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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

As We Near The End Of Time

Today I want to ask a simple question and that is simply this Have you ever received a call that changed everything?

I imagine most of you know what I'm talking about It's maybe that call that you hear something that you were not anticipating, you hadn't woken up that morning thinking that that would be your lot for that day, and it drastically changed your day, the course of your life, or where you would go, what you would do, the future.

Maybe it was a tragic car accident that you just found out about.

Some of you have gotten those phone calls.

I remember my, well, I don't remember, I wasn't there, but I remember being told of the phone call my grandmother got when the plane left PUC, and in the fog of that day, the pilot that wasn't trained in his instruments, and the plane was gradually turning and came back, and they crashed, and my grandpa was killed.

Those types of calls that change everything, just like that.

It could be a moment that a doctor tells you that you have been diagnosed with something.

And they start to tell you what you can expect, what to anticipate, maybe even how much time that you have.

Perhaps it's a phone call that deals with 1 of your children.

I can still remember where I was when I got a phone call from my wife Elizabeth.

This has been a few years ago now and she says we got the results back, the test results back, and she was out in town and she said they said it's come back definitive for Alexander disease, talking about our youngest James.

They said, it's a scary thing, don't go online and look.

You got to go online and look and see what this thing is.

Those moments that change things, And you can't plan for them, you can't anticipate them, but they happen.

And I don't know about you, but the day is different after that phone call.

The question, did you find your to-do list was no longer that important.

After that car accident, after that wreck, and you woke up with all these things on your to-do list, and you had to get them all done, and you were even stressed about them.

And now that just gets cast to the side, doesn't it?

That the things that stressed you just minutes before no longer consume your thoughts.

Was the triteness of life instantly replaced by some heavy reality?

Were you given an instant clarity on what was most important?

You know, all of a sudden, all those things that you thought were important, you realize in a split second really that they're not that important.

And you end up praying prayers like this, Lord help me to distinguish between the urgent and the eternally significant.

That's what I want to talk about this morning.

Help me to distinguish between the urgent, all those things that are required of me, and all those phone calls to return, all those emails to respond to, all the things to get done around the house and with work and projects and and all the rest They're urgent.

They need attention But maybe they're not eternally important or significant in the grand scheme of things Lord help me to distinguish between the 2.

Now last week we looked at John chapter 4, the woman at the well, and we went through that story and you may recall I think it's in the third verse that Jesus tells his disciples we must go through Samaria.

It was the long way around, it was more mountainous, it would take longer, besides the Jews didn't like the Samaritans, and so it would just be the easiest way we could go to the right, to the left, either of which are better, but instead we're going to go right through the mountains?

But Jesus has this conversation, if you recall, with this woman at the well, and it changes her life forever.

And she goes back and she tells about this man who knows everything about her and how it's changed her life and then they come back and they say, surely this is God.

And multitudes, many it says, followed after.

And Jesus stays there for 2 days in Samaria.

And the disciples as they come, Jesus, why are you here?

Or why are you talking with this woman and so on, are you still hungry?

And he says, I have food that you don't know about, doesn't he?

That is my food, that's what feeds me, that's what I crave, that's what gives me energy, That's the food that I'm all about, is to glorify God.

And so we spent some time, I mean even in John 17 4, we looked at that this last time, this idea I have finished the work that you have given me to do.

Certainly Jesus had other things he wanted to do.

Not everybody was healed, not everybody had been spoken to and been able to be pulled out of their sin, and the list goes on and on and on.

But he prays this prayer in John 17, 4, I have finished, I have completed the work that you have given me to do.

And so we asked the question last week, to glorify God.

That is the essence, right, of what it's about.

Fulfilling the task that you were born for.

To accomplish the mission that God has in mind for your life.

It doesn't say I finished all the things I wanted to do, but that you wanted me to do.

Not finishing the work there I just said that you want to do, but to finish and complete the assignment that God has given you.

Jesus' life purpose was to daily seek the Father's will and do it each and every day rising up early long before daybreak to be alone to commune with his Father Lord I need to know what your will is for me today and even in the Garden of Gethsemane if there's any other way any other way but not my will but yours be done was his prayer And so the question we asked last week is, what is God's will in my practice or in my business, in my relationships with my staff and my coworkers, how I use my time, how I spend my money, how I relate to my spouse and my children, my entertainment practices.

Lord, what is your will in each of these?

Lord, what is your will in my health practices?

Otherwise, our lives will be filled with stuff and with things and with to-do lists, but how tragic it would be to accomplish a bunch of things that are not God's purpose for your life and what you were made and created to do.

And so this has ended up turning into a series, a three-part series.

But the first part of this series on eternal principles, number 1, God, what is your will?

And today, Lord, help me distinguish between the urgent and the eternally significant.

Again, an eternal principle that we need to look at.

And so for that 1, we're going to stay in the book of John, but we're going to turn to chapter 11.

So if you brought your Bibles, turn with me to John in the 11th chapter, a well-known story here about Lazarus.

I hope you have something you can look at there.

There's a Bible in the pew in front of you if you didn't bring anything.

But reading from John chapter 11 beginning verse 1, now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany.

By the way this is the longest narrative in John besides the crucifixion.

And so Lazarus is sick, he's in Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

It was that Mary who anointed the Lord, verse 2, with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Therefore the sister sent to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love.

Jesus liked to go be with these individuals.

And so the word comes, Lord behold, he whom you love is sick.

And so verse 4, when Jesus heard that he said, this sickness is not unto death, but what?

That the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Verse 5, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, so when he heard that he was sick, he stayed 2 more days in the place where he was.

Now he was a couple days journey to this place where Lazarus was, but here instead of hopping on some form of transportation or walking or doing whatever he could to get there, he stays.

Do you ever have those moments when you pour your heart out to God and you're anticipating that God is going to do something?

God is going to work and act, he's gonna heal, he's gonna do whatever it is, and you're just certain that this is the case, and then it doesn't happen.

Could it be that as we pray, as we give it over to him, he tries to whisper in our ears, this sickness is not unto death, for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Could he ever be responding to us in that way in his silence?

And you know this story as well as I know this story.

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As We Near The End Of Time

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