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Jack Hibbs: He does not delay that we be glorified. He delays, listen friends, he delays in your life that your faith may be strengthened. He delays in my life that I might have greater faith.

David J.: This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J., thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible.

Jack Hibbs: Hey everybody, have you ever thought about what's after life? Do you know that the Bible teaches life is after life? If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, my good friend Philip De Courcy has written a great book and that's the title: Life after Life: Exploring the Bible's Wonderful Promises about Heaven and Eternity, published by Harvest House Publishers. Get a copy for yourself.

Philip De Courcy: Life After Life by Philip De Courcy, exploring the Bible's promises about heaven and eternity. It's available for a gift of any amount at JackHibbs.com. That's JackHibbs.com.

David J.: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues with his series called Disciplines of Life and a message titled "Discipline of Delay." Isn't it true that lots of us are waiting to hear from the Lord about something in our lives, right?

Waiting can wreak havoc on our emotions as well as our patience. We can't see what good can come out of our waiting, but God knows exactly what time it is. Timing, of course, is His sovereign business, and when He delays, all we got to do is obey.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches that to wait on the Lord is to pursue Him and His Word, even when it feels like He delays His answer. It's only by waiting and trusting that we overcome our anxieties and the challenges of our day. Now with his message called "Disciplines of Delay," here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Philip De Courcy: Pastor Jack, we're in a message called Disciplines of Delay. And you know as well as I do, as well as anyone, that waiting has got to be one of the hardest things for people to do, huh?

Jack Hibbs: It is, but I want to give everyone an infusion of hope. It is, but as you get older as a Christian, there's a luxury. It's God's goodness. He mitigates the pain of getting old. My mother-in-law said when she was 90-plus years of age, she said, "Getting old isn't for wimps."

Well, listen, the upside to getting old as a Christian is we learn how to wait better. We slow down. Why? Because over time we've learned that we cannot outwait God, and that if we wait, the best things happen when we wait.

Notice, everybody will agree with me, when we hurry up to get it done, that's when we make mistakes, we make decisions we regret, we look back and say, "Boy, did I blow it." But none of us could ever say, "You know, I waited on God and boy, look how terrible of a decision I made." Oh no, I've never heard that in all of my life as a Christian. The more we wait, the better it is for us.

Philip De Courcy: In this sermon, you mentioned that waiting on the Lord can reveal what's really going on inside of us, what the deeper truth is behind what we're chasing and wanting this thing when really there's a deeper issue going on.

Jack Hibbs: To be honest with you, and I know we only have such a brief moment to answer this, but so many times the origin of what we want, if we peel back the veneer, we realize that the reason why we want that thing so badly is because we have a need inside that that thing will not fix. It could be a car, could be clothes, could be a house, could be a job, and you say, "Well now I've got to have that," and you'll justify it.

"I need a Ferrari because as a pastor I can drive to the hospital faster and visit more people." No, that's not the answer. Just for the record, I don't have a Ferrari, folks. I have a '67 Volkswagen. It doesn't work that way, you guys. We will talk ourselves into why we should have this, that, or the other, all the while knowing that there's actually a deeper reason we are doing it, and that reason is most often not a good one. Let's get into it.

We ask, Lord, in Jesus' name, that tonight, Lord God, You'd speak to our hearts from Your Word as we come to this very interesting topic, Lord, that one that we really need Your Word on because we frankly struggle with it. And so, Father, give us wisdom now, in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, "Amen."

Grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if you would, as you know, to Matthew chapter 28. That is our theme for this series on the disciplines of life. It's a 31-week series, and tonight we are in the tenth week. So we're a third of the way through, and we're looking at tonight the discipline of delay. We'll talk about what that means in a moment.

Matthew chapter 28, Jesus said, verse 18, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore"—don't you love that? Get out!—"because I've got all authority, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I command you; and behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

And I love that Jesus stressed that. I'm going to be with you all the way to the end. And I don't know about you, but I personally believe that we are living in the end. And I like to take it this way: Jesus is more keenly in tune—not that He can't be out of tune—but you think about Jesus, the time and the age in which you and I live in, it's almost, I believe, that He's got binoculars on or a microscope on concerning the world you and I are walking through.

This is a great time to be making disciples of all nations because the time is near. The Bible says Jesus Christ is coming back. The Scripture teaches us that He's going to be refocusing on the nation of Israel. The Bible tells us in the book of Daniel that He's going to fulfill His last specific seven years regarding His people and the holy city of Jerusalem, Daniel chapter 9 says.

So we as Gentile believers in the world, what does it mean to us? It means that we are so close to the coming of the Lord for His church, and until He comes, we want to be very, very ready. And we want to be very, very much at work for Him. And so tonight I'm going to ask you to mark it down in your Bibles, our verse this evening is Psalm 40, verses 1 and 2, regarding the discipline of delay.

The psalmist writes, "I waited patiently for the Lord and He inclined"—circle that word if you would—"He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock and established my steps." I want you to mark that word, that He inclined to me. The word means that the Lord leaned over to cover me.

When the psalmist cried out to the Lord, the psalmist writes back and says, "The Lord covered me" as he waited patiently for the Lord. The Lord responded. And I want you to mark that down because why does it seem in our lives that as Christians we've got our Bible, we've got our friends, we've got the Holy Spirit, we've got fellowship, we've got a church, but why is it at times that it seems like God's not listening to us?

Why is it at times that it seems like God is not listening? Why does it seem at times that the heavens are like brass? And there are times when there is a dryness to our lives that, "Lord, what's wrong? What's going on?" And maybe nothing's wrong at all. And how does this all factor into the discipline of delay? What does it mean?

We're going to be looking at this in several ways tonight. Not only delay on the part of you and I waiting upon the Lord, learning how to do that, but also the fact that we are to be waiting with expectancy regarding the Lord's return. And this is very important, so it covers a very large gamut of thought tonight regarding the discipline of delay and what are we talking about when the Lord works in our lives.

How many of us are waiting to hear, I'm curious, from the Lord regarding some topic or issue of our lives? I'm going to put both hands up for me. I want to hear from the Lord. There are things I'm crying out to God about. Maybe you're crying out to God tonight because you want to know about a job. In America, that's a big deal right now. Oh God, speak to me about a job.

Maybe you're crying out to the Lord tonight and you're saying, "Oh God, speak to me about a direction to take. Do I go left or do I go right? Lord, speak to me about ministry." Maybe you're waiting on the Lord for a ministry direction, or maybe you're waiting upon the Lord and you're saying, "Oh God, is this Mr. Right, or is this Miss Perfect? Speak to me, God."

And you're waiting and you're seeking the Lord, and it doesn't seem like He's answering. What's that all about? And what good, by the way, can come out of waiting or delay? Well, listen to what Job said in Job 30, verse 26. He says, "When I looked for good, then evil came to me; and when I waited for light, there came darkness." And a lot of people feel like that.

You guys, when we talk about waiting upon the Lord, it's not a comfortable thing. The discipline of delay is something where you and I—church, are you listening tonight?—this is something where you and I have to exercise ourselves unto godliness. It is not popular, it is not happy, it is not the most joyous thing to talk about this topic, but let me tell you something right now: without this discipline in our lives, you and I will not make it through to the end.

We will be one of the statistics, one of the victims that fall short of our waiting for the Lord. This is vital. Maybe you're listening tonight and you've given up waiting for the Lord and waiting upon the Lord because He didn't answer you, or He didn't answer you the way you wanted to hear from Him about it. You wanted it to come a different way. You wanted God to tell you a different thing, and so for some people, they're upset with God.

He didn't answer it the way they wanted to be answered. And I've got to tell you, waiting is something that in our emotions can wreak havoc in our life. Because if our emotions are driving our spiritual existence—listen, in my backyard the other day, I watched a bee. I was watching him go from plant to plant, and then the little bum, he went from plant to plant to me. And I must have smelled so sweet and looked so much like a flower—I'm kidding right now.

But what was he doing? He was just going from flower to flower to flower. And I want to say this: as Christians, we're not to be like that little bee, going from flower to flower or from one high to the next, one super experience to the other. We need to get it in our minds that we need to bed down, as it were, put on our big boy pants or whatever you want to call it and be tough for Jesus.

We need to be galvanized for Jesus. We need to be strong. We need to get our emotions under control and under the very will of God. And here's why: without those emotions being controlled by the Word and the will of God, then we will not be very good at waiting upon the Lord in this discipline of delay. And we will fail.

So tonight as we look at these points: the disciplines of life, the discipline of delay. Number one is this: God knows exactly what time it is. Can somebody say "Amen" to that? God knows exactly what time it is on the grand scheme of things, and He knows exactly right now how many days you have left in your life. Did you know that?

The Bible says all of your days are numbered. How do you like that? You say, "Well, what if I killed myself?" Well, God knew the day that you'd kill yourself. "Well, what if I live to be 120?" God knows. I mean, you may be thinking that you can somehow trick God. He knows everything. And He knows not only the very hairs of your head are numbered, but He knows the very moment that you were born into this world and the moment you're going to go out of this world. God knows. He knows exactly what time it is.

So listen, why does it seem like at times that the Lord is late in answering us? Now here's the funny thing: I never feel like God is late in answering you regarding what you've been praying about. I only feel like He's late about the things I'm praying about. Have you noticed that? And yet, what I'm praying about, you know from the outside, isn't God's timing great?

Look at Jack. He's biting his fingernails and fretting and wondering where is God. And God's timing is perfect. You'll even come to me and say, "God's timing's perfect, Pastor Jack." Well, you just remember that because I'm going to bring it right back on you and I'm going to say, "Hey, God's timing's perfect, remember?" And it is perfect.

But here's the thing: if it's perfect, then why does it feel so weird? Because it's not perfect in our emotional perception of what God's doing. We want Him to do it our way. He's not Burger King, He's the King of Kings, and He does it His way.

David J.: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to JackHibbs.com. That's JackHibbs.com. And now let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: We are to acquiesce to Him. We are to submit to Him. We are not to dictate to Him how it ought to go. Okay God, look, I'm 25 years old and I'm not married yet, so I'm going to give You one more year, God. Oh dear, don't do that. You'll get yourself in trouble. He knows exactly what time it is.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time, and He has put eternity in their hearts." Wow. God is the controller of time, and He knows exactly what time it is. Everybody turn to John chapter 11. This is a big chunk of Bible, so go there, John chapter 11. You want to talk about time? Jesus, in fact, not only is He the governor of time, in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6—Isaiah 9:6, you don't have to turn there, I'm just giving that as a bonus verse.

Isaiah 9:6 tells us regarding the Messiah that He is the Father, but the actual word is that Jesus is the Father of Time, He's the Father of Eternity. Meaning Jesus is the governor of time. Old Testament says that. But in John chapter 11, check this out, this is pretty awesome.

"Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, and a town of Mary and his sister Martha, and it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him saying, 'Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.'" Lazarus is sick. Jesus is down in the Jordan River area.

Therefore, when Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it." Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He had heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days. Now when you're sick, you want relief now. Jesus stays two more days in the resort town down there in Jericho on the Jordan River.

Then after this, verse 7, He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." And the disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?" And Jesus said, "Are there not twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him."

These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps." That's, by the way, always how you refer to a Christian body, the body, when a Christian dies. Okay? The soul's not sleeping. Lazarus is dead, but you never speak of believers as being kicked the bucket, cold as ice, six feet under, pushing up daisies. You don't do that.

And so, verse 12, "Then his disciples said, 'Lord, if he sleeps he's going to get well.'" However, Jesus spoke this of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking a rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. And I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him." Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, went on to say he was talking about, "If you're going to die, then we'll all go with you."

Verse 17, "So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb now four days." This is significant because in the Jewish culture, they believed, in fact, if you've been with us to Israel, tombs with the stones rolled over the door, there's always a little hole, a vent, in the top part of the tomb. If you've been there, you remember. The Jews believed that there was a chance of someone coming back to life, but if they didn't come back to life, then you had to let the spirit out through a hole so that they could go to heaven.

But it's possible that their spirit might linger around the tomb for a little bit. But the fourth day—this is all tradition—on the fourth day, it was believed that the spirit was not only long gone, the evidence of it was a stinky, rotten body. Okay? Remember that. That's Jewish tradition.

So, it says now Bethany was near Jerusalem, verse 18, about two miles away. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus—I love this, this is humongous faith—"Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died."

Isn't that great faith? No, really, it is. I mean, she's full-on rebuking Him for slacking off. But she's saying, "If You had been here he wouldn't have died. You could have done something about it." This is great faith, mind you, okay? And Jesus said to her, "Your brother will live or will rise again." And Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."

And Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" And she said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come and into the world." And when she had said these things, verse 28, she went her way secretly and called Mary her sister, saying, "The Teacher is come and He is calling for you."

And as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town but was in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, following her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there."

Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell down at His feet. So precious is this. And she said to Him, "Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died." Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. You're coming up on one of the most precious verses in the Bible.

And He said, "Where have you laid him?" And they said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Verse 35, look at this, shortest verse in the Bible: "Jesus wept." You say, why did He weep? I think Jesus wept over the pain of what death causes. Death is not supposed to happen to us. It wasn't supposed to be death in the Garden of Eden. Think of that.

Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!" And some of them said, "Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying?" Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, probably at unbelief there, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. And Jesus says, "Take away the stone." That had to be radical. It's four days. You don't do this. "Take away the stone."

And Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days." Notice, not three, not five, it's four was the key. He's gone. Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was laying, and Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You've heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this that they may believe that You sent Me."

Now when He had said these things, Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, "Lazarus, come forth!" And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave cloths, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. So he's totally mummified, and Jesus said to them, "Loose him and let him go." I love it.

Why'd you take us all that whole time to read that for? Because when Lazarus had died, even before he was dead, they prayed. Did they not pray in a sense? "Quick, send help. Get Jesus." He hears that Lazarus is sick and He waits. He waits until he's dead to leave the Jordan River valley to go up to Bethany. This is the discipline of delay in action.

God responds in His time so that the Lord may be glorified. He does not delay that we be glorified. He delays, listen friends, He delays in your life that your faith may be strengthened. He delays in my life that I might have greater faith. Here's the thing: we must be willing to embrace His sovereignty in this area tonight or we will suffer greatly.

This is not popular, but God will answer your prayer in His timing. He calls the shots. We don't know how long Paul prayed for his healing, but we know that Paul prayed three times, remember? And the Lord said—I'll paraphrase it—He said this: "I'm not going to heal you, Paul, because My grace in your ailments will be a source of power in your life."

And then Paul turns around and says, "Okay, okay then, don't heal me. I'd rather have Your power." He fell in love with the discipline of delay, and the delay was, "I'm going to do My sovereign thing, Paul." And God is saying to you tonight: you've been crying out to God and He hasn't answered you yet. You know what? Just because He hasn't answered you yet with a yes or a no doesn't mean He hasn't answered you. His answer may be later. His answer may be delay. And we don't like it. But He knows exactly what time it is in your life.

David J.: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called "Disciplines of Delay." Thanks for listening today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Disciplines of Life, a series highlighting the disciplines of a Christ-follower and the high cost of sharing our faith with others. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Hey, thank you again so much for listening, and if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to JackHibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person.

It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at JackHibbs.com. That's JackHibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.