Even If It Took Forever | Would You Believe? | Pastor Cal Jernigan

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Transcript

 Well, good morning to each and every one of you and welcome and, uh, welcome to those of you who are on any of our other sites or watching this on the internet. It is great to have you with us this morning. And I wanna begin by just simply saying that, uh, I love this church and, uh, one of the things that I, I love about this church is, you know, Jesus said a new commandment I give you that you love one.

And, uh, if there was one charge that all of us would be like, we were supposed to get loud and clear, is that loving others is a non-negotiable. Now, unfortunately, in the world of the church, uh, the church is not always known for being loving. So at this church, one of the things that we've done is we've just determined, uh, that we're gonna love the beyond.

And when we say love beyond. The beyond means a whole lot beyond people's expectation. Beyond reason, beyond logic. We're gonna love people that other people would go, that's ridiculous. And one of the current applications of us as a church on this whole thing, trying to do this the way we think Jesus wants it done is what we're doing right now with fill the sleigh.

Uh, it makes no logical sense for me to stand in front of you and plead with you to give gifts to kids that are not your kids. It's illogical, it's extreme. Who would do that? But that's what makes our church, our church. And uh, the reason I'm mentioning all this is this is the last weekend before we distribute these gifts.

And if you haven't had a chance, I just wanna plead with you before I get to going on the message. Uh, we have until tomorrow to take care of this. And so I just believe now how it works is we partner with local schools to determine who are the needy among. It's not an in church project, it's an out of church project.

And so we just ask who needs help. And then Il logically we go, we got 'em, we got 'em covered. And uh, the, the parents become the heroes. Not the church, not you, not me, but we get to make a difference. So it's illogical. And I plead with you, be I logical for Jesus, love beyond. And so, uh, if, if you go, I don't have time to go shopping, uh, you can.

You can give a financial gift and you can just designate it, fill the sleigh, and then we have people who will shop for you to get those gifts and get 'em delivered. But all that's to say we're at the deadline. And I, I want to really, really, really plead with you and encourage you, let's make a difference.

And again, I mean this to all campuses everywhere, okay? And even if you're online help with this project, it makes a difference. It's what the church ought to be doing. So enough said about that. So I loved waking up this morning. I loved yesterday. Uh, but I loved waking up this morning to the rain and I loved it.

Driving to church today, knowing that today we begin our Christmas series and I mean, I'm like, literally I'm praising God going, thank you God. Cuz this feels to me like Christmas. This feels exactly like it ought of feel. And. We do begin today and, uh, I, I'm always excited to begin a new series cuz I get, I just work on it ahead of time and I get anxious and so I can't wait to get going.

I wanna begin our Christmas series. So I want to ask you, I'm gonna do this very quickly. I'm just gonna ask you some awkward questions. They're gonna be kind of weird, not, don't need to answer out loud. You don't need to tell your significant other, your wife, your spouse, whoever. Um, but just answer the question to yourself.

So four questions are gonna come quick. Uh, here they are. Number one, how, how much do you.  personally and genuinely believe in God. It, it's an awkward question. It's really easy to say a whole lot or you know, and it would, from a scale from number one, I don't all the way to 10, I'm all in. Just evaluate yourself.

Where are you? And it doesn't matter if you're a one and you're here, you're here. That's awesome. We're not here to condemn you in any way, but where everybody falls somewhere in that spectrum, Where do you fall? All right. And just hold that in your head. Um, second question, do the day to day decisions that you make validate that claim you just made.

In other words, would somebody connect your answer to the first question with the decisions they see you make on a daily basis? Which takes us to the third question, which is, in essence the same one. Would the people who know you best agree with how you answered on yourself if the people who knew you best.

They go, yeah, that was fair. You, you said you're at eight on the Belief Scale. Scale. And I see your decisions on a day to day. Your faith makes a lot of difference to you. And yeah, I see a consistency. Or would they say, you know, they would say they're an eight, their day to day decisions are a two. That's what we're looking at.

Right. And then the fourth question, and this is where it's gonna seem odd, but I'm gonna ask this question. In what ways, if. , does the biblical account of the Christmas story affect your faith? So when you hear what happened in the Bible about the birth of Jesus, does that do anything to build your faith or does that do anything to destroy your faith?

Does it make any difference? You go, I could do without it. Or does you go or, or do you go? That story makes a huge difference because if God did that and you know, and you, we'd go from there, so, The series that we're starting today for Christmas, we're calling it, would You Believe? Would You Believe? And and it, and, and really, I, I'm just in the weeks to come.

I just want to challenge your belief in God, and I want to interpret it through the Christmas story and all the incredible, uh, parts of the Christmas story. What, what I have personally found from my own experience is the Christmas story for many people is kind of a make it or break. In other words, if you, if you have faith and then you hit the Christmas story, it's either going to embolden your faith or it's gonna just undermine it.

And let me explain why. Because there's elements in the Christmas story that you don't get anywhere else. There's elements in the Christmas story that quite frankly, are a bit unbelievable. Now, let me preface what I'm about to say by saying I fully believe them. I'm bought in. I am. But I understand that these elements are a little bit unbelievable and we can't, I mean, come on.

You can't get around. This first and foremost to the unbelievable part of the Christmas story is the whole premise that God, the creator of the universe, would actually lower himself to become one of us, a human being that God would call it the incarnation, that God would take on flesh and bones like you and me.

Why would he do that? So that's incredible. Uh, pushes the limit of credibility. The second incredible thing about the story of the birth of Jesus is that he, if God was gonna become one of us, why would he become one of us? Like one of us became one of us, like a baby. Like if I were God, I skipped the whole baby stage.

Skip the diaper rash, skip all of that, you know, just skip all, like come older and like develop. , but he didn't do that. That's incredible that he didn't do that. That's hard to believe. But the most incredible part of the story is not that God became a person, not that he became one of us, like one of us.

It's that he was born of a virgin. Now, let me repeat what I've already said. I believe he was born of a virgin. I'm not up here going, I think yeah, we were sold that one. I fully believe it was born of a ver. It doesn't blow my faith. To think about Jesus. Boy, I, God's supposed to do stuff like that. If God doesn't do stuff like that, why would I believe in God?

I expect God to do stuff that I can't do or that doesn't make sense. I, as a part of the story of my faith in God, if I could explain everything God did in explainable terms with no supernatural needed, I don't need God. So none of this blows my faith. It doesn't blow my mind, but I'm, I'm asking. Could, uh, what does it do to you?

And so lemme say it this way, let me say it this way. Did God put these unbelievable elements into the story to cause you to not believe in him? So, so God literally did this stuff, so ultimately you would go, yeah, I don't believe in them because of that. Or did God put these elements in there so that you would be forced?

To think about how much do you really believe in God? Bingo. That's what I think he did. I, I think he put these elements in there. So you would go, wow. If he could do that. If he could do that. I don't think he did that. So that you would go, I don't think God could do stuff like that. I think he did it so that you would go, if he could do that, what else could he do?

I wanna just jump in. I wanna extract. One of the verses and the Christmas story. And by the way, uh, the Christmas story, if you wanna know where this is in the Bible, take the gospel of Matthew. First couple of chapters. Take the first couple of chapters of the book of Luke and read those. And you're gonna hear two of the four biographers of Jesus.

So, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John are the four biographers of Jesus. They'll tell the story of the life of Jesus, but Matthew and Luke are the ones that give us the detail. Of the birth. But in Luke chapter one, verse 37, Mary as pro as she's processing all that God is saying is gonna happen, she this line comes out for, with God, nothing shall be impossible.

And, and that's an important element to the, would you believe the Christmas story? If God is, God should what we call possible. Be the limit to what God could do or should God be able to do? The impossible, the, the, it's impossible. And so in the story of the birth of Jesus with God, all things are possible.

You kind of have to give that as a given. Jesus, as he grew up, he made this statement in Luke 18, what is impossible with man is possible with God. But see, would you believe? Because if you don't think things, Not possible with men, and I gotta follow me. Here you go. That's just not possible. If a man can't do it, if men kind, if humanity can't do it, does that mean God can't do it?

Is the limit of the possible limited to man or is the impossible credited to. These are why this story means so much. So in this series, we're gonna take tackle for the next five weeks. Starting today, we're gonna just talk about the objections that people have to the story. In other words, the things that cause people to go, you know, it makes me not believe in God, and we're gonna look at 'em and, and again, I, I think it's gonna be a thrilling ride.

So today what I want to talk about as I wanna talk about the. That the story of the birth of Jesus. If you understand the story, the the objection is, would you believe in God? Even if it looks like it took forever to actually come about, even if it took forever, would you still be able to believe in God?

Or if God doesn't do it fast and quick, does that suspend all your belief? Uh, because what I wanna show you is that this story of the birth of Jesus is a slow burn. It is not a quick fire. And the problem is, is that especially this time of year, we get going so fast. We're so busy and we expect God to move in our pace.

And I'm just here to tell you, even if it took forever, could you still believe or would it be if it doesn't happen as fast as I. Could God move slower than you move on purpose? And could you be moving too fast to your own detriment? These are questions I wanna wrestle with. So we're gonna talk today about God's timing and the question we wanna answer is this question, why does God seem to move so slowly?

Cuz I'm just telling you, it seems like he moves really, really slow. Now, let me just dive in here. If I say, Hey, wait up, or hey, hurry up and wait. You know exactly what I'm saying when I say those terms. Waiting is a huge part of our lives, and let me be the first to tell you. I hate waiting and I know I'm not alone.

I'm not abnormal, I'm not weird. I don't like waiting. Waiting is not one of my more pleasant pastimes. The, the recent, uh, my screw up with my leg, my ankle has just made this vivid to me. Uh, I hurt myself with my leg. I hurt myself about the middle of September. It took me about two weeks. It took me a week to convince myself I actually have to go to a doctor, cuz I'm like that.

And then it took me another week to get in. I had to wait another week before I could actually go see a doctor about this.  and I, I was under the impression when I first mentioned that I hurt my leg, cuz I showed up here one day with a boot and I said, I'm gonna say it one time. I'm gonna explain this one time.

And, but when I said that day, what I said that day, I thought I was gonna have surgery on my foot the next week. That when I said that, that's what I thought. I, I said, how often do you do surgery? He said, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I'm going, I'll pick. I had no idea I hurt myself. September 15th, I had surgery.

The soonest I could have, it was November 14th that, that's like six weeks after I went to the doctor. I was wearing this boot that he put me in, waiting for an opening to have this surgery. Now, part of that was on me and my schedule. I'll own that, but. I the thought about next Friday, having it done. When I first said that, that was crazy.

I just didn't know it. I had a long wait, so two weeks ago, almost three weeks ago now, it would be three weeks tomorrow I had surgery on my foot. Finally, I had to reat. They had to reattach a tendon that I had severed, and then he said this to me. He said, Cal, you're gonna have to be off your feet totally for two weeks.

There's no way. There's not a chance. I'm off my feet for two.  and he said, you're not gonna heal. So I endured two weeks off my feet as best as I was able. Okay. Then I went back to the doctor earlier this week would be last week. Now I got my stitches out and I We good. We done. Oh no, you got about six weeks of rehabilitation now to go through and you're back in your boot.

I kinda just tell you, this is killing. So I'm telling you this to say, I, I'm not a model patient of waiting. All right. I don't like to wait. And, and again, I'm not normal. We, we, we don't like waiting. If you think you like waiting gas lines at Sam's Club and Costco. , do you go? Oh, I, oh, I'm so sorry. I gotta pull up to the pump.

I just wanted to sit here longer. Oh no, please. You go behind me. Go. Of course you don't do, you don't do that in a grocery store. Think Walmart. Think the lines you got, how many people are in front of me? This is the story of us. We don't like waiting. I don't like waiting to catch a flight and everybody knows that little, you know, Hubba at the gate.

I don't like that, that I don't like waiting, frankly, I don't like waiting in doctor's offices. It's not that I don't need to catch up with the 1993 Readers Digest stories, but I hate the pro and I'm like you said, eight 30. , am I alone? It's 9 45 and I'm still sitting here. I don't like any of this. I, uh, I've been able to think about this enough to connect emotions.

We connect emotions to having to wait, and they're extreme. They're all over one. Obviously it would be agitation. You can get agitated when you have to wait, but you can also become fearful when you're having to. You're waiting from the news from the doctor about the test you took. The waiting creates the fear, the emotion.

Fear goes with the waiting. All right? Anxiety is an emotion we can feel boredom. Two weeks off my feet, I built three puzzles. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I built a puzzle? I'm just bored outta my mind. Boredom. Um, helplessness. Discouragement. So here's the deal. We don't like waiting. I don't like waiting.

You know what? All of us like, least of all, don't miss us waiting on God. Worst of all, waiting on God because we just, this is not even necessary. God, you could just do this. Let me give you some examples, okay? I don't know where you are in this. If you're single and you've been praying that God would bring somebody into your life,  in a relationship.

I so badly want to be in a relationship and it's just not happening. Waiting on God. God, you could do this. Why don't you just do this? If you're a couple that's trying to have a child, you're trying so hard to conceive cuz you want so badly to be mom and dad and it's just not happening. Uh, you, you are suffering with some health issue.

Again, you waited for the diag, you know the diagnosis to come back and they told you, and uh, you're pleading with God, please take this away. Take this away. And you're just waiting cuz there's no news that's gone. It's just seems to be there. If you are a person who desperately wants to have a meaningful job and you feel like you're stuck in a dead in career and you've been praying.

Please open some door somewhere for me to be doing something else. If you're a person and you feel trapped in a hurting, harmful marriage and you have been praying desperately to God, fix this, please God fix this. It just doesn't seem to what? What is so painful about waiting? Let's be clear. What's so painful about waving is waving makes it crystal clear that you are not in.

That's the problem. Waiting causes the illusion of control to dissipate. It just goes away. There's no way, uh, you're not calling the shots and you're made to realize how powerless you actually are. We hate waiting because I don't want to be reminded of my limitations. Lewis SME said this, listen carefully.

He said, waiting is our destiny as creatures who cannot by themselves bring about what they hope. We wait in the darkness for a flame we cannot light. We, we wait in fear for a happy ending. We cannot write. We wait for a not yet. That feels like a not ever waiting any way. You cut it. All right. Any way you wanna look at God, I need to tell you something.

God moves slowly. This is a collision course with reality. Cuz I don't wanna move slowly, I don't want things to go slow. I want them to go fast. And God goes, I don't do fast, I do slow. I wanna just walk you through something because we're celebrating the birth of Jesus. But you know, if you just get to the birth of Jesus, you miss what actually happened.

So can I just give you some backstory which will make what happened to Jesus in the weeks to.  make more sense. Do you see the story of the birth of Jesus begins about 4,000 years ago? You don't know that maybe, but it does. It begins with a guy named Abraham. A Abraham is a guy that God calls to leave his country to go to a place to listen carefully.

That I, I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you a land, and you're gonna be, you're gonna be the pat, you're gonna be the father, the patriarch. And he, he has no kids. But God says to him, okay, listen. He says, I want you to look up in the sky and I want you to count the stars. If you could count the stars, that's how many descendants you're gonna have.

Not understand. He has no kids, but you're gonna have his, you're gonna have more descendants than there are stars in the sky. And then he says, count the sands on the, and if you could count them, you will have more descendants than there are sands on the seashore. So I like, oh wow, I'm in man. Let's go.

Let's go make this happen. And so he obeys God and he gets, he signs up. Now I wanna show you something that God said to him and I, you gotta see this, okay? Genesis 12 is gonna come up on the screen. He said, I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name. And, and, and you will be a blessing.

And I will bless those who bless you. And whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you, all peoples on earth. You know what he was telling him? Abraham didn't understand this. He's saying that the, the, the Messiah that will be the hope of all people for salvation is gonna.

Through your Obeying Me and going where I'm telling you to go and doing what I'm telling you to do, he's promised that his seat is ultimately gonna be the seat of the Messiah. Okay? Wow. How long's that gonna take? Well, it's gonna take a while for all the sand on the shore and the sars and the is gonna take a while now, here, here again, let me make this really practical.

God told him this. Now listen. Listen, this is good. He told him this when he was 75 years old. Now I look, I don't, I don't, I'm getting up in yours, but, so I'm in that, but I just gotta tell you, when you're 75 and you have no kids, you gotta get going. Like the clock is ticking, right? So God says at 74, at 75, you're.

You're gonna be this incredible patriarch of all of these kids, and he's like, okay, let's go thou. And God goes, no, wait. He became a father when he was 99, 24 years of real time waiting. 24 years. Come on God. How many of you have waited to conceive a child? Perfectly normal age to do that. Every year that passed, he'd be going, God, what are you doing to me?

It seems more and more impossible. Well, guess what? It worked itself out. So he has kids and we know those as the patriarchs. We know that one of them, uh, uh, Jacob had these sons and 12 of them, and if you know the story about Joseph being sold into slavery, Long story short, they all end up, the whole family ends up in Egypt and it's awesome until it's not awesome, and then it's horrible and they plead with God, get us outta here.

And hundreds of years later, God sends Moses hundreds of years later. And so Moses comes down and, okay, and then Moses leads them across the Red Sea. You know the story, the parting of the red.  and we're gonna go to the promised Land. Here's what I need you to understand. To walk from the Red Sea to the promised Land, depending on pace, 11, 12, 13, 14 days, depending on pace.

How long did it take 'em? 40 years. Come on. No, it's 40 years because God's working on them in the wilderness as they're going around in circles. Once they, they get into the promised land, they have to wait about 400.  for a guy named David to become King. David is this incredible king and uh, at the end of David's life, God says this to him.

This is Second Samuel seven. When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he will be.

He'll be my son. Now listen, he's talking about Solomon, but more than that he's talking about the lineage of David, of which is part of the lineage of Abraham, cuz David is in Abraham's lineage. He's talking about the Messiah, he's talking about Jesus, who is going to save people forever. He'll be my son.

Now for the next 400 years after David, if you know history, all this, all his incident was screw things up. They screwed it up. They split the kingdom into a northern kingdom, a southern kingdom. They had all kinds of problems, all kinds of chaos happens and, uh, all along Gods drop clue 700 years before Jesus, David was about a thousand years before Jesus'.

Give you a little timeline here. Isaiah said these words. You've heard these words. This is what God said to Isaiah the prophet. Tell the people this for unto us, a child is, To us, a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor. Mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace, of the greatness of his government and peace.

There will be no end. He will reign on David's throne. Hmm. That's the prophecy and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness. From that time on and forever, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. That's about Jesus. That's 700 years out. And the people are going.

He's coming. He's coming now. Keep going. Micah, uh, prophet Micah, but you, Bethlehem Apa, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me. One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins or from old, from ancient times. The Messiah is gonna come from Bethlehem. That was hundreds of years out.

But what happened is David's ancestors, After they heard that ended up disobeying God, they were captured and held off in captivity, the searing captivity, and then the Babylonian captivity. How, how long were they in Babylon? Please God. We learned our lesson. Let us go home. Okay, soon. How soon? 70 years.

They were held in captivity. 70 years. Now when you get to the, the story of Jesus and the birth of the Bible, can I show you a verse? I just fly. Can I show you something that God wants you to see it? It's Matthew chapter one. It's gonna come up. It's verse 17. Listen. Listen. I started this story with Abraham.

I ended with Jesus. Listen, there were 14 generations in all, from Abraham to David. 14 from David to the exile, to Babylon the captivity, and 14 from the exile to the Messiah. That's why the genealogy begins the story of Jesus. You gotta understand, this story is a long building story. 14 generations. 14 generations, 14 generations.

So you hear all that. You can only reach two conclusions. There's only two that you can reach. Number one, God is not in a hurry. He's just not in a hurry. Why are you not God? He's not in a hurry and number. , you cannot avoid this conclusion. Time means something different to God than it means to us. God is not in a hurry cuz God doesn't need to be in a hurry.

God's not in a hurry because he's not serving time. Time is serving him. Let that soak in. He's not answering the time. Come on, get it done. Like time is his boss, his authority? No. No. He's the authority of time. He'll work time as he wants to work. We've been told this before and our last series on James, I reminded you of this second Peter three, eight says, but do not forget this one thing, dear friends with the Lord.

A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years or like a day Now look, look, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. I'd be one who'd challenge that cuz you seem so slow. He goes, oh, he's not. They seem slow. No, he's perfectly on time. He's totally in charge of time.

Time works for him. He doesn't work for time. Time serves God. God doesn't serve time. Now, with all of this, said, I gotta show you something and we'll close. Take your Bible, open your Bible to Luke chapter two. I wanna show you something that I think is so cool. Now, again, we're not going down all this today, so don't worry.

I wanna show you just two passages there in Luke chapter two. So I was gonna tell you at the very beginning to open your Bibles to Luke chapter two, but I knew I wouldn't get there until the very end and you'd be going, how long's he gonna go? Which I didn't do that to you. So I'm gonna close them in Luke chapter two.

So in Luke chapter two. , uh, there's a couple of passages I just wanna show you. Now, before I read that, I wanna show you something from the Book of Galatians. You don't need to look this up. I'll put this up on the screen. Can I show you something interesting about the birth of Jesus? Let me show you Galatians four, four.

Catch this line. But when the set time had fully come, when the set time had fully come, God's and his son, born of a woman born under. God goes now. Now it's ready. Now this, it's all set. 14 generations. 14 generations. But now the time, the set time, the time before time when got planned, all this, when the right time came, Jesus came.

Now you might look at it and go, well, Jim, why'd you come then why? Why then? Why there? Why not here? Why not now? No, it's not set time. The plan of God was there. So let me just show you digging. We'll do this very quickly. Let me show you just a couple passages that I think are fascinating in the story of the birth of Jesus.

Okay. Two, I wanna show you look at verses four to seven in Luke chapter two. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth and Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and the line of David. Wait, what? Yeah. Remember that in the lineage of David in the lineage of.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth and Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem, which is where the prophet Micah said, turn your eyes to Bethlehem, that town of David, because he belonged to the house in the line of David. And we went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child while they were there.

The time came. The time came for the baby to be born. The set time had fully come. It's time, and it's not gonna happen up in Nazareth. It's gonna happen here in Bethlehem because I'm calling a census through the governor of literally of the Roman world. We're gonna get you to Bethlehem. You're gonna need to be there.

The time came for the baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in clouds and placed him in a manger. Because there was no guest room available for them. You know that story. Now, I'll show you something else in Luke chapter two. Go farther down. Go down to verse 22. I wanna show you something cool in chapter 22.

This after Jesus is Born, they're in, they're in Bethlehem, Jerusalem. They're in the, they have not gone to Egypt. That's what you, it's right after he's born. Right after Jesus is born. Now, there was a man in Jerusalem called Chien, who was righteous and ofout. He was waiting, waiting. For the consolation of Israel, what's the consolation of Israel?

The hope of Israel. God's answer for the problem of Israel. God's future revelation. He's, he's an old man. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he saw the Lord's Messiah moved by the Spirit.

He went into the temple courts. God goes go there when the parents. Mary and Joseph brought the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required. Simian took him in his arms just as Jesus and praised God saying, watch this. Watch this. Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all the nations, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people. Israel. Abraham was promised this all those thousands, many years ago, and here he is, I'm holding. The child's father and mother marveled what was said about him.

Then Simian blessed them and said to marry his mother, this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and, and, and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many harsh will be revealed and a sword will pierce your own soul. He says that to Mary. You know, he saw, he saw the crucifixion of this little.

Mary, get ready. Incredible. So here, here's the big idea of this message right here it comes. God uses waiting to develop and define our character.

You, you wouldn't be who God wants you to be. If you got everything you want, right when you want it, God, no, no, no. God goes. There's a lot of development that takes place in waiting and it will make you. I, so I think you could say this statement, if you can't wait on God, your faith will be destroyed. If you can wait on God, your faith will be developed, developed or destroyed.

Wait. Will be the defining difference.

We would argue waving seems like painful, like it's suffering. We're suffer when we wait. You know? They expected Jesus right then and there when he became a man to become the Messiah and overthrow Rome. They wanted to make him king, and he said no. They wanted to make him ruler. And he said, no, they crucified him.

Before they crucified him. He said, now listen, I'm gonna go back to the father, but I will. I think when soon. Soon, I will return. Folks, our problem, it's been 2000 years. Here we go. We've been waiting for 2000 years. Waiting will destroy your faith or it will develop your faith. Jesus is coming back. Could God be doing something in us in the waiting?

John Ortberg said it this way, biblically waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be. God's in charge. He's developing us, so God uses waiting to develop and define our character. Now I'm gonna close this message with one last story.

This comes from the writings of a guy named Henry. And a profound writer, profound man since died, went to be with Jesus. But in one of his writings, he tells the story of something I just wanna close this message with, cuz I think it's fascinating. It's a story of a group of Trape artists. They're known as the flying rods.

Alright, you can look them up. The flying Rus. And, uh, he tells of a conversation he had. F people in the circus that were in the trapes, they're trape artists. They're flying rids, you've seen. And um, they, they were explaining to him, this is fascinating. He says, we gotta explain something because he's going, how do you know when to let go and how do you know they're gonna, and how do you, and how do you have the faith?

And they said, well, there's a very, very special relationship that exists between the person who's known as the flyer and the person who is known as the catch. Now the flyer is the guy that's on the thing swinging back and forth, and he has to have the sense of timing and, and trust to let go of the bar because he's literally gonna arch his back and he is gonna go sailing through the air.

And, and then there's gonna be this guy over here called the catcher who's hanging from his knees. You can picture this, he's hanging from his knees, going back and forth. And then they said to Henry, now, and they said this sentence, uh, and by the way, before they, he. It, the flyer has to remain as still as possible.

Once he, lets go of the bar he's holding onto. Okay, and then they said this, the flyer must never try to catch the catcher. The flyer must wait in absolute trust, the catcher will catch him, but he must wait until he does.

So, God, I gotta let go and just be patient and trust that you'll get me in the end. Yeah, you're the flyer. I'm the catcher.

That's gonna involve some timing. That's gonna involve some trusting, God goes, yeah, this is going to develop your faith, or it's gonna destroy your faith. God goes, trust me. I got you. So whatever you're waiting on for God, relax. God's got you. Let me pray. Okay, God, thanks for the story. Thanks for the developing of the history, guys.

You're so particular and you're so meticulous in detail. It's incredible the perfection of. I read this and I just marvel, and then I look at how impatient I can become. Just driving down the street, I can become so impatient and such a hurry. Yeah, you never are cuz you don't ever need to be. Cuz nothing's ever outta control with you.

You got it. You've always had it. So God, give us the peace that you have in our hearts and I pray for us as we develop our faith through this Christmas season. In Jesus name, amen. Thank you all for being here.