Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Waiting for a Miracle | Miracles | Part 1

Episode Date: March 19, 2023

Are you waiting for a miracle? Maybe you have unanswered prayers, and you’re not sure God even cares. Let’s learn how to build our faith and trust God has good things in store for us in this message. ABOUT THIS MESSAGEAre you facing something so overwhelming that only a miracle can change it? Do you even believe in miracles? They've happened before and can happen again. Let's experience them together in our new series, Miracles.NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/craiggroeschelFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #miracles Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It is so good to gather together if you're new or if we haven't met. My name is Chris Beale. And this is actually my 20th year on staff at Live Church. So kind of a, it's a bit of an accomplishment. And I currently serve 18 of our campuses. And honestly, like, my calling is to pastor the pastors. And just to be able to pour into these people that are serving campuses, I also lead this little thing called the legacy team, which is made of about 500 folks that are. business leaders and people passionate about leveraging resource to accelerate the mission of the gospel through the local church. And I just love our legacy team. What I'm most proud of is this picture, these people behind me. This is my family. And Cindy and I just celebrated 30 years of marriage in January. She was 14 when she said I do. And by three incredible sons of which I am the

shortest man in the Beal home. I've got an incredible daughter-in-law, Ella. And then there's this one little girl, Ivy Sloan, my first granddaughter, and I'm telling you, this girl has my heart. Any grandparents in the house at all of our places is the best thing ever when you become a grandparent. She calls my grandpa name is Yodge, but she pronounces it Raj, even though my name is Chris. So it's a really long story. So this week, we are starting a series looking at the miracles of Jesus leading up into Holy Week and ultimately celebrating the resurrection on Easter Sunday. And just for a little bit of working context, Jesus or God, rather, through Christ, in the beginning was God, right?

He created all things. And when he created the world, he created an order. There are rules that govern the natural world. there's gravity which are you know our adolescents have to learn the hard way first and second law of thermodynamics the fact that the earth rotates around the sun the moon rotates around the earth all of these things are natural laws that god created and any time we see a miracle is when we see god choosing to operate outside of the natural order that he himself created i love this quote from tim keller he writes we modern people think that miracles are the suspension of the natural order.

But Jesus meant for them to be the restoration of the natural order. Because before sin entered the world, before there was death, before there was suffering, before there was disease, the supernatural was known as Tuesday, right? It was all beyond the natural. And today we're going to look at one of Jesus' last miracles. in the Gospel of John, chapter 11, and I'm going to tell you, there's no way to preach this without actually going through the entire chapter. So I need the intellectual thinking caps on. Let's jump into John chapter 11, verse 1. Now, a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of

Mary and her sister Martha. And in parentheses, he writes, this Mary whose brother Lazarus, now they're sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord. Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sister sent word to Jesus. Lord, the one you love is sick. And when he heard this, Jesus said, this sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it. I love kind of the passive aggressive tone of Martha sending a message to Jesus. Like, like Jesus, the one you love is sick. She didn't say, my brother is sick.

It's like Cindy Beale back in the day when I would come home from work. And she's like, hey, can I just tell you what your son did today at school? Like, anybody, this is what we do. This is how we talk when we need you to do something. It's not, my brother is sick. It's the one you love is sick. So a little context. Bethany was a small village, a bad.

about two miles to the east of Jerusalem. Interestingly, you have to kind of go through the Mount of Olives or Gassimony to get there. As mentioned, this was the same Mary that poured perfume on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And Lazarus was nothing special. He didn't do a TED Talk. He didn't write a book. He didn't, wasn't on a speaking circuit. He was just a guy. And I love that. And he happened to be one of Jesus's favorite people. Time after time, he would find himself in their home, sharing a meal, and just being together. So we keep going. Scripture says, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Just want you to be clear, they're Jesus' people. I just want you to know, he loved them. So, everybody say so. He loved them so much. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was. I mean, this must be a typo in my Bible. He loved them so much that he stayed where he was two days longer. Does your Bible say that? Does that make any sense to anyone? he loved them so much that I'm not going to go. I'm just going to stay here.

The so, that conjunctive word, it puzzles me like I would understand it if he loved them so much yet. Well, now it makes sense. Yet, traffic was too bad, right? He loved them so much, however, he was afraid of getting arrested. That would totally make sense to me.

What doesn't make sense to me is he loved them so much, so he didn't go. So often, those of us that are believing God for a miracle, and I know many of you are, have to first learn the lesson of how to wait on the Lord. It's part of it. You look back through the Old Testament,

you read through the new, moment after moment, example after example, of God giving a vision, a burden, a promise, and then crickets. Five and a half months ago, we got a phone call late at night. And it was our youngest son, Seth, and he said to his mom, I've been in a wreck. I don't know where I am. I think my back is broken. He's an electrician. He's an electrician. He works in the solar industry, and he worked a 12-hour shift, long day, pretty tired. And he decided to go to Tulsa from OKC, hour and a half drive, probably a little later than he should.

And he fell asleep behind the wheel. For those you're not familiar with Oklahoma, the speed limit of that highway is 80 miles an hour. And so he's probably going 80, 85, something like that. And the person behind him said that he just gently drifted out of his lane on the highway. and hit a exit sign. And that exit sign kind of sliced through the car, set off all the airbags, and then the car went airborne. And flying through the air, T-bones into an embankment, but the airbags had already deflated. And so what ultimately happened is he fractured his sternum, had a burst fracture in his L1 vertebrae, had a spinal cord injury, several other fractures,

and it was, as many of you could imagine, a parent's worst nightmare. We drove to Tulsa, and it was the longest 90-minute drive of our lives, and it's been a journey for us, one that we are still walking. When we look at Mary and Martha and this season of waiting, Granted, it's only a few days. But yet, when someone you love is suffering and hurting, a few days feels like what? A couple decades, a long time. What do you do when you've begged God for something?

Like, you're not asking for a Porsche or a promotion. Like, that's not the prayer you're praying. You're not praying to find a husband or to pass your final exam. You're not praying for God to bless your meal or to give you traffic. traveling mercies, whatever. Can somebody tell me what traveling mercies are, by the way? Like, I've been a pastor while. I still don't know what that means. But like, you're not praying that prayer. Like, you are on your face before God saying, God, I need you, I need to do this specific thing by this specific time because I can't imagine what happens if you don't. What happens to your faith when you're

waiting and it seems like God is not responding. We got to the hospital, and I don't think I really knew how violent the wreck was until I went to the salvage yard to get some of his personal items out of the car. And I couldn't even find the car. I couldn't even recognize it. And I literally got sick to my stomach and just had to get the stuff out of his car and go back to the hospital. And in those days, we did not know, is he going to walk? We didn't know. We didn't know. We didn't know. We didn't know. is it going to need Cindy and I to take care of him like forever? We didn't know. And I just found myself and Cindy standing by a hospital bed waiting, praying, waiting, praying. Something that God

is teaching me is that the moment we attach our expectation to his purpose or the moment you attach how God loves you to what you need him to do for you, you have chosen at that moment to live life with a troubled soul. And some of you have come to church today with a troubled soul. I ask you to do this and you didn't. I'm begging you for this and it still isn't here. what do you do in your faith when you've attached your expectations of God to his purposes of God, you're living with a troubled soul? Can I encourage you? The reason we have that is because his ways are not our ways. And his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We don't want him to think like us or choose like us. because as we're about to see in this story, there's something a whole lot bigger going on than our

current crisis. So in the rest of our time, we're just going to kind of unpack how do we reconcile a troubled soul? So we fast forward two days, and Jesus has a conversation with the disciples and he says basically, hey, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, and I'm going to go wake him up. And the disciples are like, man, Jesus, sleep would probably do him so good. I'll probably feel better. And then he's like, no, he's dead. And we're going to go to him. And so scripture goes on, we're going to pick it up in verse 17 of John chapter 11. So when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the time. tomb for four days. Everybody say four days. Now, Bethany was near Jerusalem, about 15 stadia away.

So many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary. Remembered that as well. A crowd is building. They came to Mary and Martha to console them about their brother. So then Martha, when she heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house. Martha then said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. This is the first thought of how do we reconcile a troubled soul? If you are living there right now, here's what we do. We start with learning to pray honest prayers, like really honest prayers. This is God. He came a few days late. And I love that Mary and Martha are kind of like grieving in different ways. Mary, Scripture says, she didn't even leave the house. Some of you can identify. Like, I've had this thing happen. I've asked God for it. He didn't do it the way I needed.

So you know what? This Jesus thing, I think I'm out. Tried it. I'm good. I'm just going to stay in the house from here on out. And I get the response. I really do. Martha, on the other hand, makes a beeline to the gate of the village like a 75-year-old mall walker with orthopedic shoes. And she's just like, I'm going to, where is he? Straight to him. He doesn't even get through the gate. And she stops him to say what she thinks about him. And Jesus met them both right where they were.

Some of you, when you hear me say, I want you to learn to pray honest prayers, you might be like, that makes me uncomfortable. He's God. That's irreverent. I would say it's intimate. God can handle your anger. He can handle your questions. How on earth can you have intimacy with a God you are unwilling to be honest with? Like really honest. I'm saying the funeral has already happened. Right? The cousins all talk too long. The green bean casserole is in the Tupperware, in the refrigerator. They've all told the stories about, hey, remember that time when Lazarus was 10? Ha ha. It's hilarious.

And then Jesus shows up. When we're waiting on God, we aren't waiting for nothing. And a divine delay is not ever his denial. Often there's reasons behind that delay. So when we're navigating that troubled soul, let's start with just praying honest prayers. in this season, this last five and a half months, I guess I told Pastor Craig this a couple days in, he called me, he says, how you doing?

And I said, I'm not good. I don't know how my son's going to be. I kind of thought I've been a pastor for 28 years. So, you know, I'm thinking I've got like a doctoral degree in handling trauma. I don't. I'm broken. I'm angry. And I feel a little bit alone.

And Craig just listened and he cried with me. And he encouraged me. Just talk to him. Talk to the Lord. Tell him how you're doing, really. And it looked a little different for both Cindy and I, but it was in those first few weeks that we just started to tell. Tell him how he felt.

And it kind of started with, why did you let this happen? We are laying hands on him 10 times a day asking for total healing. And he goes to bed every night in total pain. Why? Just start there. Just start there. Because the moment we're honest, you know what you're doing? You're opening your heart in a vulnerable way to a God that wants to be present in your struggle.

we just start to pray honest prayers. Secondly, and this is going to get a little hard, I want you to risk your heart and believe in him again, hope again. In verse 22, Mary just finishes by saying, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died, right? The very next sentence, the very next thing that comes out of her mouth in verse 22, She says, even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, he will give you. And Jesus said to her, your brother will rise from the dead. Martha said to him, I know he will rise in the resurrection in the last day. And Jesus looked at her and said, I am the resurrection. I am the resurrection and the life. And the one who believes in me will live, even if he dies and ever, and

Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. And then he looked at her and said, do you believe this? And she said to him, yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, and he who comes into the world. And when she had said this, she left and called for her sister Mary, secretly saying, the teacher's here, and he's calling for you. And when Mary heard this, she got up and came quickly to him. It takes courage to risk your heart and believing again, to hope again. And I love that Jesus met Mary and Martha right where they were as differently

as they were handling this challenge. And then in verse 33, guys, this is so powerful. So Mary comes. And in verse 33, John writes, therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her were also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and he said, where have you laid him? it's about to get interesting. And they said to him, Lord, come and see.

And did the shortest verse in all 66 books of the Bible, but maybe for some of you, the most important, two words. Jesus wet. God wet. The creator of all things weeps. He lived out the sermon on the matter. out in this moment. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. I promise you this. He was not weeping for Lazarus because he knew why he came there. You're not going to

weep over somebody you're going to come bring back to life. But the nature of your God is that he chooses to enter into your suffering. There is a reason for which he may not remove it from you, right now, but then he chooses to plant himself and position himself with you in it. The Latin word for compassion literally means to co-suffer. To suffer with you. He chooses to enter into your pain, and every tear you have ever cried, can I encourage you? You have never cried alone.

You have never cried alone because he has been with you the whole time. The whole time. Church, believe in him again. Risk your heart again. It's about three weeks in the hospital and there were some signs of improvement, but we still didn't fully know how this whole thing was going to play out. And there was this woman. elderly African-American lady that worked in the cafeteria that had taken to Seth.

And she came up to Cindy one day after we were picking up breakfast. And she said, could I come on my lunch break and pray over Seth? And we're like, absolutely. And so later that morning, she came into our room. Seth was at physical therapy. So it was just Cindy and I in there. And this woman began. preaching to us. And within about a minute, I mean, we are all just bawling. And she invited us to come

to church with her the next Sunday. And we told her we were a little preoccupied at our own church, but thank you. But this woman changed the atmosphere of that room and frankly the trajectory of our hope. She was preaching and we were crying and we were receiving. And then Seth walks in after physical therapy, a little freaked out by all the tears. And he lays in bed and she says, Seth, I'm going to pray over you. And she pulled out the oil. And she anointed him. And she began to pray heaven down over my son. And we were all just weeping. And in that moment, I know this is going to sound crazy, but in that moment we had forgotten but had remembered that God is still good all the time. That he is still a miracle worker.

that he is still the God that can look at hopelessness, but he sees the future hope in my hopelessness. And I'm telling you, I wish I could remember who she was or tell you her name. And let me just say this. Don't ever underestimate the promptings that God puts on your heart in a normal course of the day, because your obedience to that prompt could very well be a story that is. told in somebody's life for decades. And we will tell her story for decades. It matters. Your obedience matters. And from that moment on, the speed of healing got fast. And he started just crushing it in physical therapy and occupational therapy. And the pain

started going away and he was able to walk with a walker, which we didn't fully know what the strength was going to be like. And then you fast forward to today, he has been back at work as an electrician for three months now. We're only five and a half months later crushing it at the gym for the last three months. And for those of you that are at Live Church Edmund that watched him walk into the auditorium, you would have no idea he would. He broke his back five and a half months ago because he is a walking miracle. What God did before, he is fully able to do again. He is a miracle worker.

And that leads me to my final encouragement that we get out of this text. Nothing is over until Jesus says it's over. Something in your life could look utterly dead and impossible. Nothing is finished until Jesus says, it is finished. John 11, verse 38. You guys still with me? Jesus once more deeply moved,

came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Take away the stone, he said. But Lord, it's been four days. It's going to smell. We get so preoccupied in the natural, even when we're speaking to the, one who is the supernatural. It's going to smell, Lord. By this time there's going to be a bad odor,

for he has been in there for four days. This is significant. Because at this time in history, the Jews had this belief, not really sure where they got it, but they believed that someone's soul hovered over their body for three days after they died. Is it a coincidence that he came on day four? Sometimes he's going to wait until there's only one. explanation. Only one. And I'm speaking to somebody who's waiting right now. You're not waiting for nothing. I can't tell you what the outcome's going to be, but I can tell you he is present with you, and he has a purpose in it. Sometimes God will wait until the expiration of your expectation. Why? So he could manifest his glorification. The whole point, the whole point of this miracle,

was to magnify and display his glory so that people would believe in him. It's going to smell, Lord. Here's what Jesus says. Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? So they took the stone away. And Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you heard me. And I thank you that you always hear me. But I said this for the benefit of the Lord. the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me. And when he said this, Jesus called out in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. And the dead man came. His hands and his feet were wrapped in strips of linen and a cloth around his face. And Jesus said to them, take off the grave clothes and let him go. Sometimes he is going to wait until your expectation has expired. So he can display his glory so that

Others may believe. As a dad, I am, I still have trauma. Sini and I both do. Every time Seth calls me and his picture comes on the phone, chills go down my spine. When he's going out to eat with his buddies at night, I struggle with fear. I still do. But son, your story is just beginning. It's just just beginning. I believe the anointing of God comes with a prerequisite of pain. Because when you, when God trusts us with suffering, it empowers you to serve others who are also suffering because you know what it is. And I believe all of these challenges that you're still navigating are all a part of God's design to use you. to impact other people.

And I don't know that I've ever been more proud of a human being than to watch you in these last five months. There are some of you that are in this room, you're like, Chris, this is great. But I did pray, and the cancer didn't go away. I did pray, and I fasted. And the marriage still ended. And I see the tears in the room right now.

And all I can tell you is God is present in your temperament. but he's focused on the eternal. He puts himself in this momentary challenge, but he's thinking about heaven. And he's thinking about your eternity. Like what Mary and Martha didn't really understand yet is that this miracle wasn't about Lazarus. It was about you. Because this miracle created two paths. Jews were flocking to Jerusalem because they've heard of this miracle. And at the same time, the high priest Caiaphas, that was the last straw for him. Jesus has to die. And following this miracle in John chapter 12, Mary anoints the feet of Jesus, which is symbolic of his preparation for burial, followed by the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, followed by the rest in the Garden of

Gassimony, followed by the torture in the courtyard of the high priest, followed by the crucifixion of him dying to pay a debt that he did not owe, but you and I did, followed by him hanging on a cross, now finally saying these words, it is finished. I told you, nothing is over until Jesus says it's over, nothing is finished until Jesus says it is finished. And when he said this, once and for all, he was declaring the miracle has now occurred. And what is that? Death is no longer the end. Death no longer has a sting. Why? Because I am the resurrection and the life. And he who believes in me will live, even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. And then he asked us all the question, do you believe this? Father, we come to you, many with burdened

hearts, many with unanswered questions. But God, grateful for the power of your word to bring healing to our hearts. Just in a moment of prayer, how many of you would be honest and say, I think I've got a bit of a troubled soul? There's something that's happened in by past, and I'm not sure I've actually let go of that. Would you just boldly raise your hand and just be honest before our holy God hands everywhere? God, me too. We don't understand why you allow things to happen. We don't understand the purpose of the pain, but we believe again that you are good all the time. God, use the challenges, use the hurt to, God, build in each person struggling in this area with a depth of character and an intimacy that is unmistakable.

God heal our hearts and breathe life into our faith. As we continue to pray, I believe there's some of you listening to this message. And if Jesus is going to say anything to you, he would say what he said to Lazarus. Take the grave clothes off. Stop walking around like a dead man. You don't have to. resurrection is now a possibility. Heaven is now an option.

But we've got to understand the problem, and that is sin separates us from a holy God. The penalty of sin is death, eternal separation from God. But the promise of God is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. and that anyone who believes and puts their faith in the perfect work of Calvary's cross, their sins will be forgiven and they will be made new by the power of God because He loves you. But it is not enough just to know this in your head. You've got to believe it and ask him in your heart. At all of our locations, those of you watching on YouTube, church online,

if you're not sure where you stand with God, I want to challenge you. Call out on him. Repent of your sin. Ask him to forgive you and he will make you brand new. If that's you, you want to take that step today. I want you to boldly raise your hand right now and just say yes to Jesus. Just lift it up right where you are. Man, I got you. Praise God for you. Lift it up, will you? So proud of you. Wipe the tears away. Just keep it up for a minute. I just want to see you. God, I'm saying yes to you. Every voice in this place, pray out loud with those saying yes to Jesus. Father, I need you. I've sinned.

I'm asking you to save me. Jesus, I believe you died. On a cross you didn't deserve to pay for my sin. And you rose from the grave to bring me life. Fill me now with your Holy Spirit. That I could serve you always. In Jesus' name I pray. somebody go crazy and celebrate those saying yes to jesus