S1: I just want you to see that Jesus Christ, in
S1: this resurrection celebration, had prayer and praise. I want to
S1: ask you, does resurrection power cause you to pray more?
S1: Caused you to praise more?
S2: You're listening to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford,
S2: junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago.
S2: I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us today as we
S2: continue our message, resurrection power. You can't keep a good
S2: man down. And I don't know about you, but when
S2: I hear that title, especially with this being Easter week,
S2: my first thought is, well, this must be a message
S2: about Jesus. And it is. But it's also a message
S2: about how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead because of
S2: his resurrection power. And as Pastor Ford just pointed out,
S2: when we see his resurrection power, we're probably going to
S2: be led to more prayer and more praise. Because when
S2: we understand who Jesus truly is when we see that
S2: He is God incarnate, the Son of God in all
S2: his power and in all his glory with skin on
S2: than it does, I think, lead us to more prayer
S2: and to more praise when we realize the fact that
S2: Jesus conquered sin and conquered death, and He Himself was
S2: able to lay his life down and pick it up
S2: again and give life to those who were dead around him.
S2: How can that not lead us to more prayer and
S2: more praise? Well, that's what we're looking at in today's broadcast.
S2: So if you can open your Bible and join us
S2: in John chapter 11 as we continue the message resurrection power.
S2: You can't keep a good man down. Here is Pastor Ford.
S1: You want to grow. You know what you're asking God
S1: to do. Put more weight on me. Give me more
S1: difficult situations. Give me something I got to wrestle with,
S1: struggle through and believe you and see you manifest yourself
S1: in all of your glory. Hallelujah. And so then there
S1: was the divine declaration. I'm almost done with my introduction.
S1: I'm almost done with my introduction. Y'all laughing. This is
S1: my introduction. Then there was the divine declaration. That was
S1: last year. We had the Divine declaration. I called it
S1: the greatest statement ever made. Why was it the greatest statement?
S1: Pastor Ford, I'm glad you asked me. You asked intelligent
S1: question it because it was the greatest identification I am
S1: is the greatest declaration, the resurrection and the life. It
S1: was the greatest confirmation, though he were dead. Yet shall
S1: he live? It's the greatest invitation. Believest thou this? And
S1: it was the greatest application, she said, Lord, I believe.
S1: Now let's finish this text up. And, uh, the good
S1: thing about it is the body of my message is
S1: as long as my introduction. Amen. I didn't I didn't
S1: say anything. Anything about my conclusion. Uh, so now now
S1: we have resurrection celebration. Let's walk through. Imma drop em,
S1: not push em. As my friend Romeo would say. Resurrection, celebration.
S1: Now we come to the actual event where the power
S1: that Jesus shows. I don't need to die to have
S1: resurrection power. I am the resurrection and the life. And
S1: because you can't keep a God man down, you're not
S1: going to be able to keep a good man down.
S1: Here it is. Notice in this resurrection celebration, there are
S1: five elements of this resurrection celebration. Number one, let's go on. Move.
S1: Look at the compassion of Christ. Verse 35 says, Jesus wept, man,
S1: I tell you, there are two verses of Scripture that
S1: everybody seems to know. This is one of them. Jesus wept. Uh, yeah.
S1: I remember, uh, my sons. I used to tell them, okay,
S1: to get a treat, you gotta have a memory verse.
S1: You gotta give me a memory verse. And I ain't
S1: going to tell you which one. Uh, came back with it. Uh,
S1: but it was that one that's up in the balcony
S1: right now. And he came back and he said, I
S1: got my verse memorized. How you do it so fast,
S1: he said. John 1135 Jesus wept. I said, oh no,
S1: he said, that's a verse. He said, all right. Yeah.
S1: And you know the other one, right? What's the other one?
S1: This morning they said, John 316. No. Jesus turned water
S1: into wine. Every time I witnesses, somebody got an alcohol problem.
S1: That's what they remind me of. Jesus turned water into wine,
S1: didn't he? Then he turned water into wine. Yeah. And
S1: so Jesus wept. Now, here's my question. Here's my question.
S1: Why is Jesus weeping? Didn't he already know he was
S1: going to raise him? Answer yes. Then why are you weeping? Jesus? See,
S1: there were two reasons that motivated Jesus while he walked
S1: on earth. Uh. Here's one. He saw their faith. Uh,
S1: Mark two five. Uh, he saw their faith. Luke 520.
S1: He saw their faith. Uh. Matthew 1842. 42. Matthew nine two.
S1: He moved because he saw faith. Why? Because faith is
S1: the currency of heaven. That's how you cash in on
S1: the promises of God. How do I know that? I
S1: hate to get the Bible in this, but now a
S1: word from our sponsor. He says without faith it is
S1: impossible to please him, for he that cometh to him
S1: must believe that he is, and that he is a
S1: rewarder of them that diligently. So when Jesus sees faith,
S1: he acts. But there's another reason. You know what it is. Say,
S1: what is it? He was moved with compassion. Oh, I
S1: love that, because sometimes I don't have faith. And Jesus
S1: does it anyway. Because what is compassion? My pain in
S1: his heart. Your pain in his heart. And so here,
S1: now we see the compassion of Jesus. Jesus, why are
S1: you crying? Because I'm not only God, I'm also a man.
S1: And one of the things I want to convey to
S1: my people is that I know the struggles that you're
S1: going through. God the father doesn't know our struggles because
S1: he is God and he does not experience anything. Remember
S1: I asked you the question, has it ever occurred to
S1: you that nothing has ever occurred to God? Alright, but
S1: Jesus became a man and so he's saying, listen what
S1: you're going through. Are you homeless? Son of man have
S1: nowhere to lay his head. Uh, you have a home. Uh,
S1: the Son of Man does not have a home. Foxes
S1: have homes, birds have nests. But the Son of Man
S1: hath nowhere to lay his head. You've been hated on.
S1: He came into his own, and his own received him not.
S1: The same ones who hollered Hosanna! Hosanna turned around on, uh,
S1: Maundy Thursday and said, crucify him, crucify him! Yeah. Jesus
S1: wants us to know that he can relate to every
S1: struggle that we have and that he's crying out for them.
S1: He feels their pain. Why, Pastor Ford? Because there's not
S1: a friend like the lowly Jesus. No. Not one, no
S1: not one. Hebrews 414 for we have not a high
S1: priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
S1: But in all points tempted like as we are, yet
S1: without sin. How would you define compassion, pastor? Glad you asked.
S1: I would call it the love of God that wants
S1: the best for us. The wisdom of God that knows
S1: what's best for us, the plan of God which is
S1: the best for us, and the power of God that
S1: does the best for us. Amen. Now, now, now listen, listen.
S1: Jesus wants you to know you came in here today,
S1: tore up from the floor. Got a smile on your face.
S1: New clothes on your back. But sorrow in your heart.
S1: And Jesus says he knows all about it. He knows
S1: all about it. Now, let me just tell you this.
S1: God didn't bury Lazarus. He planted him. See? How do
S1: I know God hasn't buried you? Because you're still breathing.
S1: And you're going through something. Which means he only planted you.
S1: He didn't bury you. See, if you're buried, you're there
S1: to stay. And the ground stays on top of you.
S1: There's a flower called the lotus blossom. Got a picture
S1: of it? Isn't that a beautiful flower? Guess why it's
S1: so beautiful. Because when it started out, you have to
S1: plant it in mud. So you put in the mud
S1: and you put the mud on top of it. And
S1: it only grows in moist places. And so what happens?
S1: It looks buried. But then, because you can't put it
S1: in dry earth, it won't grow. It needs mud. It
S1: draws moisture from everything. It needs to survive and to thrive.
S1: It draws from the mud. So guess what happens as
S1: it's buried there? It looks buried. You go back one day.
S1: It's still under the mud. Next day still under the mud.
S1: But guess what? You keep going back. And one day
S1: you'll see some shoots break through the mud. And then
S1: you'll see a stem. And then you keep going back.
S1: And you see that beautiful flower has blossomed. Some of you,
S1: in some muddy situations in your marriage and your job
S1: and your church, in your hood, you in some muddy situations.
S1: But I came to tell you, you're not buried. No, no.
S1: The mud is on you, but you are drawing what
S1: you need to grow in the grace and the knowledge
S1: of Jesus Christ from the very mud that's on top
S1: of you. And as you begin to trust God, what
S1: you'll find is you're going to break through the surface
S1: of the mud and the mud that used to be
S1: on top of you. Now you are on top of
S1: it as, as as you continue to draw from that tragedy,
S1: that travesty, then all of a sudden you begin to
S1: blossom and and your leaves go out and, and and
S1: you begin to look up and you look at yourself
S1: and say, wow, I'm beautiful. Look at me. But I'm
S1: not beautiful just because I'm beautiful, because of the mud
S1: out of which I grew. Amen. Amen. Tribulation worketh patience. Yeah.
S1: Look at somebody and say I'm not buried, I'm just planted.
S1: That's right, that's right. I'm not buried. I'm just planted. Yeah. Now. Now, look. Secondly,
S1: not just at the. Not just the compassion of Jesus.
S1: I want you to see the commitment of Jesus. So
S1: Jesus then proceeds to do two things. Prayer and praise. Yeah.
S1: Prayer and praise. Listen to what he says. He said, father,
S1: I thank thee. When? Verse 41. Then he took away
S1: the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, father,
S1: I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I
S1: knew that thou hearest me always. But because of the
S1: people which stand by, I said it, that they may
S1: believe that thou hast sent me. He said, he says,
S1: I'm not doing this for my benefit. I'm doing it
S1: for that. I'm going to have prayer and I'm going
S1: to praise God, and it's going to be audible so
S1: that people will know that you have sent me. That's
S1: another sermon. I don't have time to do it all.
S1: I just want you to see that Jesus Christ in
S1: this resurrection celebration had prayer and praise. I want to
S1: ask you, do you? Let me just cut to the chase?
S1: You know, you you can go and study the text
S1: for yourself. But do you does resurrection power caused you
S1: to pray more? Caused you to praise more?
S2: You know, as we look at Jesus and His resurrection power,
S2: I think that's the natural outflow from that. We will
S2: pray more, we will praise more. We're going to get
S2: back to this broadcast in just a moment. I know
S2: that many of us try and catch a broadcast each
S2: and every day, but you may be away from your radio.
S2: You may miss one of the programs. You don't have
S2: to miss out. You can always come to our website,
S2: Treasure Truth Radio, and listen online. You can also sign
S2: up to be in podcasting this program. And another way
S2: to listen. It's through the Moody Radio app. When you're
S2: on the go away from the radio, you can still
S2: hear Treasure Truth with the app. It's available for your iPhone,
S2: your iPad, or your Android phone or tablet. The best part?
S2: It's free. You can find it when you go to
S2: your favorite app store like iTunes or Google Play, or
S2: you can simply come to our website, treasure. Org and
S2: we'll link you to the download. Well, right now it's
S2: time to get back to the message once again. Here's
S2: Pastor Ford.
S1: See, there was a guy who went to Israel, and
S1: he wanted to see how sheep were taken care of.
S1: And so he got with this shepherd. And Shepherd said,
S1: now it's time to feed the ewe lambs that haven't eaten.
S1: So the shepherd would give him a lamb, and he would.
S1: He would feed the lamb out of a bottle. So
S1: after they got done, they fed about 8 or 9,
S1: but they had over 100 ewe lambs. He said, man,
S1: you got to tell me this. How do you know
S1: the ones that have not eaten? He said it's very simple.
S1: They don't have dirty knees. He said, I don't understand it.
S1: What do you mean? When a ewe lamb feeds it
S1: has his hind legs straight, but its front legs are
S1: down and he's on his knees. So I know who's
S1: been on their knees by the fact that they have dirt.
S1: And when I see the dirt on their knees. I
S1: know that they have eaten. Come on, let's look at
S1: these today. Yeah. Is anybody pray this morning? Let's look
S1: at knees today. Yeah. Because I guarantee you that your
S1: knees is in direct proportion to your knees that you have.
S1: Not because you ask, not because Jesus said men ought
S1: always pray and not faint. Is anybody got dirty knees
S1: up in here, up in here, up in here. Amen.
S1: And so prayer works. Abraham's servant prayed and Rebecca appeared.
S1: Jacob wrestled and prayed and prevailed with the angel. And
S1: Esau's mind was turned from 20 years of revenge. Moses
S1: prayed and Amalek was struck. Joshua prayed and Achan was discovered.
S1: Hannah prayed and Samuel was born. David prayed and Ahithophel,
S1: his hater, hanged himself. Uh, Asa prayed and victory was won.
S1: Jehoshaphat prayed and God turned away his enemies. He turned
S1: the choir into a marching army. Isaiah and Hezekiah prayed,
S1: and in 12 hours a 185,000 Assyrians were slain by
S1: one angel. Daniel prayed and the lions were muzzled. I
S1: guess they said, It's Daniel will shut my mouth. Mordecai
S1: and Esther prayed, and the plot to destroy the Jews
S1: were thwarted, and Haman was hanged on his own gallows.
S1: Nehemiah prayed and the king's heart was softened and he
S1: gave him a letter. Leave and lumber. Elijah prayed, and
S1: there were three years of drought, and he prayed again,
S1: and it rained. The church prayed and Peter was let go.
S1: What happens when you pray? Alright, alright then. He praised him.
S1: He gave God the glory due his name. He said,
S1: I want people to glorify you, man. You know, I
S1: gotta cut to the chase on this because the songwriter
S1: says we all ought to be praisers here's what he said.
S1: I will bless the Lord. Oh, you reading the Bible, huh?
S1: And his shall be in my mouth. That's right. See?
S1: Notice he says praise should be done personally. Uh, I
S1: will bless the Lord. It should be done persistently in
S1: every situation, at all times. It should be done perpetually.
S1: And his praise shall continually. It should be done publicly
S1: in my mouth. You tell me you don't have anything
S1: to praise him for. You lost your job, but you
S1: didn't lose your mind. You better praise him. Yeah, you're
S1: in church and you're not in the hospital. You need
S1: to praise him. Yeah, you're sick in your body, but
S1: you're not dead yet. You need to praise him that
S1: your kids are in college, not in jail. You need
S1: to praise him. Yeah, your kids are in jail, but
S1: they're not in their graves yet. Praise him. I'm not
S1: making what I want to make. Well? Who is? Praise him.
S1: You got a job. I don't have a car. You
S1: got a venture card? You better praise him. You better
S1: praise him that you got legs to walk on because
S1: some people don't even have legs. Yeah, I know what
S1: you're saying. I'm not all I should be, but thank
S1: God you're not what you're used to be. Somebody ought
S1: to praise the Lord. Somebody ought to be thanking him.
S1: Somebody ought to be grateful. He put food on your table,
S1: clothes on your back. Then notice the commands of Jesus.
S1: Notice the commands of Jesus. There are three commands. Notice
S1: what he says. Roll the stone away. Wait a minute. Jesus.
S1: You ain't have to ask him that. You got power
S1: over death so you can say stone be obliterated and
S1: it become pebbles. Why don't you do it that way?
S1: Because don't miss this. Because I won't do for them
S1: what they can do for themselves. I will only do
S1: for them what they can't do, for they can roll
S1: the stone. I don't need to do it. They can't
S1: raise him from the dead. That's where they need me.
S1: So he says, roll the stone. His participation with Jesus.
S1: There's the first command. Participation with Jesus. He won't do
S1: for you what you can do for yourself. So here's
S1: what he's saying. I want you to do some things
S1: to help Lazarus get to me. Oh, man. You know
S1: what our response was? And their response was, she went
S1: to Jesus and said, man, he's been dead four days.
S1: That boy got an odor. He stinks. You know what?
S1: Let me just say this. One of the number one
S1: reasons why we as believers don't evangelize the way God
S1: wants us to is because we don't want to rub
S1: elbows with stinking sinners. Alright? They stink. And so we
S1: are repulsed. But boy, if 50 gangbangers walked in here
S1: with their pants on the ground, with their hats turned
S1: to the side, displaying their colors for everybody. Be looking
S1: for those who got conceal and carry in here today. Yeah,
S1: here's what I'm saying. Are you lighting the way or
S1: are you in the way? Alright. Yeah. You know what?
S1: Let me tell you what happened. Food pantry gave out
S1: food last week and so they always give me a bag.
S1: So they gave me a bag and it had chicken
S1: in it. And so I put the chicken in my
S1: car and forgot about it. Monday is my off day.
S1: So Tuesday when I was getting ready to come here,
S1: I opened up the door and there was a foul
S1: odor from. I took it out, threw it in the
S1: garbage and from Tuesday to Friday I'm struggling to get
S1: that smell out. I couldn't get that smell out. I'm
S1: telling you, every time I open the door, I say, man,
S1: I preach somewhere every night, every night. And so, you know,
S1: I go places now. Now here. You know, I don't
S1: do armourbearer. I don't do that stuff. And I just
S1: my personal preference. I ain't saying nothing against anybody got him.
S1: But I could carry my own Bible. Thank you. Amen.
S1: And so they have the I pull up and they
S1: have the Armourbearer parked my car and I say, I say,
S1: now look, when you get in my car, they're going
S1: to be a smell man, you know? And I say, man,
S1: the smell. No, it didn't bother me. Only one guy
S1: told the truth. He said, man, it was funky up
S1: in there, Jack. So here I am. I'm trying to
S1: find something. I'm struggling to get the stink out. I
S1: can't get the stink out. So then I go and
S1: I'm walking past in my garage, in my window. I
S1: have all of my automobile products. And then I saw
S1: this just spray and walk away. I said, oh, wait
S1: a minute, it said, arm and hammer, carpet and room.
S1: Odor eliminator. Just spray. And I got it. And I
S1: went and I sprayed everywhere. That thing was. And the
S1: smell was gone. I said, look at this. Look how
S1: this thing worked out for a sermon illustration. Because you
S1: you there's no problem. You think it's your job to
S1: get the stink off of folk. So you tell em,
S1: don't don't wear earrings, don't wear this, don't wear that.
S1: Don't do this, don't do that. Don't they. And they
S1: still stinking because you can tell them not to do it.
S1: But you can't give them the power not to do it.
S1: But Jesus is just like the stuff in this plan.
S1: Why are you struggling and trying? All you gotta do
S1: is say, Jesus, take my hand while I run this race.
S1: And Jesus says. And just walks away. The stink is gone.
S2: That's Pastor James Ford, junior, a message called Resurrection Power.
S2: You can't keep a good man down. Are you listening
S2: to Treasure Truth? And you can request a copy of
S2: today's program on CD when you come to treasure Truth Radio. Hey,
S2: we're glad you're enjoying the Bible teaching on this program.
S2: You know, we live in a secular culture where increasingly,
S2: truth is said to be relative, where there are no absolutes.
S2: People don't necessarily attack the Bible outright anymore. The attacks
S2: are subtle, designed to undermine its authority. Ask a person
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S2: Word is one book among many. Maybe it's helpful, but
S2: it's not divinely inspired. Well, are you equipped to meet
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S2: you believe the Bible? You know you can. We want
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S2: again for your generous support. I'm Steve Hiller. Our producer
S2: is Amy Rios, and Pastor Ford picks up where we
S2: left off on this study of resurrection power. On tomorrow's broadcast.
S2: So join us for treasure truth. A production of Moody Radio,
S2: a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.