May 28, 2023

I do want to speak to you this morning on God's timing, and I think I'm correct on this, but there may be several things I say this morning that I follow up with, check with Pastor Redd on that, which is fine, okay?

God Establishes Time in the Beginning

But I'm pretty sure that the first words of the Bible, the first words of Genesis chapter 1, show us God establishing time, because those words are in the beginning. And so we can't really wrap our minds around what it would be like to have always existed and always exist in a manner, in a way, that we can't understand where time is not even a thing, because as humans, we have known time from the very beginning of our lives, and our lives are very much dictated by time.

But I'm pretty confident that I've heard someone speak or someone teach before on the very first thing that God creates is this idea of time with the words in the beginning. I want to remind you this morning that we all have the same number of hours every day.

You've probably heard someone say that before. So all of us have 24 hours in a day, we have hours of rest and hours of being awake, and we choose to use our time, obviously, in a lot of different ways.

Some people budget their time better than others. But as I was looking and searching for something to share with you this morning, I thought a message on God's timing would be appropriate for three different groups that are here this morning.

The first are graduates who we've recognized, who we've honored. But just looking at where you are, Nick and Gunnar, Congreve, looking at where you are in your life, how God has brought you to that point in a way of absolute perfection, to have you right now where you are, living in this moment for our graduates.

Second is for our huge staffers that I've already let you know are here with us this morning, that God has brought us together for this time, for this summer, in this place, as part of this team. And we want to look at that timing this morning.

But third is for our church. I want us to see how God has perfectly timed out where we are as a church right now. The leadership that we have in this church, the momentum, the excitement, the things that God is doing in this place.

To be honest, as I'll comment in a few minutes, that maybe some of us never expected are such evidence of His perfect timing. I'm going to bookend this message this morning with two different stories.

I've definitely learned, my friend Nathan is here this morning, he's a speaker at a church in Atlanta called North Point. We've learned that you never build your sermon around a story. You build your sermon around God's Word.

But if you've got a good story, use it. And I've got two. So I'm going to bookend with them. The first story is this. I first started going to fuge camps with this church. I won't mention the year. Majority of you were not born.

Probably all of you were not born, to be honest. Maybe one. The year was 1993. John King is here. John King was on that trip as an eighth grader. And the first time I went to fuge camps was with this church as an adult.

As a young adult, a graduate of Furman, in the area, had joined the church. They needed an extra adult to go along. That happens a lot. They said, how about this guy? We went to camp in Panama City Beach, Florida.

That's right, Jamil, PCB. And I loved it. And I had a life-changing experience that week. And I've already talked to our staff about being mindful of students, but also mindful of adults that are at camp with us.

I went back a couple more summers with this church as an adult. I was teaching at the time, so I had the summers off, right? And by 1997, I had decided I want to work for this camp. I had talked to someone at camp.

They had said, we love to hire teachers. If you have a summer free, we hire teachers. And I thought, well, I'm a little bit older and not as cool as these people, but maybe I could work for this camp.

And I got real excited about it, and I went through the application process. And back then, we had to drive to an interview. I drove to Carson Newman from here to interview with someone live and in person.

And I felt pretty good about it. I taught Sunday school here. I was working with the youth here. I was like, this is perfect. This is great. This has got to be God's time. I got a letter in the mail. That's how it worked back then.

I got a letter in the mail, and it said, you're not hired to work at Fuge Camp. It said, you've been placed on the waiting list. You guys wait-listed me, Melinda, all right? Yeah, you too? This is my boss.

She was also wait-listed. Congreve, Fuge Camp said, we don't need you, probably. I got kind of mad about it. There was a girl that worked at my school, taught next door to me, actually. I taught elementary school then.

She taught next door to me. And she worked at some camp in Colorado, probably where rich kids go and ride horses. And she started telling me about it, and I said, well, I'm just going to work there. I'm going to go ride horses with rich kids all summer because Fuge Camps don't want me.

And I think he's heard me tell this story before. Back then, we didn't have email. I know, it's crazy. But as a teacher, Carol Looper, you had a mailbox where you got your papers. And I went to my mailbox one day, and there was a memo in my mailbox at Greenview Elementary School in Greenville, South Carolina.

I still have the piece of paper. It's in the fireproof safe at my house. It's from Joe Hicks. I had no idea who Joe Hicks was. It had a phone number, 615 -251 -3825. It said Fuge Camps. I called him back.

He said, we'd like to offer your position on our team in California. I've never been to California. I live in TR. On the other side now, I think, Melinda, I don't know why you got waitlisted. But I think I got waitlisted because my schedule was kind of hard to work with because I was a teacher and I didn't fit with a lot of our training weeks and still don't sometimes fit with training week.

But California started a little bit later, and I went to California that summer and had the best summer of my life. But God's timing on that was different than I wanted it to be, even for those weeks in between there where I was searching and not happy with the way things played out.

What you're going to hear me say again and again this morning is God's timing is intended to bring Him the most glory. And sometimes we don't like that, and sometimes we don't understand that. But if God can be glorified, then His timing is perfect in bringing Him glory.

Lazarus, Martha, and Mary Show God’s Glory in His Timing

If you have your Bible, turn to John chapter 11. I want to go to one of the many places in Scripture where we see God's timing is perfect. John chapter 11 is the story of the raising of Lazarus. And I want to encourage our staffers also this morning, let's never assume that any student that we meet or adult that we meet this summer knows the stories of the Bible.

And so I want to encourage our staffers this morning, slash, tell you, don't say things like everybody knows the story of Lazarus. When we teach the image of God and the creation, don't use words like everybody knows about Adam and Eve, because a lot of people don't.

What does Pastor Rhett say? Eight in ten people in our area are not actively connected with the church. But John chapter 11 is the story of the raising of Lazarus. I don't want to read all of it, but I also don't want to sell it short.

So I want to tell you how we see God's timing in the story of the raising of Lazarus. The first thing you need to know is that Lazarus, along with his sisters Mary and Martha, are some of Jesus' closest friends.

And sometimes we don't really think about Jesus having friends, but He did. And if you're friends with Jesus and your brother is very sick, it's a great, great situation, because you're like, well, we know Jesus can fix that, right?

And we're really good friends with Him. So at the beginning of John chapter 11, Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that their dear friend Lazarus, Jesus' dear friend Lazarus, their brother, is very sick.

Look at Jesus' reply in verse 4. When Jesus heard about it, He said, Lazarus' sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God, so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.

It's always awesome to me that Jesus already knows exactly how everything's going to play out every single time. That's pretty cool. And Jesus knows the way this is going to work and the way this is going to happen and the timing of this is so that the glory of God will be seen and the Son of God will receive glory from this.

The most possible glory. So John tells us, although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, verse 5, He stayed where He was for the next two days. So you're thinking, we're thinking, and our human thinking, well, Jesus is going to rush there as fast as He can.

He'll probably travel faster than He's ever traveled before, because this is His dear friend. Jesus waits two days. By the time He gets there, it's been four days. If you jump down to verse 17, when Jesus arrived at Bethany, He was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days.

Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him, but Mary stayed in the house.

Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if only You had been here, my brother would not have died. Do you know what Martha's saying there? Martha's saying, Jesus, your timing's a little off. We sent word, we're friends, you heal people, but you didn't make it in time, and we don't like that, because our brother has died.

But notice also, I do love this about Martha, I don't want to come down too strongly on Martha this morning, because look what she follows it up with. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.

Jesus told her, your brother will rise again. Yes, Martha said. He will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day. And what we arrive here, John 11 verse 25, one of my favorite things to speak on, some of you know this, the seven I am statements of Jesus found in the book of John, this is one of them.

Jesus told her, I am the resurrection and the life. Friends, if for no other reason, for Lazarus to be in the grave for four days, and Jesus to take his time in getting there, to lead up to John 11 verse 25, for Jesus to be able to say, proclaim, I am the resurrection and the life.

If for no other reason than that, his timing is perfect. I've read before, I love this, this is the theological climax of the book of John. And what that means is that when you look at the structure of the book of John, this is the highest point of it.

Because Jesus has taught and preached and healed, man born blind, woman caught in adultery, a lot of great things have happened in John. But when you get to John chapter 11, and Jesus is going to bring Lazarus back from the dead, sorry, spoiler, but he is, this is the climax of his ministry.

Because from this point on, Josh, they're starting to plot his crucifixion. Things are going to move very rapidly toward the crucifixion in the gospel of John. Because once the Pharisees realize, this guy literally has power over life and death.

He just proclaimed himself to be resurrection, to be life. He's got to go. And so for no other reason than that, to arrive at Jesus, John 11, 25. And notice this, church, Jesus does not say, I do resurrection, I make resurrection happen, I bring life.

Jesus says, I am resurrection. If you want to know what death into life is, that's what I am. If you want to know what life is, that's what I am. So Eli, you're at a point in your life, and you're like, I'm trying to figure out what life is.

Life is Jesus. It's like an equal sign in there. Jesus says, I am life. You want to have life? Have Jesus. Side note, which is awesome to teach people. The belief at the time, was that the spirit remained with the body for three days.

So if you put Lazarus in the grave, and he's been in there for three days, I don't completely understand this church, but his spirit may still be kind of lingering around. He's not officially gone, until after three days.

So Jesus is like, okay. Let's do four. Alright. That'll work. So everybody knows he's real dead. Like he's dead dead. You know. And then I'll bring him back. And the story continues, and I have to get to this point, because I love to share this with people.

When you get to the end, towards the end of John chapter 11, towards this account, when Jesus shouts into the grave, verse 43 it is, then Jesus shouted, Lazarus come out. And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a head cloth.

Jesus told them, unwrap him and let him go. I have to tell as many people this as possible, because everybody needs to know this. Jesus calls him, staff, Jesus calls him by name, and says Lazarus come out, because Jesus has such power over death, and there were multiple people buried in these graves at one time, because it's a cave with a stone, and there's multiple people in there.

If Jesus doesn't call him by name, every dead person in there is coming out. And Jesus is like, whoa granny, get back in there. Okay, we don't want you. So he calls him by name. What do we know about God's timing?

Patience, Stillness, and Trust in the Lord

Number one, God's timing is always perfect. Would you make a note of that this morning church? We've already confessed our sins, and we've already confessed that we fall short of the glory of God, and we know that we are not perfect.

God's timing is perfect. I want to share with you two verses from the Old Testament, I think you'll see them on the screen, that talk about timing, and talk about patience, and I want to point something out about one of these.

Psalm 37, 7. The psalmist writes this, be still in the presence of the Lord, wait patiently for him to act. Worry about evil people who prosper, or fret about their wicked schemes. So I want to ask you this morning, I want to ask you to raise your hand.

I'm going to raise my hand for all three, so if you don't raise your hand for any of these, see me afterwards, alright? How many people have trouble being still? Because you're like, I just got to do, I got to make, I got to make this happen, I got to...

The psalmist says be still. How many people have trouble being patient? How many people have trouble not worrying? If God's timing is always perfect, if we claim that, if we believe that, then we believe that we need to be still in the presence of the Lord.

And we need to wait patiently for him to act. And don't worry. Lamentations 3, verses 25 through 27. God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It's a good thing to quietly hope for help from God.

It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times. I want you to know this morning, God knows exactly where each one of us is in our life at this very moment. He either put us in that place, or he's allowing us to be in that place.

But in the big picture of timing and life, God knows exactly where every single one of us is. I was talking to Ms. Doris Hill this morning. I love talking to Ms. Doris Hill, and I love eating her lemon pound cake.

Do you mind if I tell your age? Because she's told me this multiple times. She's 90 years old. She takes nothing to make her sleep, and she takes nothing for pain. And God knows exactly where you are in your life, and has given you a good, long life to be able to bless people like me and make lemon pound cakes for people like me.

And she told me last Sunday at our wonderful covered dish, she said, go get some of my lemon pound cake before it gets gone. And I went to the dessert table first, which is not the way you're supposed to do things.

I'm a rule breaker, Sharon. All right? Because I didn't want to miss out. Second thing I want to tell you about God's timing is this. And you know this. If you know God's word, you know this. God's ways are not our ways.

God's Higher Ways and Eternal Perspective

God has an incredible, eternal perspective. I explained this one time in a message that I like this. I'm sure I got it from somebody else. But it was using an illustration of a parade, and it was talking about like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that a lot of us watch on TV, or if you're there on the street and you're actually watching it.

You can only see what's right in front of you, and maybe what just passed you, and maybe what's coming next. Okay? So you're looking at like Snoopy and Woodstock, they're right in front of you, and maybe Mickey Mouse just passed, and maybe the Mario, the Luigi, they're coming next, right?

That's your perspective on the parade. And God's perspective on the parade is the Goodyear blimp. And so God has this eternal perspective where he sees every moment of our lives from beginning to end, every turn, every twist, every float of that parade, if you want to think about it that way.

And His ways are not our ways. His way to get me to fugue camp was not my way. Isaiah 55, 8 and 9, if you don't know these verses, you need to. My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord.

My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Think about this, friends.

If I had gotten that message and I had the healing power that Jesus has, I would have healed Lazarus right away. I would have got there as fast as I could because that's my boy. But God has this eternal perspective.

And listen, Jesus wanted to grow the faith of His disciples because if you look closely in John chapter 11, there's some disciples there. They're traveling with Him. They're following Him. They're aware of all this.

They're aware that He waits two days. They're aware that it's four days later. They watch Lazarus come out of the grave. Who are these guys? These are the ones that are going to go and take the gospel.

These are the ones that are going to be the early church. These are the ones in the book of Acts, right? And so Jesus is like, I got to grow the faith of these guys. I got to make sure that they see the power of God and I will receive and my Father will receive the most glory if I do it in a way that doesn't make sense to the human mind.

God Has the Final Say Over Periods and Commas

Finally, this morning, I love this. God always has the final say. When you talk about timing and you talk about ways, God always has the final say. And I promise I got this from somebody else, but Nathan, you're going to like it.

Maybe you gave it to me. We put periods in our lives where God puts commas. Let that sink in for a minute. So we put a period in our life. I didn't get hired for fuge camp, period. God puts comma there.

I got another clause to put on there. I teach English, Daniel, sixth grade. Think about the crucifixion. Think about the periods in the crucifixion. Jesus was dead, period. Jesus was in the grave, period.

God puts commas there. God says, I'll have the final say in this. There's more to the story. My timing is perfect. My ways are not your ways. I love 1 Corinthians 15, 55 through 57. After Jesus is dead in the grave, period, oh, death, where is your victory?

Oh, death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. That all comes after the comma.

I'm not sure how it works grammatically, but that all comes after the comma. So I got one more story for you. It's my favorite story ever of God's timing. Would you raise your hand this morning if you have a story of God's timing in your life?

A Flight Attendant’s Note and a Story of God’s Care

This is my favorite story of God's timing in my life. So this was April of 2021, I'm pretty sure. And because of the pandemic and because of COVID and things, I have not been traveling very much and speaking, which is something that I love to do and I'm privileged to do.

But I had not traveled and spoke very much for about a year in there because most churches and youth groups and events and retreats, they weren't happening. But by the springtime of 2021, things were coming back, and I had the opportunity to go to a church in New Orleans for the weekend.

And so now it's a Sunday night. This is kind of what my life looks like a lot. I've left after school on a Friday, maybe taking Friday off sometimes. Gone to New Orleans, had an incredible weekend. When you go in for a weekend youth event, it's always, always good.

But now it's Sunday night, and it's late, and I'm flying back, and I'm already thinking about going to school on Monday morning. And that's where I am. But on this particular night also, my friend and Nathan and I are very interested in air travel.

And every once in a while when you're flying, you get a flight pattern route that makes absolutely zero sense. And you're like, I know that they did this to make the most possible money, just like God gets the most possible glory, Delta gets the most possible money, because they're flying me in a way that makes no sense.

And so my route that night from New Orleans, instead of bringing me through somewhere logical like Atlanta, which is kind of on the way to Greenville, it took me to Chicago. And I'm like, why am I going to Chicago geographically to get to Greenville?

So I'm already not in the greatest mood about that, but I want to add on to that. Travel can be fun, but travel can be lonely, if you're by yourself. Travel can be lonely for me sometimes. Life can occasionally be lonely for me.

And on this particular night, I kind of got myself in a bad spot. I was probably in an airport, probably waiting. Started to do some of the things that we shouldn't really do. Look at Instagram, look at social media, look at who's done great things and who has a beautiful family and who has a new baby and who had a wedding.

We call that the highlight reel of people's lives when you look at that. And although I had had a wonderful weekend, it was just something about this particular night that I was sad. And that doesn't happen to me very often, to be honest.

But I was. And I got on a plane, and I remember being by the window seat. And sometimes in the movies, somebody's looking out the window seat. It's just real sad. You're like, so sad. And I really was.

And cold. I don't get sad very often. But I was. And I was kind of at one of those moments in my life, and we've all had these, of like, what's my purpose? I feel like I have a purpose, but tonight I don't.

And I don't understand why things have happened in my life. And I'm not real pleased with some of God's timing in my life. And sometimes I love where I am in life, but right now I don't. So I'm just going to look out this window and be sad.

I was really sad that night. I'm not going to talk about it anymore. I had noticed, however, that there was an extremely friendly flight attendant. I had already noticed. She just seems to really love her job.

She was up and down the aisle. I had noticed her stop and talk to some children that were maybe like four or five years old. Talk to them about Mickey. Talk to them about their toys, whatever. This was a flight attendant that just sort of had a great presence about her.

I had already noticed that. But I was still sad. Same flight attendant, mid-flight, comes up the aisle. This never happens. Comes up the aisle, reaches across the person sitting next to me. I'm looking out the window, being sad.

Taps me on the shoulder, hands me a note, and walks away. You'll hear one thing in here. You'll hear two things in here. Let me go ahead and let you know what they are. One of them, Garrett, is a place called Jeunesse Park.

Jeunesse Park is where we have camp in California. It's where I went that first summer after I got waitlisted. Jeunesse Park is a special place. Garrett grew up there, going to camp. The second thing that is mentioned in here that I want you to know so that you can track and follow is a story that I tell and a message that is about when I was little and I wanted a polo that had an alligator on it because all the cool kids had one that had an alligator on it and my mom bought me one from Sears that had a dragon on it.

And a kid in 8th grade whose name I won't mention, Bland Holman, made fun of it with his cool friends. I tell that story sometimes in a sermon. Here's what the random flight attendant handed me. W .F. Snipes.

Which has got to be my name on the passenger list. You know, she pulled that bad boy up. She's like, W. Snipes. A note of encouragement. My name is Rachel and I was your student at Jeunesse Park 2006 to 2010 respectfully when you taught.

As soon as I saw you, I recalled the face and the kindness I've never forgotten. I remember your consistency and kindness and foundational teaching. But your sincerity when sitting with youth at lunch or just being a calm presence and representation of Christ.

I remember your humor and your alligator polo as well. I'm now 27. I taught junior high Sunday school for several years till I got this job which is a blessing. I'm still serving Christ and letting him use me through this job.

I attend Hope Baptist in Las Vegas led by Vance Pittman. Just a note of encouragement. This life can be hard. The valleys can be low when it is rough and seemingly fruitless. Remember your work and walk is eternal.

May you feel God's closeness and refuge when life is heavy or lonely. Praying for you. Praising Jesus for you. Take care sir. Rachel. You know I reached up and rang that flight attendant button. God's timing.

God’s Timing in the Church, the Graduates, and a Closing Prayer

God's timing is always perfect. His ways are not our ways. And God always has a final say. And so as we close this morning for our graduates I'm proud of you. Our church is proud of you. God's timing in bringing you to this church, whether you've been here a long time or just a few years is perfect.

His ways in your life are perfect. For our staff, I'm excited to be with you this summer. It's going to be awesome. And for our church, I did want to say this church. When we talked about where we see a period God sees a comma.

I would say to our church that there was a point in time in the past few years where if we're honest a lot of us probably thought this church is done, period. This church may even close, period. Somebody in the community made me really mad one day, Bill Walker, because they said I heard your church is just going to close up.

But where we see a period, God sees a comma. He put a big old fat comma on this church. And God's doing incredible things here. And I praise him for that. I praise him for his timing in this church. So allow me to pray for us this morning.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing God's word with me. I hope you're encouraged. God, we praise you this morning for your ways, which are not our ways, and your thoughts, which are not our thoughts.

And God, we definitely praise you this morning for your timing, which is not our timing. And God, we stand in awe of your perfection and that everything you do is perfect. And every bit of your timing is perfect.

I praise you for the way I've seen that in my own life, and I pray that others have been reminded of that this morning. God, that you would ultimately receive the most glory from our lives. That we would reflect glory back upon you when we see how incredible your timing is in our lives.

I pray for those this morning, God, that are at a moment of decision, a junction in their life, for our graduates that are facing what's next in life for them, that they would go into that with the confidence that your timing is perfect.

Your ways are perfect. I pray for our staff this morning, God, that you would bless our efforts to serve you this summer as we minister to students and adults. And God, I pray for this church this morning.

Praising you for your timing in the life of this church. And God, we just want to surrender this church for your glory, that you could receive the most glory from this church in this place. So we praise you and honor you.

We pray in Jesus' name this morning. Amen.