With Jesus, It Is Never Too Late to Come Back

Introduction

This Sunday, elder Jean Michel Musungayi opens the word with a simple and liberating conviction: with Jesus, there is always a way back. Whatever you are going through, the distress you find yourself in, the hardship squeezing your throat, or the door you would rather run from, nothing you are living through is lost to God. This message offers you a shift in perspective: what you see today as failure, confusion, or shame, God wants to use to bring you back to himself, to change your praise, and to display his glory in your life. Drawing from John 12:32, the story of Jairus (Mark 5), the revelation given to Peter (Acts 10), Paul's open door in Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16), and Hannah's song (1 Samuel 2), you will discover that distress itself can become the path of your return to the Father.

Outline of the Message

1. Change how you see what you are going through

• Jesus says in John 12:32, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." The preacher points out that when Jesus is lifted above your situation, your family, your illness, what seemed insurmountable to you stops seeming insurmountable. Lift up Jesus first, and your situation will find its rightful place.
• What you are going through this morning is not for your shame or your confusion. As Jesus said before the man born blind in John 9, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him." There is a "so that" behind what you are living through. This situation is an opportunity for God to reveal himself.
• Before Martha and Mary, weeping over Lazarus, Jesus declares, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it" (John 11:4). Your trial is not the end, it is a path through which God wants to be glorified.
• How you assess a situation always shapes your attitude. That is why God wants to change how you see it first. Before he changes your circumstances, he renews your understanding so you can see differently.

2. Let God reshape the way you see things (Acts 10)

• In Acts 10:28, Peter declares, "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean." Peter is testifying to an inner reshaping: the way he judged, viewed, and treated others changed because God himself taught him.
• When the other apostles question him after his visit to Cornelius, Peter does not answer with a theory: "As for me, God has just made me understand." This new way of seeing does not come from his intellect or his own reasoning, but from a revelation he received.
• God wants to do the same with you. He wants to change the way you look at your situation so that your prayer changes, your words change, your attitude changes. The new behavior God is waiting for does not come through pressure, it comes through an inner reshaping that he himself carries out.
• One day, someone around you will say, "I don't understand it, but something has changed in the way you see things." Answer simply, like Peter: "God has taught me." That will be a sign that your return to him has begun bearing visible fruit.

3. Stay in your Ephesus, do not flee the door God has opened

• Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 16:9, "I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me." Paul could have left. He chooses to stay because he has understood that the presence of opponents is a sign that a great door is open.
• The preacher invites you not to flee your Ephesus out of fear or discouragement. Where the enemy pushes hardest is often exactly where God is preparing an elevation. Like Caleb who, facing the sons of Anak, said "God will give them to us as bread to eat," stay focused on the milk and honey rather than on the giants.
• The Phillips translation renders the verse this way: "I have found here a wide field of activity with many prospects of fruitful and varied work." That is how God describes what is opening up in front of you. You must not only see the hardship, you must see the door.
• A door opened by God alongside opposition is strange, but it is nothing new, and it is never too much for him to handle. Stay at peace. He will deal with the opponents; you deal with the door.

4. Distress is the path of your return to Jesus (Mark 5)

• In Mark 5, Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, falls at Jesus' feet: "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live" (Mark 5:23). By his role, his position, his influence, this man was not supposed to approach Jesus.
• The context is telling. John 12:42 states, "Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue." Jairus takes the risk of losing everything (his reputation, his position, his circle) because his distress is stronger than his fear.
• Without that distress, would Jairus have approached Jesus? It is far from certain. It was the pain that sent him running to Christ. The preacher draws a personal conviction from this: for some, distress is the only option God has left them, because it is the only thing that would throw them at his feet.
• The distress you are going through comes to change your priorities. It is sent to draw you to God, to increase your faith, to let you experience salvation in every way. If you were not going through what you are going through today, you probably would not be sitting in this church. What you take for a curse is actually the path of your return.
• The preacher shares the experience of a man of God who used to pray this way: "Lord, if giving my best, if going further, if seeing your glory requires hardship, then please bring it about." This prayer never feels good right away. But it describes what God truly does in our lives: he uses hardship as a springboard for elevation.

5. Your praise comes out transformed from the trial (1 Samuel 2)

• Hannah, Elkanah's wife, was scorned by Peninnah, her rival. Elkanah would tell her, "Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?" But a husband's love does not replace what is missing in Hannah's heart. It took Peninnah's contempt for Hannah to understand what she lacked and to come lay it down at the feet of the LORD.
• Without Peninnah's taunts, there would have been no Samuel. Without Peninnah's scorn, Hannah would not have received a fresh revelation of God, the God who speaks and who acts, the God who says a thing and it happens.
• After this trial, Hannah's worship changed. She no longer praises the God she has been told about; she praises the God she has experienced. Her prayer in 1 Samuel 2 becomes a song the church carries across generations: "There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God" (1 Samuel 2:2).
• She adds in verse 8, "He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor." God confirms this word generation after generation in the lives of those who return to him. Distress produces a praise that has substance.

6. God leaves a few enemies to teach you how to fight (Judges 3)

• Judges 3:1-2 says, "These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan." Israel had entered the promised land, but God deliberately left opponents behind to shape the next generation.
• Your parents' wars are not your wars, and the God of your parents wants to become your God. It is not enough to have heard that God is faithful: you have to live it yourself before you can preach it yourself. This is why God leaves certain battles in your life that he could have removed, so that you learn to know the God who delivers.
• As Joseph was able to tell his brothers in Genesis 50:20, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." What others meant to use against you, God uses to place you where he has prepared a place for you.

Key Takeaways

• With Jesus, there is always a possible way back. No distress, no hardship, no failure has the power to close the road that leads you back to him.
• What you are going through is not for your shame, but so that the works of God may be displayed in you (John 9:3, John 11:4).
• God wants to change how you see things first. As with Peter, he teaches you to see differently, and it is this new way of seeing that will produce new behavior.
• Where there is a great and effective door, there are often also opponents. Do not flee your Ephesus: God deals with the giants while you focus on the door.
• Distress was the path that sent Jairus running to fall at Jesus' feet. It is sometimes the only path that brings you back to the Father.
• Going through trial changes your praise. Like Hannah, you come out with a song that has substance, because you are now singing about the God you have experienced.

Personal Application

1. What is the "situation" today that you look at only as shame or confusion? Can you reread it in light of Jesus' statement, "so that the works of God might be displayed"?
2. Where do you need God to reshape the way you see things: a loved one, a community, a work situation you have been judging the same way for too long?
3. Is there an "Ephesus" you are about to flee because of your opponents? What does it tell you about the door God may be opening in front of you?
4. Like Jairus, what reputation or position are you willing to risk today to throw yourself at Jesus' feet in your distress?
5. Can you name a trial from which your praise came out transformed? Give thanks to God for it and tell someone about it this week.

Verses Cited

• Psalm 23:6 · goodness and love will follow me
• John 12:32 · when I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself
• John 9:1-3 · so that the works of God might be displayed
• John 11:4 · this sickness is for the glory of God
• Acts 10:28 · God has shown me not to call anyone impure or unclean
• 1 Corinthians 16:9 · a great door for effective work
• Mark 5:22-23 · Jairus falls at Jesus' feet
• John 12:42 · many leaders believed but would not acknowledge it
• Genesis 50:20 · you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good
• 1 Samuel 2:1-8 · Hannah's song
• Judges 3:1-2 · the nations left to test Israel
• Proverbs 10:22 · the blessing of the LORD brings wealth

FAQ

What does "with Jesus there is always a way back" mean?

It means that no situation, no distress, and no failure has the power to permanently cut you off from the road that leads back to God. Christ was lifted up to draw all people to himself (John 12:32); as long as you are breathing, a door of return remains open. The message goes even further: the trial you are going through is often the very instrument God uses to awaken your hunger for him, reshape how you see things, and send you running to Jesus, just like Jairus in Mark 5.

Should we really ask God to "bring about hardship"?

The preacher recounts hearing a man of God pray this way: "If going further, giving my best, seeing your glory requires hardship, then bring it about." This prayer is not inviting suffering for its own sake; it hands over to God the right to choose the means he will use to shape you. The Bible does not glorify pain, but it affirms that "the blessing of the LORD brings wealth" (Proverbs 10:22) and that God uses what we would not have chosen to display his glory in our lives.

If God can do anything, why does he leave so many opponents in my path?

Judges 3:1-2 gives a direct answer: God left certain nations behind to shape the generation of Israel that had not known the wars of Canaan. The same is true in your life. Your parents' wars are not your wars, and the God of your parents wants to become your God, personally. Some battles are not punishments: they are a space where you learn to know God as the one who delivers, to grow spiritually stronger, and to receive a praise that has substance, like Hannah's in 1 Samuel 2.