Steven Furtick - This May Take a While (01/30/2026)
In this follow-up to last week's message on patterns, Pastor Steven Furtick preaches from John 15 about God's pruning process: He cuts off unfruitful branches and prunes fruitful ones for even more fruit. Growth hurts and takes time, but staying connected to Jesus means the pain leads to greater fruitfulness—change doesn't happen overnight, but if we remain faithful, God makes it worth our while.
The Power of Recognizing Patterns Leads to This Truth
Last week, I talked about the problem is the... And it meant so much to five people that they remember. The problem is the pattern. So often, we view our life as isolated problems and incidents. Sometimes it's one pattern of the way that we are doing our lives and doing our relationships and doing school and doing our careers. Even doing church, the same pattern is creating a bunch of different problems. And so we talk about the power of same. If you can find that the same pattern is driving a lot of your problems, then you can just cut the monster's head off. And then you won't spend all your life wrestling with all the tentacles of your problems because you found the pattern, the operation center. And usually, it's a pattern of our thinking that results in a pattern of behavior. And we can't pray away our patterns, right? We can't pray away our patterns. We have to work with God and cooperate with Him to change those patterns. Did you like that message? I'm glad you liked that one. This one might be a little rough. And it's the follow-up to that.
I asked God what to tell you. I said, after preaching, the problem is the pattern. And what needs to come next in the series, I try to take each series week by week and build the best I can on what God is saying. And try to listen to what He's trying to say next to us. And what the Lord gave me for this week is not something that you usually like to hear. It's not something that we typically like to hear a lot. But I don't like to hear it, especially when somebody is fixing my computer. Nick Dooley. I don't like to hear it when my car has to go in the shop. I don't like to hear this phrase. I know that no mother likes to hear this phrase when she goes into the maternity ward to have a baby. This is not a phrase that we generally like to hear. And yet it's one that needs to be said from the pulpit.
Why We Resist Hearing "This May Take a While"
And I often wish I could say it to the people who get baptized on a Sunday morning because that's not the finish line of their faith. The baptism, I want to say to them after they dry off and towel their hair, change their clothes and all of that, I often want to say this to them because they talk in the baptismal tank about the hopes that they have of how God is going to work in their life in the future and the dreams that they have and how they want to see God grow them. And I'm believing with them, but sometimes I want to say something to them about that. I always want to say this phrase to a church planter who's starting a new church because I did that with a team. And sometimes a church planter will come full of ideas, initiatives, inspiration. And you want to affirm all of that, but there's also another part of it that you want to say to them and without discouraging them or putting their fire out.
I often want to say this to addicts who are changing a pattern of behavior and they want to believe that God can set them free and they want to believe that there's going to be a miracle where they're not going to be chained up, but they can be changed. And yet there's something I want to say to them when they start that process as a pastor. I often want to say this to people who are hoping for a relationship to recover, that are hoping that love can come back into their home, or that they can repair their relationship with their stepson, or repair their relationship, perhaps with a mom that they've been estranged from, I often want to say this to them, and as much as I don't like to hear it, and you won't like to hear it, we need to hear it, and I'm going to go ahead and get to it.
This is the title of my message. I'm calling this message, This May Take a While. This may take a while. I need you to tell three people around you so that they're in the right gear, tell them this may take a while. Tell them his sermons usually do, this may take a while. It's like my new motto for preaching. I want to put that out on our doors when people walk into our campuses. Welcome to Elevation Church. This may take a while.
Understanding God's Pruning in John 15
I am the true vine. My father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. Oh, I don't want it to say that. I don't want it to say he cuts off every branch. I am the true vine. My father is the gardener. He smells all the flowers and delights in their fragrance. Jesus, in describing the growth process, says, He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
I really don't like that part of the verse because I want that to say that every branch that does bear fruit, he rewards. Every branch that does bear fruit, he strokes. Every branch that does bear fruit, he speaks encouraging words to. Good job, little branch. Keep growing, little branch. Look at you, little branch. Aren't you fruitful? But it says in the passage that the same sensation that the fruitless branch experiences is experienced by the fruitful branch. That the same sensation of painful pruning that the branch that doesn't go to church experiences, that the branch that never reads the Bible experiences, that the branch that never helps old ladies across the street experiences, that the branch that never buys anybody anything that they don't have to buy them because they're generous experiences, that same painful sensation happens to the branch that does bear fruit.
It's as if Jesus is saying that you're snipped if you do, and you're snipped if you don't. Snip, snip somebody. Snip, snip. Can you hear it? It's the sound of painful pruning. It's happening to the person next to you. It's happening to the other person next to you. If you want to turn around and look at the guy behind you, it's happening to him too. If you want to look at the gal in front of you, snip, snip. That's the soundtrack of a life that is growing, a life that is not growing.
Fruitfulness and Faithfulness Are Inseparable
And Jesus makes a very helpful connection in this passage between fruitfulness and faithfulness. Fruitfulness and faithfulness. I put a quote on Instagram this week, and I said that while I was studying this text, the thought came to me, fruitfulness and faithfulness are inseparable. Fruitfulness and faithfulness are inseparable. I believe that inside each of our hearts, what really drives us, compels us, and motivates us, whether we know it or not, is the desire to be fruitful.
And I know this is true about you because, well, the first thing that God ever said about humans when he blessed them in the first book of the Bible, the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1, verse 22, and this is going to explain why you're driven. This is going to explain why you don't like your life to stand still. This is going to explain why you don't like when you start one year out in the same place that you started the last year out in and things seem to be flatlined and plateaued in your life. Because when God blessed...
I remember one time a pastor was training other pastors, and I heard him say, God doesn't call you to be successful. He just calls you to be faithful. And I suppose that's an encouraging thing to hear when you don't see success in your life. And sure, if we're talking about success from an unspiritual standpoint, sure, if we're talking about success outside of God's definition, there are a lot of people the world sees as failures that God calls heroes. There are a lot of people whose names we don't know who God's going to be probably assigning you to scrub their toilet in heaven. There's a lot of people who don't appear to be successful, but they're fruitful.
See, because fruitfulness is not always indicated on the outside. In fact, fruitfulness most accurately describes that internal state of being that is described in Psalm 1, where the Scripture says that the man who puts his trust in the Lord is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season. It yields its fruit in season. That means there are some seasons you won't seem fruitful, but if you're planted in the right soil, there will always be something growing in your life. There will always be something maturing in your life. There will always be something coming alive in your life.
A lot of us want to be fruitful without being faithful. We want to be prosperous without being planted in the principles that will produce prosperity. We want a quick fix from God, but we don't want to exhibit any faithfulness toward God in our lives. I'm preaching better than you're saying, Preach, preacher.
The Difference Between Cut Off and Cut Back
And so Jesus comes along and he says, I want to make some connections about how this works. He says, Every branch that bears no fruit is cut off, and every branch that does bear fruit is cut as well. We used to drive by this really beautiful home that was landscaped. The driveway was landscaped with crepe myrtles. And Holly would always comment on the crepe myrtles. And in my heart, I'm thinking, one day, girl, I'm going to fill your driveway with crepe myrtles. You just stay with me. I'll take you places. Make all your dreams come true.
But we used to drive by that home. And one day when our oldest son, Elijah, was a little bit younger, we were driving by that home. And the man, he could not understand this. The man who owned the house or the woman or whoever takes care of the stuff, they had cut all of the crepe myrtles down to a stub. And where it used to be a beautiful pathway to the home was now nothing but stubs. And Elijah was incensed by this, infuriated, outraged, discombobulated. Why would they do that? Why would they make their flat? Why would you cut off the crepe myrtles? Why would you cut off something that was growing?
But Jesus didn't say that the fruitful branches got cut off. See, cut off implies that you have lost your connection. Cut off implies that you are set to the side. Cut off is what happens when you continually refuse to remain in God's love. I was reading the passage this week, and Jesus kept talking about, Remain in my love, remain in my love, remain in my love.
And that gave me problems, because I always thought his love was unconditional. And it sounds when you're reading it. Anybody else reading it had this thought? I thought his love would follow me all the days of my life. I thought his love never ceased. I thought his love went on without an end. I thought there was nothing I could do to take me out of his love. And it's confusing until you realize that Jesus is not referring to the expression of God's love for you. He's referring to your experience of God's love in your life.
And so what he's saying is, look, the love of God will never stop flowing toward you. The love of God will never stop coming your way. The love of God will never stop pursuing you. The love of God will never stop chasing you. The love of God will never stop going before you. But you can live your life in such a way that you cut yourself off from the reception of the love that is always flowing to you, always flowing through you, always flowing for you.
And if you're not experiencing his love, it's not because he stopped expressing it. The waterfall is still running. You just moved out from underneath it. And if you'll get back in place, you'll find that God never stopped rushing with love toward the needs of your broken life. We cut ourselves off, really. He said, if you make the choice not to remain in me, it's your choice. You're going to feel cut off. You're going to feel worthless.
He said, every branch that doesn't bear fruit, it's like a branch that is thrown away and withers, and such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burn. There's no worse feeling in life than when life feels unfruitful. If you don't believe me, find a 28-year-old woman who's waiting for a ring, feeling like all those dates, all that makeup, all that cardio, and no fruit, no apples, is frustrating when life feels unfruitful.
There's nothing more fulfilling than bearing the fruit you're meant to bear because of the seed God put in you, but there's nothing more frustrating. I'm not talking about feeling unfruitful when you haven't sown any seed, because I have no right to be disappointed about the fruit that wasn't born from the seed I didn't sow. I have no right to be disappointed about the A I didn't get from the book I didn't open, but when I did study, when I was a good person, when I was planted in church….
Find a young couple that has been trying to have a baby for three and a half years, struggling with infertility, and one of their couple's friends they hang out with got pregnant on accident and is complaining about it. The frustration of unfruitfulness. Find a man who went to school for a certain trade and now is working in an industry that will barely provide for his family, and he's way overqualified for what he's doing. There's nothing more frustrating than feeling unfruitful.
Notice I said feeling unfruitful. I didn't say being unfruitful. The fact is, some of the times in your life that feel the least fruitful and the most frustrating are actually the times in your life where God is preparing you and tilling you and cultivating your character for the greatest gifts he's going to give. See, has anybody experienced this? See, it's the difference between being cut off and cut back.
You're Not Cut Off—You're Just Cut Back for Greater Growth
Now I want to preach, because somebody came into church today feeling cut off. You feel cut off from opportunities and cut off from potential and cut off from purpose. But what I want to tell you, like Holly told Elijah when we drove by those crepe myrtles, and it looked like those men quit caring about those plants. It looked like that man had lost his mind. It looked like that man had no good sense. What Holly told Elijah is he cuts them back so they can grow back better than they ever did before to get them ready for the next season.
I came to tell somebody, give me that camera. I came to tell somebody, you're not cut off, you were just cut back. You're not cut off, you were just cut back. God wasn't cutting you down because he's done with you. He was cutting you back because he's got something more in store. Does somebody say it's just a cut back? And if it's cut back, that means it's coming back. Good measure. Press down. Shake it together. Run it over. It's coming back. My joy is coming back. My peace is coming back.
All right, I'm going to get them standing in the back before I'm done. It's just a cut back. It's just a cut back. It's just a cut back. Before church started, right when the choir was singing so beautifully, I got struck by a thought. Now, I never do this because I like to worship. I don't like to be preparing my sermon while I'm supposed to be worshiping. I'm supposed to have that done already. But the Lord hit me with something so strong. I told Buck, go get a notebook. I need to write something down. I found a Post-it note, and I wrote down… Let me go back so I can read it now.
This is why I had to write it down, because I need to say it to you just like this. Life may make the cut, but God is holding the scissors. I felt like if I would say that to somebody, it would change your perspective on the pain you're experiencing, because all you can see is what people are doing to you. Snip, snip. All you can see is what the company did to you. Snip, snip. Snip, snip. All you can see is what the disease is doing to your mom. Snip, snip.
But if you can ever realize that no matter how life cuts you, it's God that controls your destiny. My Father is the gardener. He knows just where to cut, when to cut, how to cut, to make it grow back better. I told you they'd be standing in the back. Who was that for? Life may be cutting you. People may be cutting you. But God is superintending this process. It's just a cut back. I'm not cut off. I'm cut back. I might be down. I'm not out. I feel unfruitful. But though there is no fruit on the vine, no cattle in the stalls, I will rejoice.
Remaining Faithful When It Feels Unfruitful
Please, please believe me when I say I know the frustration of unfruitfulness. I know what it feels like when you put a lot into people and they let you down. I know what it feels like to be the person who somebody put a lot in and let them down. Nobody ever preaches about the other side of that, by the way. I know the frustration of unfruitfulness. Yet, in this beautiful passage of Scripture, John 15, which everybody in the church has memorized…. He said, I'm working on it. In other words, this may take a while. He just proved my subject. This may take a while.
Come on. Tell the person next to you. This may take a while. I preached last week. The problem is the pattern. So, you went home and you tried to change the pattern. By Tuesday, you quit. That didn't work. It's Tuesday. It's been two days since I preached. You're trying to undo 22 years of patterns in two days? This may take a while.
You cheated on your wife four times and you expect her to forgive you in four minutes? This may take a while. Your kids saw you live without God for 14 years, and now you don't understand why they don't want to come to church with you and they think you're a hypocrite? This may take a while. You've been eating one way, thinking one way, approaching life one way. You want God to undo in 45 minutes of preaching what took 45 years of living to plant in the soil? This may take a while.
The hardest thing in life… I'm shifting to another thought, but it's under the same subject. What we're after is fruitfulness. That's what you really want in your life. When you see people chasing after fame, what they really want is fruit. When you see people chasing after fortune, what they really want is fruit. Sometimes fame is a byproduct of fruit, and sometimes fortune is a byproduct of fruit. But what we all really want is, I want my life to be more than it was. I want it to be more next year than it was last year. I want it to be more in a decade. I want my life to be greater in peace, and I want to be greater in wisdom, and I want my home to be greater in love.
I want to be fruitful, but I'm frustrated. All because of this one little word, while. He cuts off every branch in me, verse 2, that bears no fruit. While. While. I don't even like the word while, because it's indefinite. While means, while this is happening, that's happening. Well, I don't want to miss that, but I'm doing this. I don't like things to be happening while I'm doing something else. I don't like you to be posting something on Instagram while I'm trying to preach. While we're here, we're doing this. I don't like that. I don't like that very much.
I especially don't like it when it refers to a period of time. Because what does that mean? A while. A while? Well, the writer of Hebrews one time, he was trying to encourage the Christians not to give up, and they were persecuted. And he told him something, Hebrews 10, verse 37. He said, For in just a little while, he who is coming will come and not delay. When? A little while.
But then the Bible also says in Peter that a day to the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. So I'm not sure I'm very comfortable with God's definition of a while. Because if by a while you mean 15 minutes, we're good. But if by a while you mean 15 years, I'm not so sure about this. And it's hard to commit to consistency when you have no frame of reference for the duration.
Making the Most of Your "While"—What Is Worth Your While?
Yet we're all driven by a sense that destiny has deadlines. And I might be missing my season to bear fruit. I might be missing my season to make it happen. This might be the only chance I have to make a run at it. This might be my window of opportunity. The great preacher Leonard Ravenhill said that the opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity. What's he saying? You got to strike while the iron is hot. There's a window called while.
While your kids are young, you have a very profound opportunity to be their parent. But after they hit a certain age, let's be honest, you're really nothing more than an advisor. I'm going to have a little while to do this. Only have a little while where I'm going to feel enough energy to preach, you know, three times a weekend. Full blast. So, I got to do it while I can.
And I can't... I can't... I can't... I can't do it with my whole heart if I'm focused on a lot of things that aren't worth my while at all. And some of you are missing what you should be doing while you have the chance because you've got your mind on stuff that's not worth your while. Come on, Nehemiah. Help us.
Nehemiah in the Old Testament was overseeing a construction project to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, right? He only had a little while to do it. He got special permission from the king whom he had served as cupbearer to go back, check out the situation. He had resources. He had time, but he only had so much. God is an unlimited resource. That's why Jesus is the vine. You are a limited resource. That's why you're the branch. You only have a while.
The grass withers. The flowers fade. The days of man are like grass here today. God, tomorrow, I only have a little while. I only have a little while for this. I know it seems long, but it's really only a little while. It's just a little while. So, Nehemiah sets out and begins the great work of rebuilding the walls and is going well He's fired up everybody in the vicinity except the enemies, because when everybody gets fired up about the work of God, there will be a pushback from the surrounding people who are afraid that they're losing territory because of what God is building.
Nehemiah's situation exhibits this, because the enemies tried to call him out of where he was supposed to be, and while he was building, they wanted to arrange for him to have a meeting with them, and they were conspiring to hurt him. They were conspiring to distract him. They were conspiring to get him off the wall. They were conspiring to try to get his opportunity to expire in the lifetime of the opportunity. They were trying to get him to waste days. They were trying to get him to waste thoughts. They were trying to get him to lose focus.
And they said, Come meet with us in the plains of Ono. And I love Nehemiah because he said, Oh, no. Everybody say, Oh, no. Sometimes you have to learn how to tell your enemy, Oh, no. Oh, no. That's not worth my while.
Watch Nehemiah. This is a masterclass on leadership, y'all. So I sent messengers to them. He didn't even have the conversation himself. I'm not even having this conversation. This is not worth my while. He said, I sent messengers to them with this reply. I am carrying on a great project. I am building a great family. I am putting my all into getting this degree. I am restoring some stuff that the enemy stole. I am carrying on a great project. I'm in the middle of something important and cannot go down. Now, why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?
Some of you came off the wall for some stuff last year that wasn't worth your while. And while you were down off the wall, not laying bricks, the enemy was laughing and life was passing. And you spent 32% roughly of your mental energy having arguments with people who aren't even in your life anymore about what they did to you. And you didn't have the focus to give.
One time, David was getting a report... David in the Bible, King David. He was getting a report from one of his generals that his son, who had rebelled against him, had been successfully taken out. Now, David was so upset about losing his son that he couldn't celebrate the victory that his men had given. And the commander said something to him. He said, You love those who hate you, and you hate those who love you.
You are giving so much of yourself trying to get approval from people who aren't even paying attention to you that while you're focused on building that image that you think will make them like you, you are losing the moments with the people who really love you. You are so stuck in what happened that you're missing what's happening.
And I wanted to say to somebody, whoever it is today that's chasing down opportunities that have long since passed, let it go. It's not worth your while. It's over. It's gone. It hurt. It happened. Yes. But it's not worth your while to stand in dead places, regretting dead dreams that will never come to pass. It's not worth your while.
Holding on to an offense is not worth your while. Complaining about how you were raised is not worth your while. Resenting the opportunities that you didn't have is not worth your while. Because while you're focused on that, you can't build this. Every moment you spend on the plains of Ono is the moment you sacrifice that you could be putting another brick on the wall.
Now, come on. Now, come on. Let's get back to building. Let's get back to construction. Let's get back to the great project God has called you to. Let's get back to what's worthwhile. What's really worthwhile? That's what I want to answer today. What's really worth your while?
See, you can't be consistent at everything. So, we're in a series about challenging our inconsistencies. But the first thing to challenging our inconsistencies is to prune the things that shouldn't be a priority. Because if there are too many branches in your life and if there are too many pursuits, it's going to be sucking all the stuff that should be flowing somewhere else. If there are too many commitments, you won't be consistent in any of them.
So, God says, like I prune you, I want you to prune your own life. I want you to prune your priorities. I want you to ask the question that even adults rarely stop to ask, is this worthwhile to make decisions at a different level so you can keep commitments at a higher one? Is this worth my while?
Time as a Multiplier—Make It Worth Your While
See, when they bring me a speaking engagement and say, do you want to go here to preach, I do not make that decision quickly. I'm starting a series in a couple of weeks called Mood Swingers. And one of the main points I want to make when I started is, how do you keep your commitment that you made in one mood when that mood didn't follow you to the date when you have to fulfill the commitment? You've got to come back February 7th. Because the mood you were in when you made the commitment will not necessarily be the mood that you're in when you have to keep it. That's February 7th.
What was I talking about? Speaking engagements. I know that it's easy to say, yes, I'll go, when I'm sitting in the comfort of my own office, going home to have dinner with my own family that night. I know, though, that when the time comes around, I'm a committed person. I'm not going to cancel. I'm consistent when I commit. When I say I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. I'm that kind of person. Always have been. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it.
But that's why I'm not going to say I'm going to do very much. Somebody was fussing the other day. I just don't understand why people in the church can't have your cell phone number. Two, three, four, five, six, ten, seven, 12, 13, 14. You see my point? That's a commitment. If you've got my number, that means if you need me, I'm going to be there. That means I will return your text up to a certain point. Then I will block you. It's a very, very rare thing, but it has happened on occasion.
I'm saying that I'm not going to be inconsistent in the friendships that matter so I can be consistent in relationships that really don't count. And it's not that I wouldn't love to be friends with everybody, but I realize that I'm not the vine. I'm not the vine. And to stay connected in a meaningful way to some people, I can't be connected to everybody. So I have to be connected and committed and consistent where it counts, so I have to look at that speaking engagement and say, is this just a good opportunity or is this a relationship? Is this going to be fruitful? Not just is it going to be fun.
I'm a grown-up now. I don't get to do stuff just because it seems fun. I get to have some fun, but I won't have fun at the expense of being fruitful. I want to be fruitful, because there's nothing more fun than being fruitful, and I want my life to be fruitful. You have a God who's blessing you saying, be fruitful and multiply. You have an enemy who's cursing you saying, be fruitless and decrease. How does he decrease? By distraction. How does he distract? By overcommitment.
How do you counter this? By pruning and saying, I'm only going to commit and connect to some stuff that counts this year. But when I commit, watch out, because when I commit, I'm going to be like clockwork. You can count on me. This is important to me. You might not have my phone number, but if you come to this church, you can count on the fact I'll be preaching something helpful from the Word of God every week. I'll preach till I have no voice on Sunday at 2 P.M. I'll preach till all my brain cells just melt, just blow up one by one. I'll preach till I've said everything I know how to say from the book of Genesis to the maps in the back. I'll be preaching. I'm committed to this.
What are you committed to? What are you committed to? What's worth your while? Just answering that question. Some of you gave up on exercise because you never really made it worth your while. You didn't see it as worth your while when you started. So, if it's not worth your while when you start, how in the world are you going to finish? You've got to make a decision. This is worth my while.
Once you make that decision, beware, because it may take a while before you see the fruit. It may take a while. Now, many of us see time as our enemy. I was reading an interesting article the other day where the author was suggesting that time is really not your enemy but your ally. And see, the funny thing about time is time is neither good nor bad. Time is simply a multiplier.
Last weekend, we talked about the pattern and the product. I want you to look at time like that multiplication symbol, that times symbol. Time is a multiplier in your life. So, if you're committed to the right things and sowing in the right places, time will multiply it back to you. If you're committed to the wrong things and ingratiating your mental processes in the wrong ways, time will work against you.
Is time your friend or your foe? Well, it depends on what you're sowing into the time that you have. Time is nothing more than a multiplier. And we say little things like, well, you know, life's too short to live this way. Life's too short to hold a grudge. Life's too short. I think when we say life's too short, we are automatically setting ourselves against time as if the two are working against one another.
How much of your life feels like time is working against you? The clock is counting against you. Aren't we all engaged in an invisible battle against time? Yet, if I sow the right things, Jesus is saying, if I plant the right stuff, if I plant the right habits, if I… Oh, maybe I can say it like this. If God is on your side, then time is too.
If God is on your side, he's eternal. He lives outside of time. And if he is on your side and you're living life from his side, time is on your side too. Not working against you, but working for you. Not working against you anymore, but working for you. Hey, I have some things I need God to do in my life, and it's going to take a little time, but that's all right, because I found out that if God is on my side, time is on my side too. It's just a matter of time. It may take a little while, but it's worth it.
God's Promise: It Will Be Worth Your While
That's the message. That's where I need to land this sermon. I got it now. God wants you to know it's going to be worth your while. He's going to make it worth your while. I wish you'd stop Patty-caking when we drop bombs like that and just go ahead and clap. God's going to make it worth your while.
While every branch that bears fruit, he cuts it back, it hurts, it stinks, it's crazy, it's confusing, but if you can make it through this season as a stub, you're about to grow back bigger than ever before. God said, while I'm cutting you, I want you to know I'm cultivating you. I'm going to make it worth your while. I'm going to make it worth your while. It's going to be worth your time. It's going to be worth your trouble. It's going to be worth your expense.
What are you going to do while you're being pruned? You might as well worship while you wait. You might as well praise him while you wait. What do you do while life is cutting you back? You lift your hands and declare, I'm planted by streams of living water. And somehow, someway, somehow, someway, God's going to make this worth my while.
Tell somebody next to you it's going to be worth your while. I'm telling you it's going to be worth your while. It's going to be worth those tears. It's going to be worth that sacrifice. It's going to be worth that setback. It's going to be worth that discomfort. It's going to be worth that broken relationship. It's going to be worth it. It's going to be worth it. It doesn't feel worth it. It's going to be worth it.
You're going to bear much fruit. You're going to bear more fruit. You're going to bear more fruit than ever before. You're going to experience his love like never before. Life's coming forth like never before. It's going to be worth your while. Just don't disconnect. Just don't disconnect while he's cutting on you.
I told God I didn't want to preach this message, Anthony. I said, this may take a while. Nobody wants to hear that. I said, I want to preach this message. There's another Bible word. I really love this word. Suddenly. Suddenly. I said, Lord, can we skip to suddenly? Oh, it's all over the Bible.
The day of Pentecost, suddenly there came a sound like a mighty rushing wind. I could get the whole church. Even Hateful Henry in the back of the room would stand up if I started preaching on suddenly. He's fictitious. Just a composite character. Suddenly. You know, our favorite phrase in our faith is, all of a sudden. By the way, it's all of a sudden. Not the sudden. Grammatical tip. All of a sudden. All of a sudden.
There's a lady in our church. I don't know if she's here. She comes to this a lot. Named Lisa Turkhurst. You might have heard her preach here before. She's awesome. I don't know if she's here right now. She's here almost every week. She'll go speak somewhere and then fly back in the middle of the night to get here for church. Speak to arena people. Fly back to be here at our church.
She has written... Her last three books have been New York Times best-selling books. Not just for a week or so. Like for 20, 30, 40 weeks straight. Helping millions of women. Millions of people all over the world. A couple weeks ago, she sent me a link. She was on the Today Show. She said somebody had tweeted at her when she went on the Today Show. It's so inspiring to see an overnight success.
Lisa said, I wanted to tweet back about the 15 books I wrote that nobody read. See, what people will do, they'll slip up on something that looks sudden. And then they'll expect all of a sudden... They'll see Lisa hanging out with Hoda. And hanging out with Hoda... Isn't that how you say that woman's name? Hanging out with Hoda looks great. All of a sudden, she's hanging out with Hoda.
But before she was hanging out with Hoda, she was sitting down keystroke after keystroke, after manuscript after manuscript. What you see as all of a sudden was somebody else's after a while. After a while. It took a while. It took a lot. It took time. It took trouble. It took expense.
Let's denounce magic Christianity once and for all. Jesus said, I'm the vine, not the vending machine. Jesus said, I'm the vine, not the vending machine. Jesus said, I'm the vine. That's a process. That takes time. Jesus said, Remain in me, John 15.
In John 20, Jesus has completed the mission. He's gone to the cross. He gave his life. His disciples didn't do what he told them to do. He told them to remain. All of them fled. Save one. All of them left. Save one. All of them deserted him. Save one. They couldn't do the simplest thing that he asked them to do. Remain. They left. Remain. They took off. Remain. They went the other way.
They couldn't even wait three days. The Scripture says that Peter went back fishing because he had given up on the mission he signed up for. He spent three years following Jesus, three years believing. It only took three days for him to give up on the thing that he said he was willing to give his life for. Because we don't want it to take a while. We want Jesus to set it straight. All of a sudden.
They told me a story the other day actually last night about a man who came to our church. He was planning on ending his life, and he made a decision not to and I was going to share it as a testimony but I said before we get up and share that testimony we need to walk with that man because just because you have hope in a moment doesn't mean the miracle has completely matured. We have to step through this. This may take a while.
The stuff that gets you to the point of wanting to end your own life doesn't go away just like that. Now God can put hope in your heart just like that but it has to be worked out and it may take a while. It may take six months until you even get in shape enough to exercise well this year. It may take a while. It may take four years before you even begin to see a dent in the debt that you created for yourself. It may take a while.
Don't preach that pastor preach that suddenly thing. Well God said if you'll give it a while then all of a sudden you'll see that what you were planting all along was working in dark places. Who is this for? I'm not preaching this to myself today. You've been frustrated because your life doesn't feel fruitful and God said it may take a while but it's going to be so worth it. It's going to be worth your while.
What to Do While It's Still Dark—Mary Magdalene's Example
Everyone's standing. Peter's gone back fishing. It seems like hope is gone. Jesus is in the ground. He's gone. He's over. They killed him. Darkness has prevailed. And the scripture says in John chapter 20 verse 1 that early on the first day of the week while it was still dark...
I studied so many scriptures with the word while in it to get this message ready for you because I thought if we can learn the power of while, if we can learn what to do while we're weeping, if we can learn how to press forward while we're hurting if we can learn how to remain while we're being pruned we'll grow. But this one got me. This one got me more than any of the other ones.
It said early on the first day of the week while it was still dark. What do you do while it's still dark in your life? This will determine whether or not your faith makes a difference. While it was still dark. While Peter was fishing. While the disciples had disbanded. While it was still dark. While his body...
This is not just a statement of the physical setting of the resurrection. This is not just a statement about the position of the sun in relation to the earth. This is a statement about the reality of the disappointment. While it was still dark. While Jesus was still dead.
I thank God for this woman Mary Magdalene because she gave us an example. She went to the tomb while it was still dark. While it still seemed hopeless. While it looked like it had failed. While it was still dark. She went to the tomb. And because she went there while it was still dark, she saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance, and she went back shouting to all the other disciples.
She said, I know it's still dark, but the sun is breaking forth. I know it's still. I know you haven't seen him yet, but he's not here. He's risen, and he's about to make all things new. He's going to make it work your while. While it's still dark, lift your hands and praise him. While it still hurts, lift your hands and give him glory. It will work after a while. He's going to do it. After a while. After a while.