What To Do While You Wait On God

different miracles of the Bible. Well, you might remember we've said a miracle that's a less common kind of God's activity in which he arouses people's awe and wonder he bears witness to himself, and God still performs miracles. In fact, our theme scripture, have you memorized it yet? It goes like this, "Your way is God or holy." What God is as great as our God, and come on, read this next part out loud with me, everybody. You are the God who performs miracles. You display your power among the peoples. So God performs miracles, and I believe he can perform one today in your life, and I'm so excited for you to experience this message today, because you get to hear from the best preacher I know. In fact, it's no secret that she's everybody's favorite preacher. I'm talking about Tab of the Hodges, everybody. I told Tab. I said, "You know, women's night is so special, and half of our church doesn't ever get to experience it." And so, I bought her new pair of shoes, and I said, "Babe, you got to bring that energy and that passion and the presence from women's night to our entire church today." And I know she has an on-time word for all of us today about miracles. So would you stand your feet? Would you make some noise to honor the first lady of this house, my wife, Bell's G.G., and your favorite preacher, Tab of the Hodges? Man, you guys are the best, and isn't he the cutest? He's so cute. All right. You guys can have a seat. So glad you guys are here today. And man, Friday was a dream, ladies, wasn't it? It was truly a dream.

I just had the best night. I don't know about you, but God just really spoke to me. Just had the best time, and I believe that God has a word for us this morning, too. As Stu said, today is our final week in our series called Miracles, and today it's really been an amazing series, right? Would you guys agree? Yeah. And honestly, I think that this series has really put us in what I would call a miracle season. Amen? Amen. Because I believe throughout this series, we've all been trying to increase our faith in the God who performs miracles. We've been reminding ourselves of who God is, haven't we? That is that he is still a God who heals, restores. He makes a way when there seems to be no way. He is still a God who can do what we cannot do on our own, isn't he? And so my hope is that as we've walked through these stories in the Bible that you've been reminded that God is still so good, he hasn't changed, he is able, he's still so powerful, and he is still at work. But here's what I want to ask you today. What do you do when God asks you to move? Because sometimes we can believe God for a miracle and still find ourselves sitting in the same place we've been sitting in. We pray, we believe, we wait, and sometimes in the middle of all of that, God says something very simple. He says, "Get up." And today my message is simply called, "Get up." And I'm just going to put it all out there in the title today, okay? I'm going to challenge you to get up.

And I know that what some of you might be thinking, "Wait a minute. This is actually supposed to be a series on miracles, isn't it?" I mean, miracles is really supposed to be more like we pray and we have faith and then just God just does the miracle. That's kind of what we think, right? And you're telling me now that there's an action step in the miracle to get up. And I want to challenge our thinking here, guys, because sometimes before God does something for you, He wants to do something in you and He asks you to do something with Him. Sometimes before the miracle happens, God says, "Get up." Now, have you ever been told to get up? Listen, being told to get up is actually not my favorite request, okay? Get up out of bed. No, I really like to stay warm and cozy, right? How about you, yeah? Get up off the couch because your spouse needs something. That's like not fun. Like, do they really need me to hold the ladder? Like are they really going to fall? Or how about get up in the middle of the night? Come on, mamas. Get up in the middle of the night because your kid has asked for the fifth time for some water, right? I remember a time when someone told me to get up and let me tell you it didn't go so well for them because I really don't like someone telling me to get up. Those are fighting words where I'm coming from, okay? Now, I've always told you guys that I'm really sweet until I'm not, okay? You know and there was, there were several years ago, several years ago, our Emma, our middle child, she was playing soccer. I think she was like nine at the time and she was, she was playing soccer and my, and my mother-in-law brought the kids to the soccer game and I was late because I had some kind of appointment or something and I was late to the soccer game. And when I got there, I got there and she was at a York County soccer game and each, what I didn't know is that each

team has to sit on their own side of the field because parents can't get along. I didn't know that in soccer because you guys know I'm a baseball mom and they already separate you in baseball, right? So because they already know that that's a problem too. So, but I didn't know that this was a rule in soccer. I thought people were super nice in soccer but so I walked up to the field and apparently we were on the wrong side and I didn't know that so I just started cheering on the team. Now, I'm going to remind you that again, I don't know anything about soccer at all and so I just start yelling what I think is soccer terms like way to go and kick it and you got it run faster. Like I don't know what I'm supposed to say slide. I don't know. It's a baseball chart, right? I don't know what I'm supposed to say but I really didn't say anything against the other team. Like I was just saying something like that was positive. I was being like a positive mom, right? And so then all of a sudden I realized that the coach from the other team is pacing up and down the field and she's kind of given me this evil eye and I'm like what is going on? And she turns around after a little while and she looks at me and she goes get up and go to the other side of the field and I was like hmm okay and you know mind you we only had like 15 minutes left in the game because it's not like a baseball game. These are like our games which is amazing. I mean geez and let me tell you it was like a switch went off in my head, okay? Like the get up just rubbed me the wrong way. It was like a switch went off and I was like okay lady bring it on. Let's go. You don't know where I'm from. Let's go. Come on. And I could feel it rising up in me. Have you felt that before? Like I went zero to a hundred and I started yelling back at her and I was like how dare you ask my mother-in-law me to go to the other side with 15 minutes left in the game and then all of a sudden I was in autopilot and I was like like saying things and I'm not really sure what I was saying and I don't really remember what I was saying but then suddenly I feel somebody tapped me on the shoulder and it was a York County representative and she said ma'am you're gonna need to go to your car and I was like okay. So I realized that I don't like being told to get up. I hope I've been insured since then but it made me realize that none of us really like to be told to get up. We don't really like the challenge of that do we and yet here I am and I'm telling you to get up. You can thank me later because sometimes getting up it's really inconvenient isn't it? It's uncomfortable. Sometimes getting up means leaving a place where you're perfectly comfortable staying and sometimes getting up is exactly what God is asking you to do. So there's a woman in the Bible that we're going to talk about today that I think you're

really going to love and I know you're going to love her name because her name is Tabitha. Some of you had no idea that my name was in the Bible and if you're not familiar with Tabitha you might know her by her even lovelier Greek name which is Dorkus. It's a very special name and honestly I just want to thank my mom and dad that they stopped at Tabitha instead of naming me Dorkus because I think that would have followed me for a long time right. So today we're going to jump in to a miracle that involved Peter and Tabitha. So let's jump in to Acts 9 where we encounter the lovely Tabitha. Says in Japa there was a disciple named She was always doing good and helping the poor. About the time she became sick and died and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room, Lita was near Joppa. So when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lita, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Please come at once." Peter went with them and when he arrived, he was taken upstairs to the room. All the windows stood around him crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorkus had made while she was still with them. Peter sent them all out of the room and then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up." I want you to say those underlying words with me, "Get up." She opened her eyes and seeing Peter, she sat up. She took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa and many people believed the Lord. Now, there's so much happening in this story.

We've got sickness, we've got death, we've got grief, we've got prayer, and we've got this incredible miracle. And then there's this moment when Peter looks up and he says to Tabitha, "Get up." There's our two words, "Get up." And she does, but before we get too excited about the miracle, I want us to slow down and I want us to walk slowly through the story together because I believe that through this story, we can see three ways that we can be challenged to get up in our own lives. Now, we've got to go back to the beginning of the story because before Tabitha got up, the Bible tells us how she lived. Let's look at the description of Tabitha. The Bible says, "In Joppa, there was a disciple named Tabitha, in Greek, her name is Dorcas. She was always doing good and helping the poor." And I want us to notice three things about Tabitha today. First, she was a disciple. That means she wasn't just someone who believed in Jesus, she was a follower of Jesus. And interestingly enough, Tabitha is the only woman in the New Testament who was explicitly called a disciple. Let's go Tabitha. Now, second, it says that she was always doing good, not occasionally, not when it was convenient. She was always doing good. And third, it says that she was helping the poor. She saw people in need and she did something about it.

And then when she dies, we see just how much her life meant to people. Because the widows came into the room crying, and they were showing Peter the robes and the garments that she had made for them. They were literally holding up evidence of her life. Her life had left something behind. Listen, Tabitha's story didn't start when Peter walked into the room. God had been writing her story long before her miracle ever took place. And that's why I believe Tabitha's story challenges us today to get up and live a life that makes an impact. Because Tabitha was faithful. She was consistent, intentional. And here's what I love about her. She wasn't even famous. I mean, think about it. We get six verses about her in Scripture. They didn't even write a whole book about her in the Bible. Six verses. As a matter of fact, some of you had never even heard of her today. She didn't have a verified badge on Instagram to tell everybody how important she was. She didn't have brand deals. She didn't have a Wikipedia page. And her clothes weren't featured on famous runways. But let me tell you who Tabitha was. She was faithful with what God had put in her hands.

She used what she had that was right in front of her to help others. And she didn't do it because she was concerned about making a name for herself. And that's where I want to challenge us today. We need to get up and live a life that makes an impact. Now, getting up can seem overwhelming, can't it? Because when we hear go make an impact, we immediately start thinking, oh, great. Now I've got to change the world. And I think that's kind of part of the problem. We've trained our minds to think that we've got to make this huge impact on the whole world. We've got to think that we're like Mother Teresa, like Martin Luther King Jr. or Billy Graham. That's what we're thinking in our minds. We've got to make this huge impact. And if we're not doing something, "Well, I'm just a teacher. Well, I just work at the shipyard. Well, I'm just a student. I'm just a teenager. I'm just one person. But can I tell you something? You aren't just anything. You are a child of the king. And if God has placed you in that classroom, if He's placed you in the shipyard, in your neighborhood, at your work, He has placed you there for a reason. You don't have to change the whole world. You just need to change, be willing to change the world of the person He puts in front of you. That's what Tabitha did. She didn't change the whole world. She changed the world of the people that were put in front of her. But here's where it gets real. Because sometimes getting up from our comfortable place, it's exhausting, right? Some of you are thinking, "I'm already getting up all day long. I've got kids to run here and there. I've got work, responsibilities. I've got people who need me all day long. And at the end of the day, I'm completely drained." And I understand that. Trust me, I raised three kids while working and being a wife and a mom and maintaining a house and being

a team mom and being a room mom and serving in the church. I understand what it's like to be completely exhausted by the end of the day. But here's the question that I want you to wrestle with. What are you making room for? Because we all have limited time. We all have limited resources. We all have limited energy. And what we consistently give our time, our energy, and our resources to tells us something about what we value. So here's the question for you. What do you value? Jesus says this, "For where your heart is…" Sorry, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Jesus is teaching us that our heart follows what we invest in. So I started thinking, what if Tabitha had lived, how some of us lived today? What if her life had been remembered for everything else that she did? What if it was Tabitha's a great soccer mom? Tabitha never missed pickleball. Tabitha had a really nice car. Tabitha had a beautiful home. Tabitha was always busy. She was really successful. Tabitha got into the college of her dreams. But none of those things are necessarily bad, right? They're not bad things. But you see, when Tabitha died, those aren't the things that people were talking about. They talked about the things that Tabitha valued the most. They were holding the robes that she had. They were remembering how she helped them. They were remembering how she served them. They were remembering that she made a difference. That's what she left behind. So here's my challenge for you today. Don't leave here thinking, "I need to do more." Leave here asking yourself, "What is one thing that God is asking me to get up and do?" Maybe it's get up and serve. Maybe it's join a group. Maybe it's get up and give. Maybe it's get up and invest in your kids instead of being distracted by your phone all the time. Maybe it's getting up and forgiving someone. Maybe it's getting up and using the gift that God has given you, even when you feel like you're not ready. You don't have to change the world. You just have to change what you can reach. Look at the person God has put in front of you. Look at what he's already put into your hands and ask God, "What can I do with what you've given me?" Use the gift. Make the call. Serve the person. Give what you can. Forgive. Show up. Take the step. Get up. Because everything God has placed in your hands can be used for an eternal impact. Don't underestimate your yes. You got to get up. Now you get up. You're going to live a life of impact. But here's where the story gets really interesting. Tabitha got up and lived a life that mattered. She used what God had given her. She served people. She cared for widows. She made a difference and then she got sick and she died.

how we would have expected the story to go, right? Because if we're, if she's gonna be faithful, if we're gonna serve God, if we're gonna do what He's called us to do, we wanna believe that everything's gonna work out for us. We want the story to be, hey, I got up, I obeyed, I served. I did what God asked, and then God did the miracle. That's the dream, right? But that's not what happened for Tabitha. And this is where we have to understand something about miracles. Your faithfulness doesn't earn you a miracle. And I know that's where our minds often go. Jesus, I'm doing all of this for you. I'm serving you, I'm praying, I'm trusting you. Surely you can just do this one thing for me in return. But sometimes you gotta get up. You gotta do the right thing. You gotta serve, you pray, you trust, and you're still waiting. Tabitha lived a faithful life, she helped people, she cared for widows, she made a difference, and she still got sick and she still died. Her faithfulness didn't keep her from the difficult season. And I think that's important for us to understand because sometimes we believe if I do everything right, if I serve, if I pray, if I follow God, then surely it will work out the way I want it to. But that's not how God works.

Faithfulness doesn't put God on our schedule. You can be exactly where God wants you to be, doing exactly what he's called you to do and still find yourself waiting for God to move. And that's where we get to the miracle in Tabitha's story because her death wasn't the end of the story. The very thing that looked final wasn't actually final. Peter comes into the room, he gets down on his knees and he prays and then he turns to the woman who is lying there dead and he says these three words, Tabitha, get up and she opened her eyes, she sat up. Peter took her by the hand and he helped her to her feet. The woman who had died, she got up. And I think that's why the story is so powerful because the miracle wasn't just that Tabitha had lived a faithful life. The miracle was that God was writing her story when everyone else thought it was over. And that brings us to the second challenge that I have for you today. It's get up on his timing because I don't know always, I don't always know why God doesn't come through on my timing, but I do know this. He is always an on time God. And I actually know this really well for myself. In 2003, I began experiencing some symptoms, some pretty serious medical symptoms that the doctors had wondered if I had MS. And as the story goes, ran lots and lots of doctors,

had lots and lots of doctors appointments, had lots and lots of test run and still had some inconclusive results. And meanwhile, my health continued to get worse. And while they were looking for one thing, the doctor began to discover lots of other things about my health. I was diagnosed with a condition called idiopathic intercranial hypertension. And during all of that testing, we also discovered that we accidentally discovered that I had colon cancer. In 2024, I had surgery to remove cancer. And then the doctors had to wait to see what would be of my health because they weren't sure if that was what originated my health problems. And since then, I've had many relapses in my health, the same original symptoms that I had that I was experiencing in 2023. And even as recently as this spring, where I was too weak to stand for long periods of time, and it was difficult for me to use my arms. By the time student camp rolled around, I was in so much pain the entire week. And some of the hardest parts for me today are that I can't be the wife and the mom that I was previous to all of this. I can't do some of the things that I used to be able to do. But I think one of the hardest things that I've struggled with

is not being able to worship Jesus the way I used to little bit, but I still don't have answers and I still wait, just like Tabitha did. I wait, and I pray, and I lean into Jesus, and I continue to live with hope for a miracle for my body. And I don't want to lie to you, because there have been moments where I've said, "Jesus, you know my calling. You know my calling is to serve our church, to serve our people, and that makes it really hard." And I'm like, "Why? Why are you making it so difficult for me to be a good wife and a mom and minister to all these people? Why wouldn't you heal me so that I can do that?" And I wait. And maybe you've had your own version of that prayer. God, you know what I need. You know how badly I need this. You know how long I've been waiting. Why haven't you done something yet? And that's where faith gets real. And our story, Tabitha dies. According to scripture, Peter wasn't there before she died. It looked like the opportunity for a miracle had passed, but the disciples still sent for Peter. Peter came, and he asked God to bring her from death to life, and he did. And she opened her eyes, she sat up, Peter took her by the hand, and helped her to her feet. I can't imagine what that moment must have been like for those widows or for Tabitha. And I can't imagine what that was, that that was the timing that anyone in the room actually would have wanted. They would have, they would have wanted her to be healed before she died, right? They would have wanted Peter there sooner. They would have wanted the healing on her time, on their timeline. But God had a different plan. And that's why I want to challenge you. And I'm challenging myself here in this moment right along with you to get up on his timing. Don't let waiting convince you that God has forgotten you. Don't let God's silence convince you that he isn't working. And don't let his timing become the measure of his goodness. You can trust God even when you don't understand. And if you're wondering, God, how long? I don't know when your miracle is going to come. I don't know what God will do, will choose to do. But I do know this, that his timing is not a reflection of his love for you. So while you wait, you've got to get up, keep praying, keep trusting, keep serving, keep worshiping, even when it looks different. Keep believing that God is good even when you don't understand what he's doing. Because sometimes the miracle isn't that God changes the circumstances immediately. Sometimes the miracle is that he changes us in the weight. I can't tell you the lessons that I've learned in this season, the intimacy

that I've gained in this season with Jesus. It couldn't have happened without this season. I can't tell you the appreciation that I have for the people in my life that have walked alongside of me and have prayed for me and carried me and lifted me in this season. It's not always easy. And honestly, it's a battle in the weight. And sometimes you have to get up and fight those battles with scripture. So I just want to be super practical. I want to give you three scriptures that have just really meant so much to me in this season as promises of God. And I hope that they will encourage you to. The first is this, "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." That verse has just been so special to me in this season. I posted on, I write it in my journal. I highlighted in my Bible, that verse has meant so much. And the next one is this, "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." And the last one is this, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean path straight. Those verses can give you faith in the weight. They can give you hope in the weight because his promises are still true. I don't have to understand his timing to trust him. I just have to get up on his timing. And the last challenge that I think we can learn from Tabitha's story is this. Get up and share your story. Let's go back to the story in Scripture. It says, "He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for believers, especially the widows and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Japa, and many people believed in the Lord." Now, if I were writing this story, I would have probably written it differently. I might have said, "And everyone was so excited that Tabitha was alive," right? Because they were so excited, right? They thought she was dead. They had cried over her, they had grieved, and now she's standing in front of them alive. It's a miracle.

It's kind of like if we heard that Elvis Presley was still alive. Wouldn't you immediately think, "Wow, I don't think we would think this," right? This really proves something about Jesus. We would be like, "Oh my gosh, what in the world Elvis Presley is alive," right? Because we tend to think miracles are about us. What did God do for me? How did He fix my situation? How did God make my life better? But look at what the Bible says happened after Tabitha got up. It doesn't say, "Everyone just celebrated that Tabitha was alive." It says, "This became known all over Japa, and many people believed in the Lord." Do you see it? The miracle wasn't the end of the story. The miracle became the story. The story pointed people to Jesus. Tabitha getting up wasn't just about Tabitha. God used what happened to Tabitha to reveal Himself to other people. We see this all throughout Scripture. God performs a miracle. People see what God has done, and they come to know Him. In fact, we see this story immediately in Scripture right before Tabitha's story. We see Peter is traveling through Leda, and he comes across a man named Anius who had been paralyzed for eight years. Peter tells him, "Jesus Christ heals you, get up," and Anius gets up. And then the Bible says this, "All those who lived in Leda and saw Him and turned to the Lord." The miracle changed Anius' life, but it also changed the lives of the people that witnessed it. And that's the part that I don't want you to miss. God can use what He's done in your life to help someone else see Him.

Your story matters. Your testimony matters. The thing that you walk through matters because what God has done in your life may be exactly what somebody else needs to know that Jesus is real. And I believe that every single person in this room has a story that could help someone else see Jesus more clearly. Maybe you had a difficult childhood, and God redeemed it, and you have a healthy family now. You have a story. Maybe you struggled with an addiction, and you overcame that through God's help. You have a story. Maybe you prayed for healing for a relationship when you didn't think it could be healed. You have a story. You have a story, and it isn't just for you. Your story can help someone else find Jesus. Listen, I know for some of you, this might seem so hard because you don't like to be vulnerable with other people. I get it. I'm like that. But I'm telling you, you didn't go through these things so that you could just keep it to yourself. It wasn't just for you. God did something in you so that you could share your story to help others know Jesus more. This is why we talk so much about one more, because someone in your world needs to hear your story. Someone needs to know that God can redeem, and heal, and restore. They need to know that Jesus is good, and maybe your story is the thing that God wants to use to help them take a step closer to him. So I'm telling you, you've got to get up. You've got to get up and share your story because your story isn't for the people just

outside of the church. It's also for people inside of the church. Your story can strengthen someone here. Look around you. Look whose shoulders to shoulder with you. It can help someone here. Look back at verse 41. It says, Peter. Think about that. The people who were hurting, the most were the people who… they were the first people that got to see what God had done. And I think that that's a picture of the body of Christ and what it's supposed to be. We aren't supposed to put on our masks and walk through life alone. We need each other's stories. I love stories. How many of you are good storytellers? Oh, yeah. We got some good storytellers out there, okay? You're the type of people that I want to have coffee with because I love a good storyteller, but I am not a good storyteller. Like, in the middle of my story, I suddenly get freaked out because all the attention is on me and then I'm like, "Oh my gosh, are they so bored that I'm telling them too many details?" So I'm not a great storyteller, but I am married to one of the best storytellers that I know, okay? And so he always knows how to land a punchline, how to have the perfect amount of details before people get bored. And so anytime we're in a group and if you're ever hanging out with us, I'm always like, "Hey babe, tell that story. You tell that story." And he looks at me like, "Why don't you tell the story?" And I'm like, "Well, God gave you that gift and he's going to take it away if you don't use it." That's what my mama said. But here's what I love. You don't have to be a good story to tell your story. You don't have to know how to make it interesting. You don't have to have the perfect words. You just have to be willing to tell your story. And that's why I love groups because the body of Christ does this. We sit around tables and we share lives. And sometimes the miracle God wants to use and someone else's life is the story of what he's already done in yours. So maybe for you, it's getting up out of isolation, getting into a group, sitting across from someone and saying, "Can I tell you what God has done in my life because

you never know what God can do with your story?" And if you're still waiting for your miracle like me, you still have a story to tell because sometimes the most powerful testimony isn't that God gave me exactly what I asked for. Sometimes it's God didn't give me what I asked for, but he never left me and he was faithful. And that story can point people to Jesus too. So I'm here to echo the story of Tabitha and simply say, "Get up." Listen, I know the chair is comfortable. I know it feels good and soft and velvety. But God's saying, "Get up." He's saying to get up and live a life that matters. And I know that sitting in the waiting is hard. But I really believe that God is telling you today to get up on his timing. And I know that sometimes sharing your story can be really hard because it brings back a lot of pain and a lot of heartache, but here's what I know. You've got to get up and tell your story because your story matters and your story can make a difference in someone else's life. So as we close this series, I want you to remember what we've been talking about these last several weeks that we serve a miracle-working God. And maybe your miracle hasn't already happened. Maybe you're still believing for yours. Maybe you're somewhere in the middle where you don't know what God is doing. But our hope in this series is that you've heard story after story of what God has done in Scripture and that your faith would rise. That we would leave this series a little more deeply in love with the God who performs miracles, knowing that he's still good, he's still faithful, he's still able, and he is still a God who performs miracles. So wherever you are, would you just do me a favor and would you just stand for a minute? Would you get up? Would you open your hands towards heaven and allow me to pray for you? God, we love you. We still believe that you are a miracle-working God. We still believe that you can do so many things. You are a good God and we are so thankful for you. God, I pray for everyone in this room that is desperately needing a miracle in their life. Would you comfort them? Would you be with them in the waiting? And God, we thank you for the miracles of the past that you've done in our lives. Thank you for giving us a story to tell. And everyone, if you'll just keep your heads bowed

and your eyes closed, if today you said, man, this God is pretty amazing. I wanna know him, I wanna know him more. I'd love for you to take a moment and ask Jesus into your heart. And for some of you today, you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus in the God of miracles. Will you pray this prayer with me now? God, I wanna know you. I want my sin forgiven by you. I wanna live my life for you. Come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. We love you, Jesus. Thank you so much, amen. Why don't we thank God for what he's done in this series today. (audience applauding) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)