it interesting that as you look at the smoke, we're told in scripture that our life is like a vapor, that it's here today and it's gone tomorrow. But here's the invitation. Surrender your little to God in the weight and watch him transform what you think is small into something that you could never be on your own. Again, offer your bodies, as Romans 12 says, as living sacrifices. See, we want the fire, but God wants the fragrance of your life. We want the spotlight, but God wants the surrender. We're looking at God going, God, will you just raise me up? God is saying, I wish you would lay your life down. We want the short-term gratification. Get to the end of the goal and reach it on our own. But God says, I don't want anything short-term. I want eternal transformation in your life from the inside out. I want to show you what I created you to be. It is a slow burn for those that wait. In my life, I've always looked forward to the 4th of July. Growing up in Louisiana, we would run with our brothers. We would pick up a lot of fireworks, pack the car with them, head back to the house, and we'd light them one by one. Now, the scariest thing in the world is lighting a firework, backing up, waiting for it to erupt, but nothing happens. And what do you do? You don't run forward. You tiptoe forward. And you're going, is that thing still lit? Because it may not have gone off yet, but you know that it's burning towards an expected outcome. Have you ever wondered if your faith was still ignited? Have you ever wondered if you have what it takes to get through the waiting season that you find yourself in? Well, today, if you find yourself in that place, I want to give you some encouragement. Following Jesus is not a one-time ignition moment. It's at the name of Jesus that the light immediately can shine into your heart. It's every prayer. It's every moment of worship. It's every decision to find yourself in community. You may say to me, Don Sheree, I feel so burned out. Hey, that's okay, friend, because I've got news for you today.

You're not the fire. If you want to get relit, all you have to do is head back to the altar. Surrender your life again. He is the all-consuming fire. He will transform you from the inside out. He will change your mind. He will renew your body. He will heal your broken heart. You just have to come back to the altar. It's good news that you're not the fire. It takes the pressure off of you. You're not the healer. You're not the restorer. Any moment from morning to night or in the midnight hour, you can call upon the name of Jesus. You can surrender, and you can experience the transformation of the slow burn. When you surrender, a miraculous thing happens. The slow burn releases a fragrance. Smell has staying power. I was in Nashville recently. I rented a car. I picked the car up as soon as I opened up the car door. I was like, Oh, my goodness. There was an overwhelming smell, and they had not been burning incense. It was a different type of slow burn that had taken place in that car. I was driving around from meeting to meeting. As I got out, I was thinking, Oh, my goodness. This scent is all over me. And then it occurred to me, I've never met the person who was in this car before me. I wasn't with them when they decided to do this, but their decisions are all over me. And some of you today, you are living, carrying a fragrance of what others have done to you. You're carrying the fragrance of the heartbreak. You're carrying the fragrance of the betrayal. Or perhaps you're carrying the fragrance of your own shame, your own mistakes, your own regrets. But I am thankful that scripture tells us in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14, thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God

among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. Hear me, through us, God spreads the irresistible aroma of the gospel. You may have carried shame. You may have carried fear. You may have carried the words that others spoke over you since you were young. But when you surrender your life to Christ, all things have passed away. All old fragrances have passed away. Behold, all things are new. And now you've got a new fragrance. You're carrying the fragrance of faith. You're carrying the fragrance of goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and kindness and patience. And people encounter you and it's not your accolades and it's not your goals and it's not all the things that you've accomplished. You may not even be on the mountaintop. It might just be the valley where others look at you and say there's something about them. I don't know what it is. I can't see it, but I sense it. It's because you carry the fragrance of Jesus. It's because you carry His goodness and His faithfulness. He has given you His grace to carry. And you are now the aroma of Christ. See, Jesus is the high priest. The temple, the altar, the incense, it is only a shadow.

Jesus is the substance. And Jesus did not sacrifice. He did not sacrifice any animal. He did not sacrifice anything else on the altar. He sacrificed His own blood. He didn't go into a man-made temple. He walked into the very presence of God in heaven. He sacrificed everything so that you would know today that through His blood, He gives you the power to become. And today you can make an exchange. It's a beautiful exchange. You say, Don Sharia, I have nothing to put on the altar today but my tears. Well, today He says, those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. The tears that you sow will bring a harvest one day if you will keep waiting on the Lord in the slow burn. You say, Don Sharia, if you could look at my life, it's just the ashes of defeat. It's the ashes of disappointment. Well, He promises us that He'll give you beauty for your ashes. He'll give you the oil of joy for your mourning. He'll give you a garment of praise. You say, Don Sharia, there's nothing that can be redeemed about this season I'm in. Or you can declare like the psalmist, this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice right here in the slow burn and I will be glad.

There's an exchange that is made on the altar that everything that you have that is broken is put in His healing hands. And as we give Him our all, something supernatural happens. Our little transforms and it doesn't just release a fragrance, but that which was stagnant and dormant and could only lay on the altar, now transforms from the inside out and starts to rise. The incense could never move without being laid on the altar, but now it rises and it carries. You see, the slow burn raises you to life because of Jesus. ♪ Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ There's just something ♪ about that name you're my master my savior Jesus like the fragrance after the rain no Jesus he's my Jesus he's your Jesus let all heaven and earth proclaim kings and kingdoms they will all pass away but there's something that name oh come on there's something about the name of Jesus the age to age he remains the same that he changes us he renews us he restores us and when we lay the small upon the altar he raises us to new life incense doesn't look like it could go very far but once its place on the altar it ascends and its fragrance carries for miles laid down to be raised up I am dead the yet I live in Christ that as I lay my life down that's when I truly I truly begin to live they that wait upon the Lord they shall renew their strength they will mount up with wings like eagles again and again and again as you wait you are raised to new life through the wind of his spirit he will carry you to places you could never go on your own I think about my kids my kids love for me to make paper airplanes I can make a

mean paper airplane I can make that thing fly give me a flat sheet of paper I can turn it into a machine but friends you in the hands of God you've never seen anything like when you entrust your life to the hands of God you're looking at your season you're saying this is so one-dimensional this is so flat this is so boring why don't you just place it in the hands of the maker the author the finisher you watch as he builds you like you could never ever dream what you lay down on the altar will be raised to life I know what it feels like to wait for the wind you know in my life when I was 25 years old I went to a routine doctor's appointment and at the doctor's appointment been married for several years trying to start a family I'll never forget the doctor coming in and saying don't sure your blood tests came back irregular you're going to have a hard time having a family she sent me immediately to a specialist from my 25th birthday that started an eight-year journey of walking through infertility asking God to give us a child years of waiting years of silence years of feeling like I was in the wilderness while everyone else passed on all sides perhaps that's how you feel today I want to encourage you because it was in the waiting that I discovered who God was and it was in the waiting that I discovered who I am in him and I didn't write this message after I had children no I wrote this message in the middle of the wait because the testimony of my life is not simply that God gave me children the testimony of my life is that far before I ever had a child God intervened in my wait he woke me up with purpose he gave me a destiny he gave me a passion he gave me a community to belong to he met me at the altar every morning every night and he showed me you're not waiting on a baby you're waiting on me because make no mistake I'm so grateful for my children but Jesus is my treasure Jesus is my reward Jesus is the only one who can give me peace and fulfillment and contentment. Why? Because when my arms were empty, my heart was full. He met me in the slow burn

and he will do the same for you. And I would be remiss not to say, yes, God still does miracles. God didn't just give me one child. He gave me two and then he gave me three and then he gave me four. And so I wanna speak faith straight to your spirit. God is still a healer. God is still a redeemer. He is able to move at any moment that he wants to. You just keep entrusting your life to him in the slow burn. So grateful in the weight that I decided to open up my heart and be vulnerable with my community. In the slow burn, the same people that prayed for me on one side of the miracle are the same people that celebrated with me on the other side. You need community in the slow burn. Don't isolate, don't run away, don't shrink and hide. You plant your feet in the house of God. Those that are planted, they will flourish. But the truth is we don't get everything that we pray for on this side of eternity. So what if it never happens? That thing that you're praying so earnestly for, what if it doesn't come to pass? I wanna look in your eyes today and tell you, your life will not be wasted in the wait. God always answers. He says, yes, no, and he says, wait. Don't be afraid of empty hands.

Open hands, open heart leads to an open heaven. Right here, right now, God wants to transform your life in the slow burn. You say, Don Shree, what will the testimony of my life be? Your testimony will be, I waited on God and I saw his providence. I waited on God and I saw his protection. I waited on God and I saw his faithfulness. I waited on God in the slow burn. Would you bow your heads with me? Shut yourself away with God. Lord, thank you so much that you are faithful. You're not a distant God, you're a loving father. Thank you, Jesus, for laying down your life on Calvary 2,000 years ago, for pouring out your blood, for raising the new life three days later so that we would know, even in the most impossible seasons, when our faith is tested and we feel like we're at the end, that you promise us, they that wait upon the Lord, they shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. We need you, Lord. We open up our hearts to your love, to your peace, to your grace, here and now in the slow burn. In Jesus' name we pray, and everybody said, Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Come on, church, you can do better than that. All of our churches tell DC, thank you. And, I can only imagine how prophetic this message is for some of you right now, in the middle of the wait. So what I wanna do is just stay in an attitude of prayer, and I wanna pray specifically for some of you, for those of you that would just say, yeah, that message was for me. I'm in the middle of the wait, and I need the presence of God, I need the power of God, I need the provision of God in the wait. If that's you today, everybody looking around, doesn't matter, because we're family here, we're community. We love each other. Would you lift up your hands right now? You need the presence of God in the middle of the wait. You can lift up your hands. All of our churches online, you can just type in the comments section, I need the presence of God in the wait. If you wanna leave your hand up, like as an act of worship, feel free to.

Father, I thank you for this word, for your living word, God, that we're not just waiting on the provision or the promise, but we're truly waiting on you, and in your presence, when we lay down, even our desires, and our hurts, and our disappointments, God, you'll raise us up with your power, your goodness. And so, God, I pray for your supernatural presence to comfort those that are waiting, God, to strengthen us, to renew our faith in you, God, that we wouldn't even be dependent on an outcome. that we would be dependent on your presence, your goodness, your promises, that every word is true. And so, Holy Spirit, do a work in us. God, draw us close. As we lean upon you, we cast our anxiety on you. God, we trust in you with all of our heart and lead not on our own understanding, God, but in all of our ways, we acknowledge you, we depend on you. God, meet us in the weight, meet us in the slow burn, that we could know you and glorify you, we pray. Meet us, God, we pray in Jesus' name. As you keep praying today, you can just keep your eyes closed, different churches, and I want you to think about this, you know how it feels to wait on someone or something? Imagine what if God is waiting on some of you? I want you to think for a moment. Where are you with God?

If we could just sit down across from a table and talk, some of you would say, I'm walking with him daily, I know I belong to him. Others of you, you couldn't say that because you're not walking with him daily and you don't know him personally and intimately. I want to tell you about how good he is. He is a very relational God who loves you. It's not just how he feels about you, it's who he is. He is love and he loves you as you are and he loves you so much that he sent his one and only son, Jesus, the living son of God who is perfect in every way without any sin, who died on a cross and God raised him from the dead so that you could know him, his presence, his goodness, his peace, experience the forgiveness for all of your sins and walk in his joy and walk in his victory and walk in his power, being loved by his presence. If you don't know that, let me tell you what God is doing. The Bible says that he is very patient. In other words, he's waiting on you. He doesn't want anyone, the Bible says, to perish, but he wants to have everyone to have eternal life. What if God's waiting on you? How do you receive eternal life? Well, you can't earn it, you can't work for it. The Bible says that very, very clearly. It's a gift. We just turn away and we let go of our sin

that the Bible calls it repentance. We turn the other way and we turn to Jesus. We call on him and when you confess his lordship, the Bible says your sins will be forgiven, you'll be made new and today there are those of you can sense it, this message is for you. God is waiting on you. You're ready to know him. You're ready to receive his forgiveness. You're ready to receive his joy, his life. We're stepping away from our sin today. We're just calling on him. We're confessing our need for him. We're saying, Jesus, take me, save me, make me new. When you call on him, he'll hear your prayer, he'll forgive your sins, he'll make you new. Today there are those of you, you are here today for this moment, the Lord is waiting on you and your answer is yes, I need you and I want you. If that's you today, wherever you're watching from, say, today I'm stepping away from my sins. I'm giving my life to Jesus. I'm receiving the free gift of salvation. My life is no longer my own. Jesus, I give it to you. That's your prayer today. Would you say yes, Jesus? I surrender my life to you. Lift your hands right now and say yes, I give my life. Lift your hands right now.

All of our churches and say yes as we have people today, all of our different churches saying yes, Jesus, I surrender to you. I give you my life. Online, you can just type in the comment section. I'm surrendering my life to Jesus and today, wherever you are, would you pray aloud together? We are the family of God. Nobody prays alone. Pray, Heavenly Father, forgive all of my sins. Jesus, save me. Fill me with your Holy Spirit so I could know you, so I could serve you, so I could show your love. My life is not my own. I give it all to you. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. Could you celebrate today, church? Welcome those born into God's family. Come on, come on, come on. Hey, it's Pastor Craig and Amy Groeschel with Life.Church and if you just made the decision to give your life to Christ, this is the most important and life-changing decision that you'll ever make and all of heaven is celebrating right now because of your decision and we're celebrating with you too. That's right and we want you to know that God sees you. He's with you and He loves you.

He has a purpose for your life and incarceration, it doesn't define you. It doesn't confine you because you are free in Christ. You are new in Him. Chains have been broken today. And so as a follower of Jesus, God wants us to be on this journey together and I want you to know you don't have to do this alone and that's why we, as your church family, we're here for you and we want to help you grow in your faith and find your next steps. So first of all, just keep joining us for church every single week and worshiping through the Pando app. We're so thankful that you're here. When we draw close to God, He draws near to us and so I would also encourage you. Read God's word, if it's available to you. And as you do, just start to pray and invite God into every single aspect of your life. And then if you feel led, you might even share your decision with somebody else. There might be a family member or a friend, and they're gonna wanna hear your story and your spiritual journey. We'd love to hear it as well. And you can send us a letter if you'd like to. The address is on your screen, and our team will write back to you and help you grow in your faith with Jesus. And so we'd love to mail you some content

about who Jesus is and help you grow in your relationship with him now that you've chosen to follow Jesus. That's right. And God's plan for your life, it's greater than anything that you could ever imagine. In fact, Ephesians 3.20 says, God is able to do abundantly more than we could ask or imagine. Trust him with your whole life. You will see him work in ways you have never thought possible. Congratulations on this decision. We are your family, and you're part of the family of God.