Restored At The Right Time

Good morning Renovation Church!

Last time I was here preaching, we were out in a field at Northpoint Elementary School, so it’s been a while! I’m so glad to be back and to see how this church has grown and continues to preach the gospel and help people know and love Jesus.

Since I was here last, my family has grown a bit! [Show picture.] This is us this past Easter at Transform Church in Andover, which you helped plant back in 2019. I had the privilege of serving there for the last four years as the youth and creative pastor.

Now, like David said, I’m working on planting a new church—Destination Church—in East Bethel. We’re being sent out and supported by three parent churches, two of which Renovation helped plant. So that makes Renovation our grandparent church—And I think everytime I say that David might gain one grey hair, It’s the mark of the wise, right?

This summer, as we prepare to launch, we’ve been visiting other churches to learn and grow. Oddly enough, that’s actually how I met David back in 2009—when a team from Renovation came to visit a brand-new church plant that I was part of. Fifteen years later, here we are.

We visited Renovation again earlier this summer, and while I was here, I ran into one of my best friends from high school. He shared that he’s been coming to Renovation and really growing in his faith. I was so excited to hear that—And isn’t it crazy how when you see someone from a different era of your life, memories just come flooding back?

When I saw this friend, I instantly remembered this one day—back when we were about 15 or 16. A friend of ours had just gotten his license, and not just that, he somehow ended up with a beautiful 1960s Firebird as his first car.

We were really into skateboarding and rollerblading that summer, and we were bored teenagers who had played way too much Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. So we had the genius idea: “Hey, let’s strap on our skates, grab onto the back of the Firebird, and see how fast we can go.” What could go wrong?

Three of us grabbed the bumper, and off we went down Ware Road. Every time we gained five more miles per hour, the driver would give a thumbs up. I was on the right side. My two friends were on the left. We hit 5... 10... 20... 25... and then I stopped looking at the thumb.

I looked down, and I could see one of my rollerblade wheels starting to wobble a little. By the time I looked up again, I realized—I was the only one still holding on to the car. And then I heard someone yell: “Bail out!”

What we didn’t know was that the next section of Ware Road that we were heading towards had been under construction that day. So now I’m going about 30 miles per hour through a road full of obstacles. I had to dodge cones, debris, and who-knows-what else. One wrong move, and it could have ended differently.

Eventually, I decided to head toward the grass on the side of the road so I could bail out. Great idea... except that’s where they had piled all the dirt. So I ended the whole adventure by launching over a small dirt pile and tumbling into the grass.

Looking back on that, I think: 1) Thank God I’m not dead. 2) Let’s leave skating to the professionals. 3) If my timing had been off by even a second, that could’ve been a very different ending.

Timing was everything.

Have you ever felt that way? Like if things had another outcome, your life might be unrecognizable? Like it might be better, or worse, or just different? It can be difficult to make sense of God’s timing.

And that’s what I’d like to dig into today. I'd like to answer the question “how do we trust in God’s timing” as we continue to look at the book of 2 Kings chapter 8.

So grab your Bibles and turn to page 255. We’re back with the prophet Elisha, and this story connects to an earlier one in 2 Kings 4 about the Shunammite woman.

A quick recap on that story, this woman had a desire for a child. God miraculously gave her a son through Elisha, but that boy later died, and through Elisha, God brought him back to life.

Today, we continue her story with a section that required just as much faith as the last, let’s read starting in verse 1

2 Kings 8:1-2 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.” 2 The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

>So right away in these first verses we learn the first of three things we need to know about God’s timing:

1. Walking away can be a step forward

● So in chapter 4 this woman has a home and no son, now she’s going to have her son, but no home.

● This woman walks away from where she’s lived and hosted, her land, her memories—everything she’s worked for. She leaves it all behind because Elisha says, “The Lord has decreed a famine.”

● That phrase—“the Lord has decreed a famine”—can sound unsettling. What does it mean?

○ God wasn’t surprised by the famine—He authorized it. And that might make us uncomfortable, but hey, so does the dentist.

○ Think about it, I authorize the dentist to put me in painful situations in order that my teeth may be properly restored.

○ Even in suffering, God is not absent. He’s sovereign and he has a plan and purpose.

● And here’s a painful situation for this woman, but yet she’s walking away in obedience, trust, and faith even though she is walking away from so much

● We need to know that sometimes God’s timing works like this. It may seem or feel like less by the world’s standards, but God’s plans don’t always move up and to the right. ○ Here’s an example of this: if you won the lottery and had the winning ticket and a trusted friend saw you on the way to cash in and said “I got a word from the Lord, that we are supposed to leave everything behind including that ticket” you’d question if he’s really your friend. Right?

○ This woman’s situation reminds me of another example like it in Luke chapter 5. ■ Peter fishes all night, catches nothing, then meets Jesus and Jesus tells him how to do his job, and to cast his net on the other side of the boat. He catches so many fish his nets almost break. Jesus says, “Follow me,” and Peter leaves the catch behind.

■ Did you hear that? The boats? The fish? The catch of a lifetime all behind (expand)

● Sometimes walking away from what looks like worldly success is actually walking into God’s perfect timing for your life.

> Let’s read on in verse 3

2 Kings 8:3-5 At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land. 4 The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” 5 Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”

> So this woman listened to Elisha, but the result of her obedience is that either someone had illegally occupied the women’s property during her absence, or it had fallen to the domain of the king as a result of it being abandoned, so she had to plead to the king either way.

● Then, look at verse 5, just as the king was being told her story from 2 Kings 4, she just happens to show up. What are the odds?

● This shows us, again, how we can trust in God’s perfect timing because…

2. God is working while you’re waiting

● A pastor friend of mine has this phrase that he says about situations like this, the phrase is: “It’s almost as if…”

○ So you mean to tell me at the very moment Gehazi is telling this woman’s story to the king she just happens to be there to ask? Man, it’s almost as if there’s this cosmic presence that sees all, knows all, and makes all things work together.

● This isn’t coincidence or luck. This is God’s timing. His providence. His glory. ● Sometimes we think we missed God’s timing. We beat ourselves up for what seems like mistakes or delays.

○ I think if we are honest, we forget this, I forget this.

○ We sometimes believe we have a personal responsibility to get God’s timing right and if we miss it, we lost out, and we don’t understand God’s timing.

○ Here’s an example: I grew up in Centerville a couple of miles away from Wargo Nature center. My wife, who grew up in Isanti, would frequently go to Wargo Nature center, so we often think, what if we were there at the same time?

○ Now if we were there at the same time do you think God in heaven would be like, “alright, it’s time for Josh and Chelsea to meet, they are going to have an amazing love story that starts when they are in 5th grade!” and then I walk past her and God’s like “Nooooo! I had this all planned out, well I guess they will both be single forever”

○ Does it work like that? No, it doesn’t work like that!

● You see God is doing thousands of things in your life and you may only be aware of a few of them.

● That story, while it may have been easier for myself and my wife, would not have brought God glory as much as our actual story

○ In our actual love story, I had just gone through one of the hardest seasons of my life. Out of that season though, I began to pray for my future wife, writing down everything I’d love in a future wife. While I was doing this, Chelsea was also

waiting, writing and praying for her future husband. Then, in 2013, I met a girl at a Caribou Coffee to buy a homemade knit hat, who I ended up talking to for 3 hours, and later asked her out on a date. We later read each other's prayers and had found that we were exactly what we’d been praying for.

● God’s timing is perfect, but not necessarily for us, it’s perfect for His glory, and that’s how it should be. (relate to story)

● Romans 8:28 reminds us of this, it says “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

● Our job is to have the faith to know God works in all things, and works for to those who love him

> So let’s look at the result of this story in verse 6

2 Kings 8:6 The king asked the woman about it, and she told him. Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.” The last thing we need to know about God’s timing is that…

3.God restores and multiplies

● The woman got everything back—her home, her land, and even the income she missed while she was gone.

○ So for you math people, that subtraction, followed by addition, followed by multiplication. God restored her.

● Maybe you’re here feeling like you missed God’s timing. Like you’ve lost too much or messed up too badly to ever be restored.

○ Subtraction can feel terrible. I’ve lived a life where I’ve struggled with mental health, loss, and so much more.

○ Let me remind you: God restores.

○ God takes your mess and turns it into a message that points to His glory. ○ And He doesn’t just restore—He multiplies. Even if you don’t see it immediately. ○ Even if you can’t picture how – When we begin to walk in obedient faith, as the

Shunammite women did, it may feel like loss, but we must have faith that God never takes away without the intention of restoring and multiplying even if it’s not until the end.

● I love how this is modeled through things like church planting.

○ When I left Transform I was sent as a staff member who was overseeing multiple ministry areas, preaching regularly, and knew the place well.

○ I was sent out, not just by myself but with funding and people, just as Renovation has done before.

○ To that church, sending those things feels and looks like loss.

○ But in the context of the kingdom, it is gain. Gain because how God restores and multiplies

○ In John 12:24 Jesus says “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

○ We need to let our timeline, our agenda, our preference, die so that it can produce God’s will, not our own.

● This starts with us saying “God, restore me” “God help me trust in your timing” ● However, while we are waiting, wondering, and while it hurts, it’s hard to believe that God will restore.

> The woman in 2 Kings 8, stood before the king with a story of loss too—but the king didn’t just hear her, he restored her. Friends, we stand before a greater King—and His name is Jesus.

Jesus left His home to enter the famine of our sin. He died in obscurity so you could walk into your restoration. And today, Jesus is in pursuit of you, asking you if you would put your faith and trust into Him and his timing.

The question for you is, will you let Him? Will you trust that God’s timing is perfect, even if it’s not necessarily perfect for you?

I want to give you a chance to respond to this, because maybe for some of you, you’ve been a fan of Jesus for a while, but not a follower. That, if you’re being honest, you haven’t let God take control and be Lord of your life, and that you haven’t trusted fully in His timing.

At this time would you just bow your heads and close your eyes with me ( for just a little private moment between you and God). If you’re here today and you’ve been wondering, hurting, and waiting for God to restore you and you feel like, in that process, you’ve walked away, or maybe have never truly known the God of restoration.

He’s here today, and he wants to show that His timing and plans are perfect, that there is freedom from sin, and that He can restore what has been lost. All God needs is your “yes.”

The yes is this; that you believe in Jesus, that He is Lord of your life, and that you seek to love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. If that’s you, and you’d like to give God your yes, in a moment of faith and boldness would you just raise your hand so I can pray with you?

[Prayer]

-Invitation if you said “yes” to that today, our prayer team would love to pray with (directions). -If you are interested in learning more about Destination Church we’ll have a table in the lobby where you can get more information and find out how you can help.

-Let’s stand and respond together in worship