Bobby Chandler - When God Doesn't Meet My Expectations
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Summary:
In this launch of the new series «Warning: How to Prevent Spiritual Injury» in a new building, the preacher addresses handling life’s unexpected disappointments and traumas without doubting God or oneself. Using examples like marriage surprises, infertility, divorce, job struggles, and cancer diagnoses, he explains that traumatic events tempt us to question God’s goodness and our own strength. Biblical figures like John the Baptist and Elijah faced similar doubts. The core message: Instead of questioning who God is in tough times, trust who He is—faithful and present. Jesus came to heal the spiritually broken (Matthew 9:10–13), and recognizing inner wounds is key to healing. The story of Lazarus (John 11) illustrates Jesus delaying (arriving «four days late») not out of indifference but to reveal greater glory through resurrection, teaching that God’s timing and purposes often exceed our expectations for deeper faith and healing.
Warning: How to Prevent Spiritual Injury Series Introduction
Not only is this a special day to be in a new building, but we’re starting a new series, and the series may sound a little different. I always say that because I’m always bringing different things to you guys, but God caught my attention three different times with this, so I’m excited to start this series titled, «Warning: How to Prevent Spiritual Injury.»
What I want to do is ask a big question: What do you do when life does not meet your expectations? How do you feel about God when the life you planned starts to crumble? When the things you thought were going to go well start to fall apart? Right? And you did not expect that situation to happen.
For some of you, you married the love of your life, and you were so excited until nighttime when you realized that your spouse snores louder than a bear. Now you’re like, «God, is this really the one you want me to be with? Am I never going to get sleep again?» Come on, some of you know what I’m talking about. Or maybe you were the one who thought, «I can’t wait to get married because, God, we’re just praying for babies. We want a big family. We’re going to be the kind of people with little ducks following us.» You got them all trained, and you wanted ten kids, but you didn’t know God was going to give you a lot of kids at once. You had no clue, and all of a sudden, you got twins or triplets, and you’re like, «God, can we talk? Because that’s not what I meant. I know you know the desires of my heart, but you gave it too fast. I did not expect that.»
But you know, I started to think because life is not always so lighthearted, and some of the situations that are going to come your way that you did not expect are going to be hard to deal with. For some of you, when you got married, you did not expect that the very next year you would already be divorced, and that’s hard to understand. For some of you, you worked your butt off to get that degree, and you thought everything was going to be perfect and good, but it’s been difficult, and you didn’t expect to be in the situation that you’re in—still looking for a job and wondering, «God, did I even do the right thing? Because now I’ve got a lot of debt to pay off.» That was unexpected.
For some of you, you’ve walked into a hospital room for a normal checkup, thinking everything was going to be okay, until you heard the phrase, «You have cancer.» What do you do? What do you do when you hear these things, when life just slaps you in the face, and these things are so unexpected? Now you’re walking out of the hospital saying, «God, I’m fighting for my life, and I thought it was a normal Tuesday. I didn’t expect this. How am I going to get through this?»
What do you do when life is not what you expect? The title of today’s message is this: «When God Doesn’t Meet My Expectations.» Because I have realized something important; whenever someone goes through a traumatic event, you are tempted to doubt two different things. The first thing that you are tempted to doubt is who God is. «Who is God? God, where are you? Why aren’t you in my situation? Why does my situation look the way it does right now? I thought you were good. I went to church last Sunday. How come my life doesn’t look better?» You start to doubt who God is.
The second temptation is that you will doubt yourself. «I’m not made for this. I can’t get through this.» Have you ever said that to yourself? «I’m not strong enough to deal with this. There’s no way.» Have you ever prayed to God, «I’d rather just give up and be done. I don’t want to go through this situation. I don’t want to deal with this, God. I know that you’re good. I know that you’re here. I know that you have a plan, but I’m not built for this. I’m not made for this.» We are tempted to doubt who God is and who we are.
Biblical Examples of Doubt in Trauma
And I want to show you that this is not uncommon. If you feel this way, I want to show you just how normal this is because even biblical characters that we have grown up hearing about—their faith and their boldness—went through the same thing whenever they faced a traumatic event.
Let me show you one of them: John the Baptist. John the Baptist, the famous preacher, when he saw Jesus coming, he said, «He is the one.» He was so confident! He saw Him and said, «He is the one. He is the Messiah. He is the Lamb of God! Everybody, look at Him!» He said, «You should be baptizing me!» He baptized Christ. Let me show you John, chapter 1, verse 29, New Living Translation: «The next day when John saw Jesus coming toward him, he said, 'Look! The Lamb of God who takes away our sin—the sin of the world! '» But if you know the story, you know that John was taken into prison, and now he’s facing death. As he’s going through this traumatic situation—even though he still has faith in God and knows that God is still in control—there must have been some doubts in his mind because all of a sudden, in the beginning, he was like, «He’s the one. He’s the Messiah.» But now that he’s in prison, he’s telling his own disciples, «Hey, go ask Him, 'Is He really the one? Is He really the one? '» I just want to make sure. I want to be positive He’s the one.
Have you ever felt that way in your walk with Christ? «God, I heard you speak this over my life, but are you sure it’s me? Are you sure you want to use somebody like me? Are you sure that’s the direction you want me to go?» Look at Matthew, chapter 11, verses 2 and 3: «So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, 'Are you the Messiah? The one we’ve been expecting, or shall we keep looking for someone else? '» I love Jesus’s reply because He says, «The blind will see, and the dead will be raised.» That phrase alone means, «Yes, I’m the Son of God.» That was prophetic; the Messiah would come, and the dead shall be raised. But even John the Baptist, going through a traumatic situation and facing death, started to doubt.
Let me show you another one: the prophet Elijah. If you don’t know the stories of Elijah, he was a beast! This man had faith that enemies feared. Oh, you want to go against my God? All right! You got some phony idols over there; that’s pretty cool—that’s cute! Let me show you something real quick: fire fall down from heaven and consume it! Imagine his enemies thinking, «Can ours do that?» No! He even prayed against his enemies; he prayed for a drought that lasted about three years—close to three years! His enemies feared him. He had this mighty warrior faith. It didn’t matter where he was—God was always doing the miraculous.
But isn’t it crazy that you can see God work miracle after miracle after miracle, and then a new situation comes up and all of a sudden you’re like, «I don’t know if I can do this»? Sometimes I look at myself and think, «What’s wrong with you? You’ve seen God work before. He’s done mighty things before. Why would you think that this situation would be any different?» Because all of a sudden, this prophet, the prophet Elijah, is deathly afraid of a woman’s wrath. Now, some of you men can say amen to that. I think some of you understand. «Oh, I get it, I get it.»
But all of a sudden, the king’s wife, Jezebel, was coming after him. She wanted to kill him, and when he heard this news, guess what he does? The famous prophet Elijah runs into the wilderness, hides, and prays to God, saying, «Just take my life; I’m not made for this. I can’t handle this situation.» (1 Kings 19:4)—"Then he went alone into the wilderness. He traveled all day, sat down under a solitary broom tree, and prayed that he might die.»
Now listen to what he said to the Lord, because you may relate: «I’ve had enough!» I mean, really let this sink in: «I’ve had enough!» And then he says to God, «Take my life; I can’t do this. I didn’t expect this. I don’t know how I’m going to get through a situation like this.» I’m telling you, every time you go through a traumatic situation, you’ll be tempted to doubt who God is and who you are.
Is God Allowing Letdown for a Reason?
And so I started to think about this because a lot of you may feel this way right now, and I want you to know you are not alone. You’re not alone! And we need to be real about that within the church. We need to be real about that when we’re going through a struggle. When we don’t feel confident, right now, I believe in God, but I don’t know where my faith is at this moment because I’ve been through so much pain. I believe that God is good, but everything that I’m seeing around me seems bad. You’re not alone!
But I do want to challenge you today if that’s how you feel, and I want you to ask this question about your life: Is there a reason God is allowing you right now to experience a letdown? Is there a reason right now that God is allowing you to experience a letdown? And the reason why I ask that question is that I know that He is a good God, and some things don’t make sense around us. But is it possible that God is trying to teach you something new? That God is trying to show you something on the inside that you’ve been overlooking and not caring about? Or that you don’t believe in yourself— that you can get there or that God can lead you there?
Sometimes He allows these troubles in your life, these walks in the wilderness or in the desert, feeling like you have nothing left to give, where God’s like, «Just keep moving. You don’t know this, but one more step, that miracle comes! One more step, one more prayer—keep moving in faith!»
But how do we change our mindset? That’s a big question. How do we change that mindset? How do we have that perspective on life when things don’t go the way we expect them to? I want to share this with you: How you handle life’s toughest moments will either break you or make you. How you handle life’s toughest moments will either break you or make you, and that’s nothing new. You’ve heard that before! But here’s something you may not realize: You have a choice. You have a choice. You can choose for life to crush you, or you can choose to say, «I still have faith, even though I don’t understand, and I’m going to keep walking.»
And I realized something in my life—in our life—that my wife and I went through a hard situation. You know, it’s just human nature to ask, «Who are you, God?» when we go through something difficult, right? It’s human nature to think that way: «Who are you, God, in my situation right now? Because it’s very bad.» I questioned who God was in my bad situation. You know what changed my mindset? Instead of questioning who God was, I started to trust who God was. I no longer questioned Him about my situation. I believe that He can get me through my bad situation because God never said, «Your life’s going to be perfect.» I’ve shared this before; He never said that. He just said, «I’ll be with you through it all.»
«Everybody laughs at you? Don’t worry, I got your back. You feel all alone? Don’t worry, I’m there. You’re not alone, you’re never alone. If you could only see what I have encamped around you.»
Let me give you some encouragement today: If you feel alone or feel broken, Isaiah, chapter 43, verses 2 and 3, New Living Translation, says, «When you go through deep waters, I’ll be with you.» Notice He says, «When you go through it.» He’s saying you’re going to go through deep waters, but I’ll be with you. «When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, guess what? You’re not even going to be burned up. The flames will not consume you.» Why? Because I never said you wouldn’t go through it, but I said I’d be with you through it all. And you’re going to come out of that stronger. You’re going to come out of that with a testimony like, «Guys, God led me through fire; I’m not burned! But I didn’t do it on my own power or strength; I did it on God because He’s so good!»
And I’ve realized that sometimes we feel like we have nothing left that’s good to give to God, but yet God is still good to us. God is still good to you. It doesn’t matter if you feel weak. All right, that’s the point of our human nature: we’re supposed to be weak. Why? So we can rest on His strength, not yours. Take the burden off of your shoulders. You weren’t made for it! No wonder you feel broken. No wonder you feel heavy. No wonder God is here. II Timothy chapter 2, verse 13, NIV translation says, «If we are faithless, He still remains faithful.» Even when we feel like there’s no hope to get through, He still remains faithful. Why? Because He cannot disown Himself.
You know what that means? What He’s spoken over you will happen. He will never disown what He has spoken over your life. But you can choose to follow God or walk away. You can choose, «Hey, this situation is really difficult. God, I’m going to trust You. I’m going to make it. I’m going to make it through. I’m not going to break! Instead of questioning who You are, I’m going to trust who You are through my situation.»
What is Spiritual Injury?
But again, the title of this is «Warning: When God Doesn’t Meet My Expectations.» We’re talking about a spiritual injury, and for us to dive deep within the scriptures, you first have to understand: What is a spiritual injury? All right, what does that mean? Miss Madison, are you ready? Go ahead and come out real fast. We’ve got her in the sling this morning, and the reason why this is just a quick illustration is that when she walks into the room looking like this, what do you think? What happened, right? What’s going on? What did you break? What did you do?
Some of you parents know what it’s like to step on a Lego and fall. Okay, that’s probably the worst pain a parent can ever experience. If you’ve been there, you know what I mean! You’re like, «Legos! Send you back to the enemy!» Whatever. But anyway, that’s off track, sorry! When you walk into a room and you have something broken on the outside, immediately everybody puts their focus on that. They ask what happened; how can we help? Can we provide something for you? People focus on that.
But we’re talking about a spiritual injury. Just like there are side effects for a physical injury, did you know that there are side effects for a spiritual injury as well? And some of those side effects are shame. Some of those side effects are confusion. You’re distant in relationships; you have a problem trusting people. You feel bitter, you feel angry—every time you walk into a room— and guess what? You walk into a room and maybe you guys have noticed this before: somebody walks into a room and they just look and feel spiritually broken, like there’s this heaviness, and you know it and they know it!
But the difference between a spiritual injury and a physical injury is that a lot of people don’t know where to focus for healing. Thank you, Madison; I appreciate it. So how do you do it? How do you focus on something that you can’t see but you know you feel? How do you heal something on the inside that you know is broken and lost, but you don’t even know how to talk to God about it or what to do?
Jesus Came for the Broken
And I love this because the reason why I want you to pay attention to spiritual brokenness or spiritual injury is that Jesus’s wording of why He came in the first place was to heal who? The sick, the broken, the lost. Let me show you Matthew chapter 9, verses 10-12. Again, this is the NIV translation. It says, «While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came. They came to the party and ate with Him and His disciples.»
And just to let you know what’s going on, the Pharisees are looking in, and they’re like, «Man, He is eating with a bunch of sinners!» Okay? It’s like one of your friends eating at a table with Alabama fans! All right, you know what that means! I love you, Stephen. Happy birthday! Anyway, I’m still praying for you too; don’t worry. But they’re looking in, saying, «Why is Jesus doing this? If He’s a prophet, if He’s saying that He’s the Son of God, or the Messiah, or claiming to be, He should not be at a table with these people!»
When the Pharisees saw this, they asked the disciples, «Hey, why does your teacher eat with the tax collectors and the sinners?» I love Jesus’s boldness. I love it! Because it says, «On hearing this, Jesus said"—which means Jesus was at the table, and He overheard them—"and He said, 'What’d you say? You’re talking about me? Did you say something about me? You don’t have to ask them; I’ll answer you right now.'» And He says this: «It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. It is the broken; it is those who have a spiritual injury and feel like they have nothing left to give.» He says, «I have come for you! You who feel like you’re not worthy enough to be in this house today.» He says, «I’ve come for you! Because I’ve come to heal the sick, the lost, and the broken.»
But here’s the kicker! See, here’s what the Pharisees did not understand. Jesus is also pointing out, «Hey, guess what, Pharisees? You need healing too! You’re walking around with so much brokenness on the inside, but it’s covered with pride! You can’t even see it!» Man, that’s hard! I used to be like that. I didn’t like telling people about my problems. I didn’t want to share what I was going through; if I was going through a hard time, because to be honest with you, I didn’t think people cared. And so I didn’t want to put my burdens on you. But what happens over time—you may know how this feels—you take on so much and so much and so much that eventually, guess what? You’re going to break.
And He’s telling the Pharisees, «You can’t walk around with that pride; you need healing too! You need me too! But you can’t even see it!» Matthew, chapter 9, verse 13: «For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.» That gave me chills when I read this because you know how many times I talk to people and I know it’s spiritual warfare? People walk into the church, and they hear automatically: «You’re too bad to be here, » or «You’ve done too much, » or «Look what you did last night! Look at that addiction that’s still in your life and you’re pretending everything’s okay!» Right? «Look at these things that are in your life; you’re too much of a sinner to be here.» Guess what? Jesus said, «I have come to call those who know they are what? Sinners!» He came for you!
And it amazes me to understand this: that when we ask for forgiveness, God not only restores us, redeems us, and forgives us, and walks with us, but He already knows the next time you’re going to mess up before you do—or the next time you’re going to go through something difficult and maybe say the wrong thing or make the wrong choice. He already knows! And He says, «I have come for you because you know that you need me, and I’m going to show you something.»
Listen: Here’s a powerful truth; you ready for this? In order to be healed, you must first recognize you have a wound. It is that simple! In order to be healed, you must first recognize that you have a wound! Because pride does not heal the wound; it only pretends it is not there until it is too late to heal, and it makes your heart stubborn. And if you walk into a room and you have that spiritual brokenness on the inside, you feel like you don’t want to talk to anybody; you don’t want to trust anybody. And maybe right now what you’re going through—you don’t even know if you can trust God! But I want to change your perspective today. I want you to see how good God really is.
The Story of Lazarus (John 11)
So if you have your Bibles with you, go ahead and turn to John, chapter 11. Because the rest of the sermon, I’m going to be teaching out of a story in John, chapter 11. It’s a powerful story about Jesus and healing, but it’s also a little unusual. So again, it’s in John, chapter 11. Let me give you some background first. So Jesus is traveling, and He’s going to meet with His good friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He has already spent time with them. If you know nothing about Mary, she’s the one that anointed Jesus’s feet with expensive oils and perfumes, which was probably her life savings. That she anointed His feet, and she worshiped Him! They’ve allowed Jesus to come into their house. They sat at the table with Him, they fed Him, and they heard stories about His healings.
Imagine that! Imagine hearing from Jesus who He’s healed, and I need you to understand this: they saw Jesus as a healer. They saw Jesus as a healer! So now their brother Lazarus gets sick, whom Jesus already considers a good friend, so they send Him word: «Hey, Jesus, we need you right now! We need you to come right now because our brother, Your good friend, he’s sick, and he’s dying! If you don’t get here, it’s going to end up really bad! But we know You can heal! We’ve had those conversations! Remember I anointed Your feet? We talked, we worshiped You, and we know that You will come through on this!» But here’s what’s unusual about the story.
There are two things, actually. Jesus did see them as friends; He loved them, yet He still arrived four days late! Four days late! Now here’s a big one: He tells His disciples, and He says this: He looks at them and says, «Lazarus is dead, and I am glad!» That’s a weird phrase. He says, «Lazarus is dead, and I’m glad!» He even says, «I’m glad I was not there!»
Now there’s more to the passage; don’t read ahead! It gets good! But that’s what He says to them! Now, I started to think about this because when I was in Bible college and we were training on how to handle hard situations, you’d be surprised at some of the things you should not say to people who are mourning. One of them I’m actually very cautious with—saying, «I’m sorry.» Some people are offended by that because they feel like either you’re being fake or you really don’t feel the seriousness that they feel in this situation. So the best thing that I’ve ever done because I know God’s healing is, «Let me just pray for you right there.»
«Because God is the only one that can heal you. I may not understand what you’re going through, but God does. He can!» But never in my life would I know a good friend has passed away and say the words, «I’m glad!»
So why would Jesus say such a thing? Why would He say it to His disciples, and why would Jesus show up four days late to His good friend who needed His healing? I’m going to answer a lot of questions for you today; it’s going to be good! All right, let’s look at it. John chapter 11, verses 1 through 6: «A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha.» This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her own hair.
And I noticed that the text points it out, and the reason why I believe that is because if you know the story, when Jesus finally does arrive, Mary stays home. Like, she doesn’t want to talk to Jesus. Martha comes up to Jesus, but Mary stays in the house; she doesn’t want to talk to Him. And I started thinking, you know if you’ve ever had, like, a wedding before, and people give you gifts, and it’s really nice, and you say thank you, but you know there are certain people that expect, like, that thank you card back in the mail. You know what I mean? «I gave you this gift, but I expect just a little bit of recognition.» You know, just something!
And think about this: Mary poured out her life savings on His feet! That’s a big deal! Her life savings on His feet! She dried it with her own hair, and Jesus had been traveling, okay? So His feet were dirty! She did this! And so, because she’s a human being, she’s probably thinking right now, «I did all this. I gave up everything. I worshiped You, and You couldn’t even be here to save my brother from dying! Jesus, I heard all the stories about You healing! Why couldn’t You be here right now? We trusted You!»
We’re going to get to them, so it continues. It says, «So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling Him, 'Lord, your dear friend is very sick.'» So not a random stranger—not Lazarus, but your dear friend is sick! But when Jesus heard about it, now this was good! He said, «Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death.» He immediately says that!
And I started to think—a lot of times when we pray, God speaks to your soul a word. Maybe during worship today you’re going through something, and God spoke to you and He said, «It’s going to be okay!» Or «You’re going to be healed!» Or «That relationship is coming!» Or «Things are going to get better! Don’t worry!» And you hear it, and you’re like, «Yes, Lord, I receive it!» Right? We clap, we shout, we give a praise! We make some noise, right? We believe it! And a lot of times we’re like, «Yes, Lord! Right now! Right now! Come on! I heard you! God, what are you doing? I’m in front of my friends right now! Right now! Come on!»
Like, I heard you say it! You spoke this over my life! Where is the miracle? And so many times, we misinterpret the true purpose of a healing from God because sometimes the purpose of the healing is not to heal you right now, but later!
Let this sink in: Sometimes the purpose of the healing is not to heal you right now because God is going to heal something bigger! You may have a spiritual injury on the inside, and if God just heals you right now, guess what? You’re still going to be walking in brokenness, and you don’t even know it! So sometimes God allows these situations in our life to put your eyes back on Him, your focus back on Him.
«God, what is it in my life? What is going on right now? I just need You! I need help to understand because this is not what I expected! This is not part of my plan!»
Because, look, Jesus said, «Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death.» And then in verse 5, «Although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, He stayed where He was for the next two days.» He spoke a promise of healing, but was patient! He spoke a miracle that they desired so bad within their life—"Jesus, be here! We know You can heal! We know You are a healer! You’ve sat at my table!"—yet the Bible tells us He stayed there two more days, and then we know that He arrived four days late to His dear friends.
When God says He will heal but doesn’t on your terms, it’s unexpected, and it’s hard. And that’s what I’m saying; it’s tempting, right? To doubt who God is and who you are, you really start to doubt what you believe and what you’re going through. But I’m telling you, God is trying to teach you something and do something new because Mary and Martha knew Jesus could heal their brother. They expected Him to do it! «Come home right now! Come here right now! You ate at my table, Jesus! We had dinner together! We know You are a healer! Why are you not here? Why does it feel like You’re not in my situation right now?»
And I felt this heavy burden because so many of us expect God to do what we want. So many of us expect God to do certain things for us. Just like Mary, some of us have said, «God, I serve every week! I give all the time! Of course, you should bless me! Of course, You should protect my family! Of course, everything should be better!» Maybe for some of you, you said, «God, look, I took a social media break. I didn’t want any of that, and I spent time just with You! But You know the desires of my heart, and I’ve been looking for a relationship for a very long time! God, of course, You should send me that person that I’ve been praying for!»
It gets more difficult! «God, I’ve been praying for healing, and I’m sick, and I’m tired of being sick. And I don’t know if I have enough strength to keep making it! I keep praying, and I keep believing, but it just feels like You’re not showing up!»
Jesus showed up four days late! When He showed up, Lazarus—their brother, here’s his dear friend—was dead, and that was the situation! Let me show you, and they were upset. John chapter 11, verses 20 and 21: «When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him, but Mary stayed in the house.» He didn’t want to talk to Him!
Now later she did come up to Jesus, but it took her some time because she didn’t understand. And Martha said to Jesus, «Lord, if You had just been here, my brother would have been alive.» «Lord, if You were just here in this situation, everything would have been okay.»
But she didn’t know yet what Jesus had revealed to His disciples. See, now I want to get back to that because just a bit ago I told you that Jesus said to His disciples, «Lazarus is dead, and I am glad.» I’m glad I’m not there!
But let’s finish it: John 11:14–15. He said, «Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I’m glad I wasn’t there. For now, you will really believe!» I’ve let it get to such an impossible situation that you’re about to witness God do the impossible, and you’re about to believe something you’ve never thought could happen.
Personal Testimony and Conclusion
I started praying about this, and if you know our story—if you know our family—many times on this stage I mentioned my daughter, Gabriella. We had tracheomalacia when she was born. She couldn’t breathe on her own. She needed a trach. It was a traumatic experience for our family. But God spoke a promise. I remember me and my wife hearing from the Lord one day, «She’s going to sing.»
I was reminded of that this week—her last week—because this old video popped up, and she was singing, but she still had no voice. So she was trying to sing, and she was like— and it was just, it was so cute! It just reminded me of how far she’s come and what God has done in her life! But when she was born with that, they thought, «Maybe give it a year and everything could heal, and she’ll be okay, and the trach could come out!»
Well, a year came; she wasn’t ready. So about two years in, we started to see some big changes! There was one time—scared us to death! She actually took the trach out of her throat, threw it on the floor, and we heard her small whisper voice on the monitor! I remember my wife panicked! She ran in there, and she was okay! And we’re like, «She can breathe! She can breathe, guys! God’s doing what He said He would do! This is incredible!»
And we started to meet with the doctors, and all these things started to take place, and I’m like, «It’s happening! It’s happening!» And then finally we scheduled it—the day the trach comes out! And they wanted to keep her there overnight just to make sure that she could sleep okay, that everything would be fine.
And I had this video, and everything went successful at this time. Can we show this video real quick? Can you turn that up? *It’s trach-free! You have no trach! * It did not hurt her ability to eat Cheetos, I’m telling you that right now!
But see the little bandage there? She no longer had a trach! And I remember, and all—God, you said you healed her! And He did! And then my wife stays in the hospital with her, and I go home. I take the boys home; it gets late, and I get a call from my wife, and she tells me, «Gabriella’s not doing that good!» That’s the same day, she says, «She’s not doing that good. It’s getting harder for her to breathe! They’re putting her on oxygen! And she’s that young, so she’s got all these cords in her and stuff, and she doesn’t like it! So she’s trying to pull them out and yank them out, and they had to pin her down! And that was hard for my wife to see! And she was trying to be strong in the hospital room! And all of a sudden, they started to talk and say things were getting worse! And then we started having this discussion that she might have to have this surgery all over again! Because what had happened—the trach could come out for an entire day, where that hole got smaller! And the trach no longer would fit!
And so I’m at the house, thinking of my baby girl who’s supposed to be healed today! And it’s all just a big nightmare! Because now it seems like it’s happening all over again! All of it! And the only thing I could think to do, I went into a room; she had a crib—this is a pack and play—but kind of picture what it looks like. And I just remember kneeling at her crib. I remember saying, „God, You said You would heal her! You said You would do something miraculous! And today we got a glimpse of that!“
And you have been so good! But where are You now? Now that everything’s happening again! And I remember thinking, just probably as Mary had thought, and Martha thought: „Jesus, You’re supposed to be here! You’re supposed to be healed! I want my miracle! You said it! Please!“
God’s way is better! It’s always better! He’s always better! Can I ask you to stand? Because the end of the story is powerful! John chapter 11, verses 40-44: „Jesus responded, 'Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe? '“ Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you just believe?
So they rolled the stone aside, and Jesus looked up to heaven, and He said, „Father, thank You for hearing me!“ That really became real to me, just hearing Jesus say that. „Thank You for hearing me!“ And He says, „You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all those people standing there, so that they will believe that You sent me.“
Then Jesus shouted, „Lazarus, come out!“ Come on, can we give a praise shout right here? He said, „Lazarus, come out!“ And I love this: „And the dead man came out!“ The dead man came to life! Some of you feel dead on the inside! You’ve been walking in spiritual brokenness and darkness and feeling like you have nothing left to give! And I believe that Jesus is calling you: „Come to life right now! I’m calling you! Do you believe in me? Do you believe that I’m for you? I’m doing something new! Stop running!“
But I also understand that some of you have been through some things, and it still feels like, „God, where’s the miracle?“ And I pray for you because we don’t always understand! But I do know this: He’s still calling you, and He’s still bringing you to life! And He loves you! And He says, „I hear you.“