Miracles? Trusting in Jesus Perfect Timing (John 7)

The Gospel of John shows how Jesus was keenly aware of the time. In John 7 we read of Jesus waiting for the perfect moment to act or speak as he worked out his plans. We also see Jesus’ perfect timing in a number of the signs and miracles he chose to do. Many of us have experienced Jesus’ perfect timing in answering our prayers in amazing and sometimes “miraculous” ways.

NOTES:

Rockwell Church     March 10, 2024     Pastor Chris Teien
Trusting in Jesus' Perfect Timing
John 7

1.  Jesus WORKS in Perfect Timing (Gal 4:4, Rom 5:6, 1 Tim 6:15; Heb 4:14-16)

2. Jesus WAITED for the Perfect Time (John 7:1-14, 30; John 4:43-54)

3. Jesus may appear to be WASTING Time (John 11:1-45)

4. Jesus can be trusted when you are AFRAID  (John 6:16-21, Mark 6:45-52, Matt 14:22-33)

5. Jesus may wait until you realize you can’t FULFILL your need (John 21:4-11)

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

But timing, God's perfect timing. I have been blessed by the Lord to experience a lot of God's perfect timing. So there's been times when I've been waiting and waiting for God to answer prayer. And then he shows up and he does. There's been other times when I've been praying and praying and have not received the answer to what I was praying for. And I don't exactly know why, but I'm going to trust God in that. But God's perfect timing. So I felt called to ministry when I was like 15. I started to go into Bible college when I was 17. And then after a year of that, I dropped out and kind of rebelled against God for about six months. Got right with God, prayed for a wife. She came and bought my parents' car. You know, stories I could go into depth and tell at another time. But just God's perfect timing. So my wife, you've heard some of these stories before, but um, so I got married and I was working construction, and the two Christian contractor guys I worked with said, uh, we can't in good conscience have you working for us. If you're married and going to have a baby, you need to go work somewhere else. Well, before I started working for the contractor guys, which were from my church, I worked at an optical lab for three weeks, tinting optical lenses like Easter eggs. Such a boring job. It was third shift, I didn't like it. And there was an opportunity to go to a Bible camp and work, and I said, Hey, can I go work at this Bible camp without pay? And I'll come back after the three weeks and I can work here again. And they're like, No, you can't do that. But you can leave now if you want. Anyway, so these guys, these construction construction guys and everything, um, they had me working for them, and everything was like working out perfect timing. I mean, I was working at the camp and I pray for a wife, and she comes and buys my parents' car, and I'm working construction, learning man skills, and then they let me go, and I need to find a job. And so I'm looking through the paper, and there's another optical lab hiring for the shipping department. And so I prayed about it. I put in my application, I went home, went to the video store, got a war movie, and I'm like, huh, I guess I'm unemployed. I guess I'll take a day off. And we didn't even get through the movie before the lady called back from that optical lab that was hiring, and she said, You are the only person that has applied that has optical experience. And I'm like, it was only for three weeks. And she's like, It is optical experience, and you have gone to the top of my pile. Therefore, could you come in and interview? I'm like, No? She's like, Yes. I'm like, what about my movie? So I go in to interview, and I get the guy says to me, he's like, Why do you want to work here? And I said, Because I'm a hard worker and I got a baby on the way and I want to take care of my wife. And he says, Can you play softball? And I said, Yes, I can play softball. He said, When can you start? I said, I don't know, I guess this week. He said, I'm not sure if it was Tuesday or Thursday, but I started working there and it was eight years of learning all sorts of stuff I would learn from ministry. God was really in it, and at just the right time, then I was able to start full-time ministry. But to back things up a little bit, I needed that Bible college education that I hadn't gotten. And because we were a poor family without a lot of money, I didn't see how I could make it happen. So I remember a time when I went out to St. Paul Bible College or Crown College, and I literally, I think my wife was really, literally prayed that somehow God would open the door for me to go there, somehow be able to afford it. And he did. And after I graduated from there, I got into full-time ministry, and God just blessing. There's so many things about our life that's I could talk about for timing, and I won't make this go on any any much further. But nonetheless, um, God's at work in my life, answering certain prayers, doing things according to his time. So the biggest mystery and thing that I always laugh about is that I left Chisholm Baptist in October 2001 to plant the church, and I returned to the Iron Range to this church October 1st, 2021. That's exactly 20 years. It's like the Iron Range gave me on loan to Belle Plaine, Minnesota for exactly 20 years and then called me back. But so God's just doing amazing things with timing. And there are so many things that God does in your life with timing. And sometimes God has just the perfect time. It's like there's a date on the calendar and this is gonna happen. Other times there's seasons and God is trying to get you ready for that season. So as you're growing in your faith, as you're getting more serious about serving the Lord, as you're taking volunteer opportunities to teach and to share your faith, you're becoming more usable in the hands of God, and he might bring you to a certain point in a certain season where he shows up and then he gives you a new opportunity or a new assignment or a new blessing or a new burden that you're going to experience him through. But Jesus, you know, being the creator of the world and everything else, um, could, you know, just ignore time and do whatever, but it appears that Jesus works in perfect timing. On your bulletin in the front, it says God has perfect timing, never early, never late. It takes a little patience and a whole lot of faith, but it's worth the wait. And I want to be in the midst of God's timing. I want to be in the midst of what God is doing. So I want God to bless this church and to fill this church and to do great things so we can influence the range and make a difference. And we have some empty seats, and as I pray about it, some things I can do is to pray, to reach out. Um, we do more with social networking and advertising and stuff. That's good. Trying to encourage you to invite your friends is good. But maybe God wants to get us ready so that we're ready with our children's ministry, and we're ready with our groups, and we're ready with the discipleship plan, and we're ready with uh, you know, evangelism, ready to share our faith. And so when we get ready, maybe God will bring people in and fill these seats with new believers that we need to be ready to serve. So maybe God's perfect timing for uh growing the church and growing us is just around the corner, just up the next hill. Or maybe it's gonna be a season while we do more to get ready as we get more people involved in leadership, as we do more as a church. Um, in my head, this is kind of a church that's been around for a long time. And on the other hand, it's a church that needs to like grow again and be kind of redeveloped. So part of my mindset is we need to do everything we can to help the current people that have been here forever keep growing and serving and loving God and getting along and making a difference, and we also have to get into kind of church plant mode and think about okay, what can we do to reach lost people all around? When new people come to the church, what are some of their first thoughts about you know who we are and what we are doing? Um, what can we do to expand more people serving in ministry to reach more people? But it's all in God's perfect timing. But we need to we need to push forward and be serious about it because we may be running out of time. Jesus could return at any time, and also people nowadays are less likely to want to pursue a relationship with Jesus in the church because there's just a lot of weird church stuff around the world they've heard about. They haven't experienced our healthy, wonderful, loving church. Um, and maybe they need to, maybe they're watching online right now and they just need to come visit us in purpose. I promise you, if you come here in person, the sound quality of the music and the sound quality is so much better than what you're hearing online right now. All right, but Jesus works in perfect timing. So when the right time came, God sent his son born of a woman, subject to the law in Galatians 4 4. So at the right time, when everything was set in order, when it was ready, then Jesus came to the earth and lived among us. And it was a good time. So when we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners in Romans 5.6. That Jesus is available to us now. Today is the day of salvation. It's time for us to get serious about following Jesus. It's time for us to repent of our sin and to follow Jesus today. It is the season. It is the time. So, 1 Timothy 6.15, for just the right time. Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only Almighty God, the King of all kings and Lord of Lords. What a great day that will be. I will be so excited when Jesus returns. But I will feel so bad for those people that have not received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I will feel so bad for those people that maybe I didn't try to tell. Um, you know, it's tough to share Christ with your neighbors, but you can, you know, start, have little conversations with your friends and neighbors and your co-workers and see where it leads. Maybe the Holy Spirit will open the door for you to share how to come, how they can come to Christ. So we have connecting with God booklets on the table there. You should put one of those in your pocket. Or those how to find God New Testaments, you should put one of those in your car. So if you put that how to find God New Testament in a ziploc bag in your car or um in your backpack or whatever, and have it ready to give to somebody, um, you might be the one that God uses to help change somebody's life. As you start the morning, you start the time of your day, and you pray, Lord, help me to be used by you today. I am willing to adjust my schedule to be used and then see what God does through you. It could be a great thing. So Hebrews 4:14. So then, since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. The high priest of ours understands our weakness, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. Jesus lived in a particular time. Jesus lived in a time when things were difficult. There was still temptation, there was still political unrest with the Romans around. Um, Jesus had a tough life. He wasn't rich, he didn't, everything wasn't just easily given to him. Um so he has experienced what you've experienced: heartache, difficulty, stress, sadness. And yet he experienced it all without sin, and he was an example for us to follow. But this verse is saying that he gets it, he understands. So maybe it's time for you in prayer to go pour your heart out to Jesus about the things that bother you, the things that bring you sadness, the things that you don't understand, your hopes and dreams and desires. And maybe you can even, as those God puts those desires on your heart, maybe you can just step up and start to go pray for those things. Like you know, Bible college or seminary or training or something that you're looking for, pray for that. Come up with a plan and pray for that and see how God can open the door. Sometimes we talked about this in Sunday school, but sometimes we get burdened and trapped in sin, and we just feel like we don't want to approach Jesus. We just want to hide away. And Hebrews 4:16 says, Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. So we need to take the time, no matter how messed up we are right now, no matter how sinful we are, to ask Jesus to forgive us of that sin and to come into our lives and save us, or if we are saved, to cleanse us of that sin and to help us find victory over it and to move forward with confidence and assurance. So we need to take advantage of the time that we have. We need to take advantage of the opportunities that we have. You know, we always think tomorrow is gonna be a better day. You know, tomorrow I'll have more time. Tomorrow I'll be able to do this. Tomorrow I'll be more effective for Jesus. I'm busy right now, but what happens often is that you're not sure of what tomorrow holds, and the opportunities that you thought would happen tomorrow are no longer there. So often people that say, Oh, when I'm older I'll follow Jesus, uh are then hit by some health issue or um unexpected death. Um, all of these things. Today is the day to approach God's throne with grace and confidence and receive that mercy and grace to help us in our time of need and to move forward. So, and then in John, in John, there's different miracles that Jesus did that are amazing, and I can't read through all of it, but I just want to cover some of them of Jesus waiting for the perfect time. Jesus waiting for the perfect time. So um he knows what's going on in our life, and sometimes he just waits for the right time to do things. So let's look at John chapter 7. John chapter 7, we see Jesus working out his plans with perfect timing. So uh Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders were looking for a way to kill him. When the Jewish festival of tabernacles was near, Jesus' brother said to him, Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works that you do. So um, so Jesus' brothers are like, hey, you know, okay, so you want to be like a political leader? Uh if you think that you're the Messiah, this is the perfect opportunity for you to, you know, start your platform and let people know who you are. So if you want people to follow you, this is a great, this is a great opportunity. So we're really encouraging you, Jesus, it's time for you to step up and reveal who you really are. Uh, because you know, if you really are the Messiah, then let's let's see it. Let's make it happen. Let's let's make this happen right now. And Jesus is like, um, yeah, no, it's not, it's not my time. Jesus says, No one, no, his brothers say, no one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world. For even his own brothers did not believe in him. So, what a difficult time for Jesus and his brothers and the family that he was in, as, you know, he knows his heart, he knows his heart's desire, he knows what he's going to do, what he plans to do. And that happens to us sometimes. Sometimes we get totally misunderstood. Sometimes we want to get serious about following Jesus, and people from our past, especially our siblings, come along and they're like, You can't do that. I I knew what you did in the past. How can you even think that you can do that? In which we just proclaim that we are forgiven, that Jesus has forgiven us of the past and given us a new future and made us new people. And my past is not me anymore. So I'm sorry for whatever it was in the past that you know you think is so terrible or we know is terrible, but I'm moving forward. I'm moving forward with a new life in Christ. It's time for me to live for Jesus with the rest of the time I have on earth because I'm living for eternity. All right, back to the story. Jesus told them, My time is not yet here. For you, any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. So Jesus is like, I can't just show up at the festival and do this because uh they're trying to kill me and they hate me, and they don't hate you. So you can move freely, you can go to the festival, you can do whatever you want. Um, me, um, I can't. I I still gotta train up some disciples. I got like a three-year plan here. I can't, it's not like totally my time, so why don't you just go? Is what he says. So you go on. I'm not going to this festival because my time has not yet come. After saying these things, he remained in Galilee where he was safe. However, after his brothers had left for the festival, Jesus went also, not publicly, but in secret. Um now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, Where is he? Some people are like, Whoa, Jesus just lied there. He's like, Oh, I'm not gonna go, and then he did go. But no, he was saying to them, You go ahead and go. It's not time for me to go with you. But then he went to the festival um secretly and uh got himself in position. Eventually he would start teaching at the festival, but uh in his wisdom, he wanted to get himself in the right place at the right time, and so avoid uh the religious leaders that were trying to kill him. So among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said he's a good man, others replied, no, he deceives the people, but no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders. Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. So Jesus then starts to teach and he shares. Um, he I would guess that he probably secretly worked himself into a good, safe crowd in which he could begin to teach. If he would have shown up with his brothers, everybody would have seen them entering, would have known, oh, Jesus is here, and he'd be more likely to be killed than so, or you know, trouble would ensue. So not only did Jesus, you know, protect himself, but he also protected his family. So his brothers. So, and then at the verse, at the end of John, John chapter 7, verse 30, uh it says they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. So Jesus is a great example of paying attention to the times and working in the midst of it to accomplish his will in his way, to do God's will uh with wisdom. And sometimes we need to be real wise about the way that we share our faith and we live for Christ and the things that we decide to stand up against and the things that we do publicly and the things that we do privately. And um, sometimes I think the best situations are um when we are really wanting to take spiritual ground and making a difference in the world. It's really great if we have somebody that's with us. It's really great if we have a friend at our side. We prayed together and we're serving together and we're trying to make a difference for Jesus together. And so having a good friend at your side can make all the difference in the world. So years ago, I found a guy that was drinking a lot of alcohol, and oh, his life was a mess, and he just had this long story of how drugs and alcohol destroyed his life, and he had come back to the range because he inherited his mother's house, and um, it was just this big mess. So I tried to lead him to Jesus and I told him that he should go to detox, and I got my friend who was uh um well, I think he'd been uh recovering alcoholic for about 10 years, but I got him to come with me, and so we got him to check into detox, and we found he checked himself out, we found him again, and uh so my friend was with me, and I'm trying to lead him to Christ, and um, so this guy is telling these stories, and my friend, a former alcoholic, just comes straight out. He says, You're lying. And the guy's like, No, I'm not. He's like, I know you're lying, you're an addict and you're lying. And the guy's like, Well, okay, I would have never known that he was lying, but I brought along a friend who was very helpful in that. And then we got that guy to go to detox, and we came to visit him the next day. He's like, I thought that I was gonna have like night terrors and it was gonna be so terrible like it was before. But he said, I asked Jesus into my life, and um, he said, I slept real good. I don't know how you know how the long-term story turned out, but I think the important thing was is that during that time I had somebody with me. I knew somebody that I could trust, I knew somebody that I could bring in to help. And sometimes we need to have wisdom, and if we really want to make a difference in the world, um sometimes it's best when we don't do it on our own. We gather friends, we have people praying for us, we make a difference together. So, all right, let me tell you another story. So uh John chapter 4, verse 52. So this um soldier has let me see here a royal official has a sick child. So, all right, so the sick you're familiar with the story in John chapter 4. So um this guy is like, uh my Jesus, my son, he's sick, he's dying. Come with me and help him heal him. So uh the soldier, the royal official, um, trusts that uh Jesus says, Oh, go ahead and go home, your son's gonna get well. And so uh the timing of it all, instead of making Jesus come with him, he just trusted. So, anyway, I'm just gonna jump into John chapter 4, verse 52. Um, he asked them when the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, Yesterday afternoon, at one o'clock, his fever suddenly disappeared. Then the royal official, the father, realized that was the very time Jesus had told him, Your son will live, and he, his entire household, believed in Jesus. So, in that story, that man had enough faith to trust that what Jesus said was true, and then he departed after Jesus said that without feeling in need to bring Jesus with. And out of his faith, not only did Jesus heal his son, but at the exact time Jesus said it would happen, it happened. And then he and his entire household believed in Jesus. So many of these miracles or signs that we see in John and in the New Testament, we see because it all leads to people believing in Jesus. So sometimes a great miracle or an answer to prayer will lead you or someone else to believing in Jesus. But for me, all the answers to prayer that I have, the specific answers to prayer, the amazing answers to prayer, the answers to prayer that I just never imagined could come true. Is a reassurance that my faith is real, that the God of the universe reached down from heaven to fix or help or provide or answer my prayer. And that is the way it should be in your Christian life too. We talk about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Well, that's based on the fact that we can communicate with Jesus through prayer. God speaks to us through his word, sometimes through us through our heart, but whatever he speaks to our heart should be verified in his word. But we go through life and we trust and we grow and we see answers to prayer. And hopefully, maybe we could write those down. Maybe we could like have a journal. I don't have a journal. I have a file that has some of my answers to prayer on napkins and pieces of paper. Pretty disorganized. But nonetheless, if you have that when you are feeling that God has been silent, you can look through that file and remember all of the things. Like that song, count your blessings, name them one by one. So, all right, do you remember the story of Jesus and Lazarus? So friend of Jesus. So Lazarus died, and Jesus knew about it. But yet Jesus didn't run to go fix him right away. Jesus even said, um, so he's only asleep. And his disciples are like, oh, if he's only asleep, then he'll get well. And Jesus is like, no, he's dead. But then Jesus waits. He like, you know, he knows that they're trying to kill him where Lazarus is. But nonetheless, Jesus like is on pause. He's not answering that prayer right away. He's waiting for Lazarus to be totally dead and buried before Jesus shows up and brings his friend back to life. And it appears sometimes that Jesus is wasting time. Sometimes you are praying for things specifically. And so it is a long wait for that prayer to get answered. So in John 11, 14, Jesus plainly tells them, Lazarus is dead. And he says, And for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him. So on his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. And so Jesus says to his sister, Your brother will rise again. And Martha answered, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. So she was a disciple, a follower of Jesus, and she did not get her prayer answered, but she still had trust. She was like hoping Jesus was going to show up and heal her brother so that he would continue to be there. And instead, he's dead and he's buried, and they're weeping, and Jesus wept, and it's so sad. Yet Jesus is brokenhearted, even though he knows he's gonna raise Lazarus up from the dead. So Martha's like, Well, I still trust you, Jesus. I didn't get my prayer answered, but I still am gonna follow you. I still trust you, I still know that you are the God, that I need to follow, that you are the Messiah, that you are the Lord of Lords, and I will keep trusting you. Even though I'm disappointed that I didn't get my prayer answered, and I'm pretty sure you could have done it, but for some reason you chose not to. And I think that's a place that we are sometimes in our life. And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the 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? And then he says, Take away the stone. And Martha says, By this time there's a bad odor, for he's been there for four days. Then Jesus said, Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? So they took away the stone, and then Jesus looked up and said, 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. When he had said this, he called out in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. And the dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face, and Jesus said to them, Take off the grave clothes and let him go. Therefore, many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him. Absolutely amazing, absolutely amazing that Jesus did that at that time for Lazarus. Do you know how much the religious leaders valued Lazarus after that? Now they wanted to kill Jesus and they wanted to kill Lazarus. So the news reporters were flocking from all over, wanting interviews with the guy who was raised from the dead. And the Pharisees, the religious leaders who wanted to kill Jesus, are like, we need to kill Lazarus because these interviews are not looking good for us. But let's watch a video about prayer for a minute.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

For centuries, Christians have been known as men and women of prayer, people who lift up their cares and concerns to the Father in heaven. Why is that? Why do we pray? We pray because it aligns the mind of the Christian with the will of Christ. We pray because Jesus commanded us to pray at all times, in all places. We pray because the God who knows all and sees all hears all. We pray because it is the blessed link between human weakness and divine omnipotence. We pray not because it is some religious rule, but because the Lord is God. We pray because it is the most simple and practical way to say, I am not God. We pray, not because it is a burden to us, but because it liberates us from all other burdens. We pray because it is exactly what the devil does not want us to do. We pray because God can do more in five seconds than we can do in five years. We pray because it is the one thing that too preached everything else on our to-do list today. We pray because we are too busy not to pray. We pray because somewhere, sometime, someone prayed for us. We pray because the greatest tragedy of the Christian life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer. Prayer is powerful. That's why we pray.

Chris T 29:00

And what if we moved from being reactive in prayer to praying for the things that are going wrong, to being proactive in prayer, for praying for the things that we'd like to see, that we'd like to do, the people we'd like to see saved, the people that we would like to be transformed and changed. Jesus can be trusted even when you are afraid. So many times we are afraid of what's going to happen next, but we need to just trust that Jesus is going to get us through, that he's going to provide for us, that he will help us through those difficult times. And so I'm going to move on to uh number five. Jesus may wait until you realize you can't fulfill your need. So many times we are praying and asking God to provide things, and we aren't getting exactly what we want. So the disciples are um in a in a bad place. And so John 21, 4 says, early in the morning Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, Friends, haven't you any fish? No, they answered. Then he says, Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. And when they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. So what was their need? They didn't get any fish. Um, but Jesus said, Throw your net on the other side. Does that even work if you're a fisherman? I mean, is the boat that big that all the fish are on that side? I mean, sometimes when you cast on that side, yeah, maybe. But nonetheless, Jesus provided. Um, Jesus knew their need and he provided for them. So I'm going to share a story, and then the worship team can come forward about God answering prayers. Have you ever heard of the Pacific Garden Mission before or the radio program called Unshackled? So it starts with organ music, unshackled stories of Christians. You can still listen to it. Years ago, I was asking people in the church to write down their testimonies so we could put them in the church newsletter at Chisholm Baptist there. And then we would send them out into the community. And so I put, we didn't get very many responses, like only three or something like that. So I put them online on the website, and I got a call from the Pacific Garden Mission. And they're like, hey, we were reading online the story of this person and this couple, and we want to know if we can talk to them because we'd like to make a radio program about them and about their testimony. And sure enough, they did make a radio program about the story of this couple that were going to Chisholm Baptist that uh was played around the world. Like you can still listen to it online. But nonetheless, Pacific Garden Mission has made a huge difference in people's lives. So here's my story. In 1880, a Christian couple, George and Sarah Clark, purchased the lease for the Pacific Beer Garden. Promptly dropping the word dropping the word beer, the couple added the word mission and launched a ministry to homeless alcoholics and downtrodden men and women. Thus was born the Pacific Garden Mission of Chicago, the old lighthouse, the second oldest rescue mission in the United States. Colonel and Mrs. Clark bore the cost of the mission themselves, but as expenses grew and the ministry expanded, their funds ran low. Eventually the day came when they could not pay the rent. Attempts to secure the needed funds failed, and Colonel Clark was told he had only 24 hours to make the payment. Otherwise, he would lose his lease and the Pacific Garden mission would close. Throughout the night, Colonel and Mrs. Clark prayed, asking God to guide and to provide in his own way in time. They reminded the Lord of the souls being saved each night, of the men and women whose lives were being salvaged. They asked him why they should find themselves in such straits while trying to do his work. But determining to trust and not question, they remained before the throne of grace in simple faith in an earnest pleading until the breaking of dawn. When they emerged from their Morgan Park house that morning, they gasped. What had happened to their front yard? It was covered with something white, something that instantly reminded them of the manna of the Old Testament. Looking closer, they discovered their lawn was filled with mushrooms of the very best quality, which was quite mysterious because it wasn't the season for mushrooms. Gathering the crop, the clerks carted the mushrooms down the street and sold them to the chefs at the Palmer House, the famed hotel just off Michigan Avenue for a large price. The receipts were enough to pay the rent, with enough left over to meet other ministry expenses, so the Pacific Garden Mission carried on its work undeterred. I think if we were to get together and share how God has answered our prayers in time of need, we might not have anything as spectacular as mushrooms we could go sell, but we might have a lot of stories we could share to encourage each other. Maybe you want to start sharing those stories with other people, it would be good. But God can do miraculous things through prayer. God answers prayer. Sometimes we don't have because we don't pray. Sometimes we pray and we don't understand which season it is in our life. Sometimes we want to keep moving on, and God says it's time for us to close this chapter of your life and open a new one, and that can be painful, but we trust and we pray. I'm gonna pray now, and the worship team is gonna come up here. But Lord Jesus, I thank you so much that we can gather into this place to encourage each other and build each other up. I thank you for your word and the stories that bring hope. I thank you for all the precious promises that we have for prayer. And I could tell stories for hours about your provision and grace and answered prayer. Lord, I ask that you would bless us as we go from here. If there's anybody here that doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior, that they would call out, Lord Jesus, I need you. Please forgive me of my sin and save me. I want to follow you, and they would start down that path of walking with you and living for you and following you, and that they would let us know so we could help them to start growing in the Christian life. I pray that for those of us that are going to the Ranged Missions Conference, that we would be encouraged and inspired. I pray that you would speak to us there too, that you would do a great work in our lives and a great work in this church, that you would fill the hearts of the people that are here and fill these empty seats with new friends and Christ followers that are going to share life with us and make a difference for the kingdom of God. And we ask us all in Jesus' name, amen.