Were talking about patience this morning. Have you run out of that lately? Nobody? A couple of you? Well, Ill just preach to the Roberts then this morning. Learning to wait. He talks in the book about the fourth watch. Jesus walks to the disciples. Its the fourth watch between 3 oclock and 6 oclock in the morning. The storm is still going on. Why did Jesus wait so long? Why not come earlier? Why not calm the storm first before Peter walks on the water? Why not calm the storm before you get to the disciples? Why did He have the storm last? Why did He wait until that late in the night to come, the fourth watch? Because God is obviously trying to teach them something. Hes trying to teach them to learn to wait. We have fourth watch experiences. The Bible is full of fourth watch experiences. Theres Daniel in the lions den. Youd think God would deliver him before he gets in the lions den, right, if youre Daniel? But, God waits until he gets in the lions den. If youre Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, you hope God will deliver you before you get into the fiery furnace, but God waits until theyre in the fiery furnace. If youre Moses, youre hoping that God parts the Sea before the Egyptians get to you, but God waits until the last minute when the Egyptians are right there and the Sea is right on the other side before He parts the water. How many of you have had fourth watch experiences where it seems like God waits until the last possible minute and sometimes even beyond that? Let me see your hands. All right, so Im talking to the right group here. Were going to look at a fourth watch situation here in John 11, if you would turn there. We talk about patience; the truth of the matter is sometimes we are impatient with God. Sometimes before we can gather all the facts, we make assumptions about Gods character. We make assumptions about Gods nature. If God is allowing me to go through this, He couldnt be good. If God is not going to answer my prayers, maybe He doesnt hear, or maybe He doesnt care, or maybe He is not powerful enough to intervene in this situation. Therefore, we make judgment calls. We become impatient with God. We disagree with the way He has worked or what He has done. Anybody here ever made a judgment without getting all the facts? All of us have, right? Its easy to do. Its called an assumption. I wont go there, to the definition of that, but… I definitely demonstrated that a couple of weeks ago when I was driving home. My oldest daughter drives a forest green Dodge Neon. So I saw a forest green Dodge Neon. I dont get close enough to see my daughter, but I know its her, so I start waving at the Dodge Neon going, Hi Honey! Hi Honey! Boy, the look on his face when I got close enough to see him. That was a little embarrassing. I was like, Oh, sorry. He was happy to see me, kind of thing. I heard one even worse than that. A gentleman was woken up at 3 oclock in the morning from a sound sleep. He wakes up; the doorbell is ringing. Its 3 oclock in the morning, and hes saying, This better be important. He goes down the stairs, opens the door, and heres this intoxicated man on his front step. The man says, Yes? The man on the front step replies, Can you give me a pussshh? He says, No, I cant give you a push. Its 3 oclock in the morning. I have to get up early. Besides that, its raining outside. Youre on your own. He closes the door. He goes upstairs. He feels a little bit bad, but come on; he has to take care of himself. He gets into bed, and his wife says, Who was that, honey? Some drunken guy. Well, what did he want? He wanted a push. Did you give him a push? Well, no. Its 3 oclock in the morning. Its raining, and I have to get up early. Silence. Well, you remember, two months ago, we were stranded, and those strangers helped us out by pushing our car off the side of the road. Dont you think you should return the favor? OKAY! he said. He gets out of bed, puts on his shoes and his coat. He goes outside in the dark and the rain and says, Hello, are you still out here? Yes! says the drunk man. Do you still need a push? Yes! said the drunk man. Where are you? he asked. Im over here on your porch swing. Youve got to get the facts, right? If you dont get the facts, youre in trouble. Sometimes we can make judgments without getting all the facts. Were going to find in this story an angry Mary and Martha. Why are they angry? Because Jesus didnt act in a timely manner, and Jesus didnt act in the way that they thought He should. Lazarus, His friend, is sick, and they send an urgent message in Verse 3 of John 11 (page 1063 of pew Bibles), So the sisters sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick. The messenger brought this with a sense of urgency. He said, Master, You need to come, Lazarus is very sick. This word means badly sick. Hes not saying, Hey, just wanted to let you know Lazarus has a tummy ache. This is the kind of word that says if you want to see this person again, you better come now. Theyre very sick. These are the kind of words that mean, Hey, if you want to see this person that you love, you better get here right away because they might not last much longer. That kind of urgency, only in this case, its You better come right now because Youre our only hope. Thats what theyre saying to Jesus. We need You because if You would come, You could heal Lazarus, and Youre his only chance, so You need to come right away. Now, one thing the author talked about is Jesus identified with us in so many ways. Hes tempted as we are. Hes part of our human emotions. He gets happy; Hes sad; Hes gone through betrayal and rejection, pain, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, all of those things. But, He was never frantic. Have you noticed that? And he identifies with almost all of our human emotions, except Hes never frantic. Hes never hurried. Hes never out of sorts. Jesus gets this news, and the disciples are expecting a quick exodus, but what does it say in Verse 6? It says, Yet, when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more days. Didnt expect that! They expected, Lets go! Come on! Lazarus is sick! We have to get going! Hurry, hurry, hurry!! He does something very unexpected. He waits. Sometimes when we pray, and we want God to move right now. We say, God this is really important. You have to act right now! You have to move! You have to intervene! Go! Go! Go! And He has not moved. He doesnt listen to us! We cant control Him! And that makes us mad. I love Johns [Ortberg] quote in the book. He said, Sometimes we are double espresso followers of a decaf God. Were all hyped up with caffeine, Look at us go! Were following a decaf God. Hes not in a hurry. Were so in a hurry that we want what we want, and we want it now. We cant stand to wait. I remember we wanted to build this building. I wanted it so bad. For years, we were setting up and tearing down every week. What a hassle! You set up all your chairs, and you tear all your chairs down. You set up all your lighting, and you tear all your lighting down. You set up all your sound equipment and you tear all your sound equipment down. You set up your nursery, and you tear it down. You set up your childrens church, and you tear that down. In the wintertime, the heat doesnt work half the time. In the summertime, theres no air conditioning. It smelled musty. We wanted to use the building at other times, and theyd say we couldnt. We just wanted our own building so bad. At one point, I was like, God, I dont understand. Why cant you provide this now? Then, I came to our board and said, Guys, why dont we just sell the back acres that we wont need and just build on this front end? Why dont we just mortgage our future so we can have a building now? Needless to say, that didnt go over real well. And thank God it didnt, right? Because were getting ready to build. By the way, since December, January, February, the last three months, this body has given about one quarter of a million dollars to ministry, $246,000 in the last three months. Praise God for that! In the last two months, weve knocked off $50,000 principal on this building in January, and then we just did it again! Its possible we could get this thing paid for this year and get going, so keep it up. Keep it up! So, thats a praise. But, the board said, No, we cant sell our future. And sometimes we want to do that. Im reminded of a scene from Willy Wonka. Do you remember Veronica Salt? Remember her? Spoiled Veronica. She wants what she wants, and she wants it now. Im not going to ask for a raise of hands this morning. Weve all had our share of being Veruca Salt, havent we? God, youre supposed to meet my demands the way I want it, when I want it, and how I want it; and if I dont get the things Im after, Im going to scream! Im going to throw a fit because I know best! One of the marks of maturity in the life of a believer is when we come to not only recognize Gods sovereignty but to celebrate Gods sovereignty. Gods sovereignty means that He is in control, and we are not. Lets look again at the story. Jesus now comes to Bethany, and Lazarus has already passed away. In Verse 21, Martha confronts the Lord. You remember Martha, dont you? She was the same one who confronted Jesus before when Mary was sitting at His feet while she was doing all the household chores. She says, Lord, dont you care that she is just sitting here while Im doing all the work? Jesus says, Martha, Martha, Martha. So, theres another Martha moment here. Shes always correcting Jesus; she always knows better. Shes got some control issues. She says, Lord, if you had been there, my brother would not have died. Shes trying to cast a little guilt complex onto the Lord. This is all Your fault. Weve done that. Were guilty of that. Lord, this is Your fault. If You would have answered the prayers I gave, this wouldnt have happened. If You would have done it at the time I… If You would have given me what I wanted when I wanted it, this wouldnt have happened. So, Martha tries to lecture the Lord, If You had been here… Who can blame her? Its the truth. If Jesus had come sooner, Lazarus would not have died, but God had other plans. She needed to trust His sovereignty. In Verse 22, She says, But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. Thats sovereignty. I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask. We had a definition of peace last week. Do you remember what it was? Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of Christ. Ill give you a working definition of patience: Patience is a calm assurance based on a certain knowledge that God is in control. Romans 8:28, God causes all things to work together for good. How many things? All things to work together for good. For everybody? Those who love Him are called according to His purpose. I heard a story about a woman who had a very dear handkerchief that had great sentimental value to her. She became careless with it. She put a pen in her pocket on the handkerchief, and the ink from the pen made a big stain or a big blotch. A friend of hers who was a very well known, very respected artist saw the handkerchief and said, It just breaks my heart. This has such sentimental value to me, and Ive ruined it. Ive destroyed it. The artist said, Well, why dont you let me have the handkerchief? She said, I guess so. Its of no value to me anymore. I was too careless with it. So she gave the artist her handkerchief. A few days later she got it back. The artist had taken that ink spot in the middle of her handkerchief and used it as the base of his design and formed a design around it, incorporating the ink spot. It became more beautiful than it ever was before, more valuable than it ever was before, and more dear than it ever was before. Not only was it this meaningful handkerchief, but now her artist friend had made it even more significant and valuable to her and returned it to her. Thats the way God works. He takes the carelessness of our lives, the ink blots, the stains, and we say, Lord, Ive made a mess of this. I really messed this up. God, Im going to give it to you, and we trust His sovereignty. He can take that ink blot, and He can begin to make something beautiful out of it. Thats His promise. Only God can do that. You and I cant do that. We have to trust when we encounter those storms in our lives, when we encounter those fourth watch experiences of our lives, that God is up to something wonderful in our lives. See, patience is not just sitting back and doing nothing. Patience is doing everything you can and trusting God to take care of the rest. Martha did everything she knew to do. She sent word to Jesus. She prayed. She took care of Lazarus the best she could, and she waited. Ephesians 6 says, Having done everything to stand firm… what? Stand firm, therefore. Having done everything to stand firm, having done everything you know to do, thats when you wait and trust that in Gods time and in Gods way, Hes going to take care of it. Hell do it in a way thats for your best interest and for His glory. Janet [Pascal] has come to sing a song that talks about the fact that God is up to something good in our lives. (_________________) Thirdly, we respect His wisdom. He [John Ortberg] wants us to take a look at the 38th verse of that chapter. Jesus is now at the tomb of His friend Lazarus who has passed away. It says, 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, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days. Again, Martha takes issue with Jesus. Again, she disagrees with His wisdom. She thinks thats a bad idea. Then Jesus said, Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I know 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. When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out! The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, Take off the grave clothes and let him go. In mans wisdom, the best thing to do would have been to heal Lazarus before he died, correct? Save the heartache; save the pain, none of this coming in the fourth watch of the night sort of thing. Dont let Lazarus suffer anymore. Dont make us suffer by watching him suffer. Dont make us go through the agony of death and the loss of our brother, our friend. Heal him now! Thats what human wisdom says, but Jesus allowed him to physically die. Roll away the stone! No, thats not a good idea! You think Martha learned to respect the wisdom of Jesus after this scenario? See, our human wisdom, our rationale, well, lets look at it after what happened with God, the way God did it. Jesus had taught in this chapter, I am the Resurrection and the Life. After Lazarus rises again from the dead, do you think that phrase took on a new meaning to her? I am the resurrection and the life? Talk about an object lesson, right? Its one thing to say, I am the Resurrection and Life; you can kind of understand what that means; but then watching Him say the word and speak life to a dead man. Then you see that dead man come out; I really understand that scripture now, that You werent kidding, were You? You are the Resurrection and the Life. Secondly, think of all the people that benefited. If Lazarus would have been healed before he died, Mary and Martha and Lazarus would have known about it, and they would have celebrated. But now, just think of all the people who were there who witnessed this miracle. Think of all the hundreds of people who came to Christ that day because of what happened. Think of all the generations of believers who had been moved and blessed and understood the truth that He is the Resurrection and the Life through the recounting of the story of the resurrection of Lazarus. How many millions of believers have been touched because God did it His way? Do you think Mary and Marthas faith was strengthened after the resurrection of Lazarus? Hello? Talk about faith thats now off the charts! Whatever You say, were going to do! We know You are who You say You are, and You can do what You say You can do. They have faith that is off the charts because Jesus did it His way. They didnt trust His way; they trusted their way. They were angry at Him, but He was sovereign. He knew what He was doing. So often, we think we know, but our knowledge is so limited. I was watching a television program this week. You have to take turns. Its one way to a happy marriage. Sometimes you have to put on sports; most times you have sports on; but sometimes you have to watch what she wants to watch. What she likes to watch is medical shows, not like E.R. She likes the real stuff, like gross operations and emergency room shows. So were watching the Discovery Channel, and theyre telling this story about a motorcycle rider who ran into a tree. The branch of the tree broke off and went into his head. When he came into the ER, he had this tree coming out of his head. It was sticking out of his helmet, and he didnt know how bad it was. It had leaves on it and twigs, everything. He was walking in there. They had to go get the gardener to bring his shears to the emergency room. I bet that was a peculiar call, Hey, we need you in surgery. Can you bring those clippers with you? He was like, Okay?!? So, they clipped the tree, they take his helmet off, and they say, Whoa! Look at this thing! It went in here and came out up here and went out his head. He had no idea the severity of it, and neither did they. The first thing they had to do was get some X-Rays. They would have to see if this thing hit something important in there and what would happen if they tried to pull it out. Do you know what he wanted to do? He wanted to take matters into his own hands. He even tried to take it out. He said, Cant I just take this out? Get this out of my head! They would grab his hands and put them down. Trust us! Later on, when he understood the severity of it, when he began to realize this thing was sticking out of his head and maybe he could lose his life, he began to panic and say, I want to get it out now! The doctors were basically saying, Look, you trusted us enough to come in here. Trust us enough to fix the problem. Trust our wisdom. Trust that we know what we are doing. Sure enough, they found out that luck was with this guy. The tree had missed everything important inside there, any artery or anything that would have affected his breathing. He got lucky. So they were able to take the branch out of his head and stitch him up. He put his helmet back on and rode his motorcycle away from the hospital. Believe it…or not. That was an amazing story. But I thought about that guy as I was preparing this message, and I thought, Isnt that us sometimes? We have these intrusions and obstacles in our lives, and we give it to God, and God doesnt do it as quickly as we want Him to. We dont agree with His procedures, so were tempted to just say, Let me take care of it myself! We dont even realize the damage we could cause, how we could complicate the matter even more. Weve done that. You and I have all done that. Weve all failed to recognize or celebrate Gods sovereignty and said, Im going to control. I know better. Instead of respecting His wisdom, we take matters into our own hands, and we make things worse. How many times have we dealt with situations where a couple wants a divorce? Or we have a believing spouse that is married to a non-believing spouse, and he or she just wants out. We take them to 1 Corinthians 7, and we say, "You know what?" Gods word says, If youre a believing spouse, and youre married to a non-believing spouse, dont divorce them. You dont know, Paul says, whether God can use you to bring your husband [or wife] to salvation. Theyll argue with you. They know better. Their wisdom knows better. Ill say, Look, Ive seen marriages where there has been adultery, marriages where there has been alcoholism, marriages where one spouse doesnt know the Lord, and God-over time-has worked a miracle there. Those couples have strong, happy marriages now. They will argue with you. They dont care what Gods word says. They want out now. They know better than God. The opposite is couples that want to shack up, and [they think] its okay, Well just live together. Gods word says thats wrong. Well, show me where it says that is wrong in Gods Word. Youll show them, and theyll get mad at you! Youre like, Look, I didnt write this stuff. Im just telling you what it says. Theyll say, Well, we know better than that. Our wisdom is greater than that. Friends, anytime you think your wiser than God, youre in trouble. Youre in big trouble. Youre heading for a fall. Youre in for a crash. Come to the place in our lives where we trust His timing. Im not saying we understand His timing. Im not saying we ever get to the point where we like the fourth watch appearances. I dont think that will ever happen. I think we always want the waters parted before we have to step into the water. I think we would rather be spared the lions den or the fiery furnace if at all possible. Its just like Mary and Martha if they could have been spared the loss of their brother, but Gods way was the best. We come to the point where we celebrate His sovereignty and say, Thank God Youre in control and not me because when I mess up my life with the ink stains and blotches of my life, only You can turn this into something wonderful, God, so Im going to allow you to. Im going to respect Your wisdom because Your wisdom is higher than mine. Nowhere is that demonstrated more powerfully than the cross. Think about the cross. The cross was a place of defeat, and God in His wisdom and His sovereignty turned it into a place of victory. The cross was a place of despair, and God turned it into a place of hope. The cross was a place of death. Its where people go to die, and now its a reminder of the resurrection and the life. Only God can do that. The disciples said, Thats it. His voice is silenced. Our cause is gone. Its lost. Evil has triumphed over good. Sin has triumphed over righteousness. God in His sovereignty, God in His timing, God in His wisdom, turns something bad into the greatest event in the history of mankind: The resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. If you can trust your life into His hands, you can trust your circumstances into His hands, you can trust His wisdom. When you come across the obstacles and intrusions in your life, dont take the matters into your own hands. Dont say, Just let me take care of this. You might be the person who put that there in the first place. Let Him work it out for you. Lets pray together. Father, as we prepare to receive communion, it is a reminder to us of Your wisdom, of Your sovereignty, of Your goodness. Forgive us for the time when we have judged You. We have made assessments without gathering all the facts, and because You did not answer in the way we expected You to, Lord, or how we expected You to, or when we expected You to, we have made judgments about You. We have said, Youre not good; or Youre not caring; or Youre not powerful enough; or Youre not listening to us. Lord, those judgments were unfair. Youve already demonstrated Your goodness, Your kindness and Your love. Help us to come to the place where we celebrate Your sovereignty, that You are in control and not us. Help us come to the place where we respect Your wisdom. Lord, Im convinced that was the last time Martha ever questioned You, the last time she ever became angry at Your actions or Your inactions. Lord, help us to do everything we can, everything we know to do, and having done all to stand firm-stand firm therefore. Wait upon You. I pray for the ones who are in a fourth watch experience even now, that they would trust in Your goodness; they would trust that Romans 8:28 is for them as well. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.