The Work In The Wait | Julia Veach

0:48 I'm excited to share with you today. if you are just visiting us, maybe you're new to Zoe, maybe you just started coming, we have a theme for each of our years. And the theme for our year this year that we launched in the fall, last fall, was watch God work. And I love a reminder, anyone like me, we need a couple alarms throughout the day because I get distracted. I chase butterflies in my brain sometimes. But I love that the Word of God is a reminder to all of us that God is still at work. Amen? Oh, you guys are fun today. i chad pastor chad i don't know how many people are planning to watch the game based on the response uh so go sports four of them all four of you uh but i love how paul describes this in philippians philippians 1 verse 6 it says being confident of this very thing that he who began a good work. Everyone say good. It's not just a work. It's a good work that he has planned for us.

2:14 We'll carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. I love this reminder that we serve a God who is always at work and that his commitment to us is that he's not the one that's just going to finish it. Thank you, Jesus. But that we get to place, how Paul says, we get to place our confidence, not in us, not in our podcasts, not in our pastor, but we get to put place our confidence and our hope in our trust in a good father who is doing a good work. I love that it says he's the one who carries it. He's the one who finishes it. But he also says, I love this phrase, he is the one who begun. He's the one that started. He's the creator. We have kids that is summertime. We're trying to avoid the screens as much as possible. And so they just move from screens to another sort of consumption, whether that's sugar, whether that's books. You may think that that's a good thing, but I'm trying to teach my kids that God created us to create, to do, to work, to produce.

3:44 And I love that he begun a good work, which means that he initiated. He started something with you in mind. So he didn't just start you, he's starting something through you. Your salvation, his idea. Your calling, his initiative. Your future, his plan. He started, he sustains, and he finishes the good work. Amen.

4:19 I want to look today that on a passage of scripture in John chapter 11, as we come to 11 verse 1, Jesus is about to do something remarkable. He's about to perform a miracle. He shows up to a funeral and he gets ready to disrupt a funeral. So let's look at the scene in verse one. It says, now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary, and her sister Martha. This Martha, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sister sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick. So we have a really, really sick man, and we have two desperate sisters who are in need of the Lord to do work. And I think that a lot of us are here, many of us walked in today, where we need God to show up in some way in our lives to do work. And whether in this story, you are sick like Lazarus. You are grieving or you are desperate. We are all in need of a Savior. And I love that reminder in Philippians that he's not just the one that starts it, but he's the one that finishes the work. Amen. If you're taking notes today, I want to talk for the next 30 minutes about the work in the weight. The work in the weight. Let's pray one more time together. Thank you, Lord, for your work that you've started in us, that you are the one that initiates, you are the one that began it. God, we just pray today that we would hear your word,

6:30 but we would receive your word and we would apply your word. Let it change us from the inside out in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I am a, let's, how do we put this? I'm a firstborn daughter. I am a firstborn granddaughter and I'm a boss. Let's just put it that way. And so So I grew up right and I'm still right. No, I'm kidding. God has put me through many processes to become more like him. But when I was younger and I still carry some of these characteristics today, I like to be somewhat in control of outcomes. Okay? So I think that there are two types of people. people that online shop and just trust that there's a delivery date and it's coming and then there's people that like put the 17 digit tracking code in and watch it in transit maybe you got lost at the 17 digit code but I did not we are copying and pasting that thing Can I get a witness for all my trackers in the building?

7:51 Okay. That was more than four people. Wow. We have more control freaks than we do soccer fans. Hallelujah. I love to watch where the package is at. I like when it is, I open up the sea tracking updates. I want to know which city it's currently in. and I love to see when it is out for delivery. We are close. Now, our middle son, he loves to read, and he asked me to get this book on Amazon Prime, and now, you know, trusty Amazon Prime, it now has this additional feature that when it's just a few stops away, you can see the truck image on the tracking. now we are speaking my language. So my son's like, where's the book? Where's the book? And I'm like, it's out for delivery. It's coming today. And he's like, okay, like what time? What, what hour? Like he is, I mean, you want a kid that loves to read this much, but like sometimes it is like, it's Tenacious. Relentless. Yeah. So he's like, okay, can we see the truck? So I go into the prime.

9:12 I see the truck. I'm like, guess what? He's only five stops away. Now, because I feel like I'm strong, but sometimes the kids wear you down just a little bit. He was applying so much pressure, and he's like, where is that? It still says five stops away. And he's like, mom, it's been two hours. And I'm like, I know he's only two blocks from us. Now I'm about to tell you something I'm not like super proud of. It's like, it's not exercising like fruits of the spirit, but I see that the truck has just been parked two streets away for quite some time. Now, listen, if you are in the service industry, you deserve your break. Like I, I have the microphone. This is going on YouTube, like call your mom while you're working. That's fine. We love work-life balance. But when you have a 10-year-old that like really needs something, sometimes I take matters into my own hands. So I decided to get in the car and drive two blocks over. And everything's better with a smile, you know? Like so I just did a drive-by, not like a full honk, just like a tap-tap, you know like roll down the window I mean no one does this anymore just you know and so I'm just like waving and I'm like hi I don't I don't even know if I said anything besides hi sorry hi with a lot of eyes but I I just feel like maybe that will like keep him moving you know I'm like you can do the lunch break like at my house like once the book's delivered I didn't say that but I know you're thinking I'm horrible we are all on a journey okay das But waiting can be frustrating, okay?

11:03 I think that sometimes we are like that when things are in process or in transit. Maybe it's something you've been believing for for years, something that you are in need of today. And you feel like, God, I am in the wait. and I just, I really don't know where you're at. And sometimes we get to this place where we're like this picture at the funeral where we have Mary is grieving, Martha is questioning, Lazarus is dead in the tomb, and God is about to do his greatest work. But all we see is that nothing is moving. Nothing is progressing.

12:01 But can I tell you today, God is still at work. He is on the move. And just because God's activity is not quite visible to us right here, it doesn't mean that he is actively doing something in us and through us. The first thing we see in verse 4 is that we see the waiting period. He addresses this right away. It says, when he heard this, actually, let's go back up to verse 3. It says, so the sister sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one who you love is sick. Jesus loved Lazarus. So when he heard this, Jesus responded and said, this sickness will not end in death. So he gave them a promise of the finished work and the outcome. No, it's for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it. So he's going to use this story for his glory. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. There's a lot of love. There is a big image within this context of relationship equity and connection. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stared where he was for two more days. What? Okay, this is frustrating me. And then he said to his disciples, let us go back to Judea. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, so he stayed. He loved them, so he stayed. Wait a minute. Because he loved them, he waited?

13:51 I mean, I've been married for almost 18 years, and if you love me, you move on my time. When I say, can you help me? I count to 60 seconds. If it's 61, I'm picking up that couch, and I am moving it by myself. I might get it wedged in that door that I am taking over, y'all. I know that he loves me and I know that he wants to help me, but sometimes if things aren't moving or progressing on our timeline, we are gonna just take charge. We are going to take action and we are gonna get going. And Jesus, in this beautiful picture, says, because I loved them, so I waited. What? so while Jesus waited Lazarus became weaker Martha was praying Mary is crying friends are gathering hope is disappearing so all they see from their perspective is that nothing is moving nothing is happening but heaven's silence doesn't necessarily mean that heaven is absent from what is transpiring in your life. And just because God was still, it didn't mean that he stopped working. And then Jesus, in a few verses later, he tells the disciples why. In verse 14, it says, so then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sake, I am glad I was not there. Okay, this is, this is hardcore, Jesus. So that you may, what? Believe. But let us go to him.

15:31 For your sake, I'm glad I was not there. So that you may believe. What was happening here was that he was trying to produce a deeper faith and a bigger depth of trust. And sometimes when our circumstances aren't changing, we forget to see that those circumstances might actually be changing us. That it might be producing in us, like Paul says, perseverance, strength. Applied pressure can feel horrible in the moment, but what it's producing in us is beautiful things within our maturity as Christ followers. And that wait rarely can feel peaceful. And waiting sometimes often leads to the next thing that we see is the wrestling.

16:28 The second thing we see in this passage is that wrestle. Verse 17, it says that on his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming he went out to meet him. She went out to meet him but Mary stayed at home. And I feel like the hardest part sometimes of our faith isn't always believing that God can. It's trusting that he's going to do it even when we can't see it. So we see that in this passage in verse 21. Lord, Martha said to Jesus, it says, if you had been there, my brother would not have died. Lord, if you had.

17:29 And you see this phrase, if, only. If you had shown up. If you had been here. If you would have accepted my share calendar request and known exactly what I needed on my Tuesday, Lord, that would have really helped me for the rest of my week. But I love that God is not intimidated by our questions or our wrestle or our doubt or our wonder. I love that he responds here. And in the same breath, Martha brought her disappointment to Jesus and he listens. Then Martha says something remarkable here. It says, but I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. If only, if only you'd have shown up.

18:36 But I know my confidence, my trust, my faith is that you hear from your Father and that you are the one who came to do and to work and to fulfill the life that runs through you. And I think that there's this wrestle, and I think that sometimes we think that the wrestling with God, it can be a sign of our faith failing. But it's often a sign that our faith is becoming more honest, more intimate, more mature. It's saying, God, because I'm walking through different seasons with you, and I have dialogue with you, I have communication with you, and time and time again, just like Martha says, but I still believe because she's seen.

19:31 Remember in the first part of the passage, we reference who Martha is, was from an earlier portion of scripture. She has presence, and she's got relationship in the Gospels. She's got relationship with Jesus and presence in the Gospels, and she has been known to know Jesus' hand at work. But I know. So he's like, I invite you to question. I invite you to talk. And then we come to his response. Verse 23, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha answered, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. So she is doubling down on her confidence and trust and her hope and her belief in him. So Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? Yes, Lord, she replied.

20:33 I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who is to come into the world. After she said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. The teacher is here, she said, and is asking for you. When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house comforting her now noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her. So we've got a lot going on. We've got grieving Mary and questioning Martha, and now we've got an audience of people too. And there's a lot of different feelings, responses. So when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Where have you laid him, he asked. Come and see, Lord, they replied. And then we get to the shortest scripture in the whole book of the Bible, Jesus wept. Okay, now we have seen Jesus say, no, I'm going to wait two more days. He answers Martha's question. He double downs that he's resurrection life. He prophesies not only the miracle he's about to do, but he talks about how he is going to give all glory to his father.

22:03 There is so much confidence in the outcome of this story. And still Jesus weeps. And still he knows the outcome. He's promised the outcome. He's talked about the finished work. He's doubled down on who he is in this story. And still he weeps. Not out of worry. not out of doubt, but because he's the God who cares. He steps in to the story and to the circumstance and into the grief and says, I am here and I love my brother Lazarus and I am going to grieve with those who are grieving and I'm going to share that moment. So then the Jews said, see how he loved him.

23:05 He's not afraid of your wrestling. He's not afraid of your dialogue. He wants to enter those spaces with you. This is profound because Jesus, he not only knew the ending and he not only walked into that place with compassion, he had enough compassion to feel what it was like to feel broken. And he doesn't just step outside of the story or the circumstance, but he steps into it. And the third thing we see in the next portion of the story is we begin to see the working. The working power, the working wonder, the God that works on our behalf, the God that does the impossible, the God that starts when we come to the end of us. Verse 38, it says, Jesus once more deeply moved, filled with compassion, came to the tomb.

24:15 It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Take away the stone, he said. But Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there's a bad odor, for he has been there for four days. Then Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? Verse 39, he shows up, doesn't say why he's late. I love a play-by-play. I love all the details. Tell me what the weather is, what you wore, what it smelled like. I want to know all the details. He didn't give any details. Chad would have been grateful for no details. He walked into the scene. He said, take away the tomb. I don't need to explain myself. Let's get to work. After all the if-onlys, he shows up and he says, take away that stone. When everyone begins to see while they were waiting, while they were wrestling, he had been working all along.

25:17 And then verse 40, it says this. It says, then Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? Look at that order. Believe first, see second. Whew, easier said than done. Believe first, see second. So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, Father, remember he's talked about this multiple times. He's going to give glory to the Father. Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.

26:01 God is never working on just the thing that we are worried about or praying about. There are so many complexities about the stories. there's there's unbelief and there's wrestle and he's working on the people involved around in the story and there's there's this there's this picture of his glory and that the story is so much bigger than that we can't even comprehend or see and I think sometimes in our life all we can see is the miracle at hand. But remember, there's audiences. There's characters in our lives. There's the people around us. There's the family members. There's the story that is impacting. Our miracle is meant for his glory, that it may shine in us and through us, that we might be able to say, God, you showed up, not that I could have, but that you could receive all the honor and the glory. Amen.

27:16 Worship team, you can come join me. I love that God's work is often broader and deeper and more purposeful than we ever even realize in the moment. And just because we can't always see it doesn't mean that he's not moving. And sometimes like the picture or the image of a grave or the tomb, that it's hidden within. Maybe he's buried something or he's sown something deep inside of you that might feel hidden today. that his resurrection life could breathe something within you that might be produced for his glory and his will. The fourth thing we see at the conclusion of this story is that we don't end just with the resurrection life. We don't end just with the miracle.

28:29 He says in verse 43, he says, When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The dead man came out, his hands and his feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, take off those grave clothes and let him go. Jesus gave life. But Lazarus, he still had to walk out of that tomb.

29:13 Faith isn't just receiving from God. It's responding to what he's done. And the miracle is so important in this story, but so is the go. So is the response. In our waiting, in our wrestling, in the thing that God's working within us, at the end of this story, he says, all right, now you've given glory to me. Now you've seen my glory at hand. Now it's time to go. Now it's time to walk.

29:57 Jesus didn't just say, Lazarus, live. He said, Lazarus, come on out. It's time to leave those wrapped things behind you. Get those grave clothes off. it's time to go it's time to leave those things in the dead place behind you it's time to walk again it's time to leave that tomb behind you it's time to leave that old life back where it belongs. It's about living like someone Jesus has made alive. the miracle it brought Lazarus to life but his walk revealed Jesus's life to everyone else that was around him I wonder how many of us can think back and saying, yes, God, I've watched you work.

31:11 I've been in waiting seasons. I've been in wrestling seasons. I've been in where I've seen your provision. I've seen your working hand. I've seen your faithfulness. I've been in worshiping seasons where I've given honor and glory, and I've thanked you for the work that you did. But then it stopped there. and I didn't carry the miracle to everyone else that I was supposed to. There's a walking here. And then finally, at the end of the chapter, is a whole different story.

31:48 So I love that chapter 11 is primarily made up of the Lazarus story. and Martha's a main character and Mary's the main character and the crowd's a main character and the disciples are a main character. And then we get to the end and he performs the miracle and he says, go and walk. And then verse 45 through 57, we begin to see the plot to kill Jesus. We're like, wait a minute, We're just celebrating this beautiful miracle. And then all of a sudden at the end of the chapter of John, the author starts showing us that there is a preparation and a willingness about to transpire within Jesus to walk out the call that he is about to walk in.

32:50 to perform the greatest resurrection story we have ever heard. so this passage it says in verse 30 or 45 says therefore many of the jews who had come to visit mary and had seen what jesus did believed in him but some of them went to the pharisees and told them what jesus had done and jesus then he willingly gives himself so the miracle could become more than one man's resurrection. So he didn't even start walking. He started to wrestle with the willingness that he needed to walk in to become the accelerated portion of this story that would lead Jesus to the cross. In this passage, it shows this irony where Jesus gave life to Lazarus, and the religious leaders responded by planning Jesus's death. And the miracle that demonstrated Jesus's power over death became the catalyst for the events that would lead to his crucifixion. And in God's sovereign plan here, Lazarus walked out of the tomb so that Jesus would what? Walk toward the cross. And we never know that if we just stopped with the working and didn't keep going with the walking or the willing, what thing we are supposed to accomplish that could impact others. Would you stand to your feet today?

34:40 I think that there are a lot of us here today that would identify with waiting seasons, with wrestling seasons. I love that quote, don't wait, don't waste the wait, that there's nothing wasted in the waiting season, that God's at work in the waiting season.