Morning Is Coming

Transcript from the final sermon script used for this message.

Good morning, church. I am especially glad to see you this morning.

And I mean that.

Because earlier this week, I wasn’t so sure I was going to feel like seeing anybody.

I got sick.

And I don’t mean just a little tired.

I don’t mean I had the sniffles and needed an afternoon nap.

I mean I was beaten down.

Worn out.

My body hurt.

My strength was gone.

I would lie there and think, “Lord... am I ever going to feel right again?”

You ever been sick enough that you start forgetting what well feels like?

You ever been tired enough that you start wondering if you’re ever going to have strength again?

And church, when your body gets weak, sometimes your mind gets weak right along with it.

That deceiver knows it, too.

Oh, yes he does.

He doesn’t always come after you when you’re standing tall.

Sometimes he waits until you are flat on your back.

Sometimes he waits until you haven’t slept.

Sometimes he waits until you’re hurting.

Sometimes he waits until you are discouraged and exhausted and frightened.

And then he starts whispering.

“You’re not getting better.”

“This is how it’s going to be.”

“You’re all alone.”

“God has forgotten about you.”

Anybody know what I’m talking about?

Well, I was lying there listening to some things I had no business listening to.

Then some of the elders from this church came by to see me.

They gathered around me.

They anointed me.

They laid their hands upon my head and blessed me.

I went to sleep.

And when I opened my eyes the next morning... the light was on.

I don’t mean the lamp beside my bed.

I mean the light was on inside me.

There was hope again.

There was strength again.

What you are feeling right now is not forever.

This body is temporary.

This weakness is temporary.

This weariness is temporary.

The aches are temporary.

The hospital rooms are temporary.

The medicine bottles are temporary.

The sleepless nights are temporary.

The tears are temporary.

Even that heaviness of heart that sometimes makes it difficult just to get through another day—it is not the eternal condition of a child of God.

Paul said: “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”

And then he said that the things we see are temporary, but the things we cannot see are eternal.

That’s 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

So don’t confuse what is happening to you with what is going to become of you.

Those are not the same thing!

You may be sick today.

But sickness does not own you.

You may be tired today.

But weariness does not own you.

You may be discouraged today.

But despair does not own you.

You belong to Jesus Christ!

And there is coming a morning—

Oh, church, there is coming a morning—

when we are going to wake up, and the light is going to be on forever.

Revelation says: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying.”

No more pain.

I woke up this week, and the light was on.

Morning is coming.

The light is coming.

And His name is Jesus.

Amen.