Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: We're so excited about our new single Never Lost that
Speaker 1: we were just singing and pray that you'll get that song.
Speaker 1: And what I want to do today is I actually
Speaker 1: want to take something that was in that song that
Speaker 1: you were just singing and bring it to your life
Speaker 1: at a really practical level today. And the song says
Speaker 1: that God still shows up at the tomb of every Lazarus.
Speaker 1: And I want to show you the scripture that that
Speaker 1: line came from today, and then I want to speak
Speaker 1: to the Lazarus in your life. Everybody in here has
Speaker 1: a Lazarus, and everybody in here has a God, and
Speaker 1: today we just want to bring these things into God's
Speaker 1: presence for a few moments. John Chapter eleven is the scripture.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our EPAM around the world. There are tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of people right now who are joining us
Speaker 1: on their devices and less thank God for them as well,
Speaker 1: that this word would be received in your life. I
Speaker 1: got smart to beat up, brought my iPad today, my Bible.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching from John eleven, and I'm covering quite a
Speaker 1: few verses of scripture. And my Bible yesterday kept blowing,
Speaker 1: the pages kept blowing. It wasn't the Holy Spirit, it
Speaker 1: was the air vent and it just kept blowing to
Speaker 1: different scriptures. And so I brought it on the iPad today.
Speaker 1: I hadn't preached from it in a long time. And
Speaker 1: it's locked and loaded and charged, and I want to
Speaker 1: preach to you. Well, it's not locked, it's going horizontal.
Speaker 1: There's some old men stuff right here. You know, every
Speaker 1: preacher gets persecuted. Paul had shipwrecks, and I have iPads
Speaker 1: that go horizontal. It's kind of on the same level,
Speaker 1: don't you think. But we're gonna look at something today together.
Speaker 1: From John chapter eleven, Verse one. Now, a man named
Speaker 1: Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of
Speaker 1: Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus
Speaker 1: now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume
Speaker 1: on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.
Speaker 1: So the sister sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one
Speaker 1: you love is sick. When he heard this, Jesus said,
Speaker 1: the sickness will not end in death. No, it is
Speaker 1: for God's glory, so that God's son may be glorified
Speaker 1: through it. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
Speaker 1: Everything up until this point, by the way, makes total
Speaker 1: sense to me. We're given the name of this man, Lazarus.
Speaker 1: His name literally means the one who God helps. Have
Speaker 1: you ever had God just help you out of a
Speaker 1: mess that you got yourself into, or a mess that
Speaker 1: you couldn't get yourself out of. His name means the
Speaker 1: one that God helps. And his sister was Martha. She's
Speaker 1: the one who made the mortgage payment. His other sister
Speaker 1: was Mary. She was a good listener. And Jesus liked
Speaker 1: going by and visiting because Martha made these incredible lemon
Speaker 1: pepper wings. He liked to eat her food. And then
Speaker 1: Mary would sit at his feet and be discipled. And
Speaker 1: there's nothing better than somebody. Well, I was going to say,
Speaker 1: there's nothing better than a good listener, But a good
Speaker 1: cook is better than a good listener. And if you
Speaker 1: ever find a good cook and a good listener, marry him,
Speaker 1: marry her. Okay, and Jesus loved to go to this
Speaker 1: little place two miles outside of Jerusalem, and he would
Speaker 1: often be refreshed there in his ministry travels. But now
Speaker 1: they need his help. And it says that he loved them.
Speaker 1: He loved all of them, He loved Lazarus, he loved Mary,
Speaker 1: he loved Martha. And as lazarus sickness begins to overtake
Speaker 1: the affairs of the family, Martha issues not necessarily an
Speaker 1: invitation to Jesus, but a request for help. Lord. The
Speaker 1: one you love is sick. I love how she phrased it.
Speaker 1: You know, send him a message, say Lazarus, no, no,
Speaker 1: say the one you love is sick, because he's very
Speaker 1: busy and we need to get him here. So let's
Speaker 1: just remind him of how much he loves Lazarus and
Speaker 1: get him here real quick so he can do that
Speaker 1: healing thing that he does for us. And everything makes sense.
Speaker 1: You know that he loves them, so he would come
Speaker 1: to them, and he would visit them, and he would
Speaker 1: help them because lazarus name means help, so it's in
Speaker 1: his very nature to expect the help that his name identifies,
Speaker 1: just like as a child of God, you call on
Speaker 1: your father and you expect him to help you. And
Speaker 1: everything up until here makes sense. But the next verse
Speaker 1: is something that I want us to talk about for
Speaker 1: a few moments today, because some of you are at
Speaker 1: a place in your life that doesn't make sense anymore,
Speaker 1: and it's that I want to speak to. It says
Speaker 1: that he loved them, that Jesus loved them. He really
Speaker 1: loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. Verse six. So when
Speaker 1: he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed with where
Speaker 1: he was two more days. And that's what I wanted
Speaker 1: to work on together today, because it would be one
Speaker 1: thing if the Bible said he loved them, but he
Speaker 1: stayed where he was two more days, because that would
Speaker 1: mean that he couldn't come. He had other people to help.
Speaker 1: But it says this interesting word, So so he stayed
Speaker 1: where he was two more days, and that means that
Speaker 1: verse six flows directly from verse five. He loved them,
Speaker 1: so he did not come when they wanted him. And
Speaker 1: I want to talk about this today from my heart.
Speaker 1: I'm going to title this message the Lazarus Factor. The
Speaker 1: Lazarus factor. And Lord, I just pray that you would
Speaker 1: enable me to preach this word beyond my human understanding
Speaker 1: or my oratorical abilities. God, I pray that something would
Speaker 1: go forth from this pulpit today that would call forth
Speaker 1: from the hearts of your people the kind of faith
Speaker 1: that makes the difference in Jesus's name. I pray, Amen, Amen,
Speaker 1: you may be seated. Spoiler alert, Lazarus dies and gets
Speaker 1: resurrected in John chapter eleven. I didn't want to leave
Speaker 1: you in suspense too long. But you ever think about
Speaker 1: how different people have different love languages. They have a
Speaker 1: book about it, the Five Love Languages. And I'm so
Speaker 1: thankful that God gave me a wife that one of
Speaker 1: her love languages is physical touch. Do you're not happy?
Speaker 1: That makes me? What a blessing. I'm so glad her
Speaker 1: love language is and acts of service. I much prefer
Speaker 1: physical touch. Amen, you know what God's love language, which
Speaker 1: is trust. If you were to ask me from just
Speaker 1: studying the Bible for however many years I've been studying,
Speaker 1: since I was sixteen, how does God receive love? He
Speaker 1: loves to be trusted more than he even loves to
Speaker 1: hear you sing, and I'm not saying you don't have
Speaker 1: a great voice. He loves when you trust him more
Speaker 1: than he even loves when you, you know, wear a
Speaker 1: cross around your neck. He loves when you trust him
Speaker 1: more than he even loves. And I probably shouldn't say
Speaker 1: this as a pastor, but more than he even loves
Speaker 1: when you come to church. He loves when you trust
Speaker 1: him on Tuesday. He just loves to be trusted. One
Speaker 1: of the most difficult things I think in our life
Speaker 1: is that we often equate love with comfort, while God
Speaker 1: equates love with trust. If we are not studious, and
Speaker 1: if we don't give attention to the scriptures, we will
Speaker 1: conflate and confuse our human definition of love with a
Speaker 1: divine love, a love that is not simply an action,
Speaker 1: but an essence of who God is. I don't know
Speaker 1: about your first job, but I would put myself out
Speaker 1: there as maybe having the most interesting first job in
Speaker 1: the whole room, because my first job at age fifteen
Speaker 1: was to work at Petrest Cemetery and Cremation Service, and
Speaker 1: I'm proud of that. I did those funerals with dignity,
Speaker 1: and I lifted one hundred and eighty pound bull mastiffs.
Speaker 1: That's part of how I learned to, you know, preaching
Speaker 1: dead churches was because right after my ministry of burying
Speaker 1: dogs and cremating dogs, I had to go preach at
Speaker 1: Baptist churches, and you know, the atmosphere could sometimes be
Speaker 1: real similar some of the churches. Don't be hateful. I'm
Speaker 1: just telling you about my experience. It was a good job.
Speaker 1: And people often judge me when I tell them, because
Speaker 1: you remember, we used to go out there and I'm
Speaker 1: on the way to the mall. I tell Eric, I
Speaker 1: just need to stop by real quick and take care
Speaker 1: of these dogs real quick. And you could tell who
Speaker 1: your friends are when you stop by the crematory on
Speaker 1: the way to the mall, who your friends are. But
Speaker 1: some people would judge me. You know, you tell them
Speaker 1: that you cremate dogs, and they look at you like
Speaker 1: you deal drugs. And it was a service with dignity.
Speaker 1: It was I'm again very proud of the fact that
Speaker 1: I was fifteen years old with a job that paid
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty dollars a week. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: got my own beeper. Yeah, I don't know nothing, And
Speaker 1: you know what, I think that one of the worst
Speaker 1: jobs would have been to be the pr manager for
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, to have to explain his actions or to
Speaker 1: have to give a press conference for Jesus, especially when
Speaker 1: John chapter eleven says things like he loved them, he
Speaker 1: received hospitality from them, but when it came time for
Speaker 1: him to help them, he stayed away two extra days
Speaker 1: because he loved them. As an interesting construct, and we
Speaker 1: come to find in all of our lives the difference
Speaker 1: between God's job and our job. See, God's job is outcome,
Speaker 1: your job is process. Can I preach a little bit
Speaker 1: to the three people who are awake. The longer that
Speaker 1: you think you can control outcomes in your life, the
Speaker 1: more frustration you are going to experience in this journey
Speaker 1: of faith. And many of us were taught starting out
Speaker 1: that faith was a way of controlling outcomes. It was like,
Speaker 1: if you pray this and do that, then you can
Speaker 1: expect this. But everybody in here has a Lazarus. The
Speaker 1: Lazarus factor is the thing in your life that made
Speaker 1: the formula fall apart. The Lazarus factor is the thing
Speaker 1: in your life that caused you to question the very
Speaker 1: nature of faith and start to see. At this point
Speaker 1: in this passage, that faith is rarely a form of
Speaker 1: manipulation by which we get God to keep our schedule.
Speaker 1: I've got news for you. God will not be manipulated.
Speaker 1: God will not be moved just because we get uncomfortable
Speaker 1: in a situation. And I hate to break it to you,
Speaker 1: but faith is not a means of manipulation. It is
Speaker 1: a patience with mystery, the kind of mystery that can say,
Speaker 1: on one hand, God can do anything. But in that
Speaker 1: very same breadth that you say God can do anything,
Speaker 1: there is something in your life right now that God
Speaker 1: will not do. That you see in his word that
Speaker 1: he did for somebody else, but he has not done
Speaker 1: for you yet. Simply trying to say that everybody in
Speaker 1: here has a Lazarus, everybody in here has something that
Speaker 1: was supposed to be done. If God really loved you,
Speaker 1: he would, If God really saw you, he would. If
Speaker 1: God was really strong like they say he is, he would.
Speaker 1: If God really had all power in his hand, he
Speaker 1: would have. Because we confuse God's love with proof in
Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence, we never really get to the foundational core
Speaker 1: that the love of God is not always proven by
Speaker 1: the way I feel his presence. The love of God
Speaker 1: is proven by the way I deal with his perceived absence.
Speaker 1: The love of God is not only proven in the
Speaker 1: times where I thank Him for my blessings. The love
Speaker 1: of God is proven in my life where I cannot
Speaker 1: feel Him. But by faith I praise Him because he
Speaker 1: is God. Even when I don't sense God. He is God.
Speaker 1: And I wonder, is there anybody who's willing to give
Speaker 1: God a praise by faith in this place today? At Gaston,
Speaker 1: at Blakeney, at Valentine, at you see online? Give him
Speaker 1: a praise if you don't praise him for what he does,
Speaker 1: but who he is. And they didn't have text messaging,
Speaker 1: so when Martha sent the message to Jesus, you need
Speaker 1: to get here quick. The one who you love needs
Speaker 1: your help, she would have to wait several days, two
Speaker 1: days to be exact, from the time the messenger got
Speaker 1: there until the time he got back. But there was
Speaker 1: one problem. When the messenger started coming back to Bethany,
Speaker 1: he was by himself. He was supposed to bring Jesus.
Speaker 1: You know how it is when you see the person
Speaker 1: you didn't want to see and they don't have the
Speaker 1: person with him that you really wanted to see. Where
Speaker 1: is he? She sent him message, and Jesus left Martha
Speaker 1: on Red. You ever been left on red? Honestly, I
Speaker 1: only became familiar with this phrase a few months ago.
Speaker 1: There was somebody I was ignoring and I ran into
Speaker 1: him in real life. He goes, bro, I'm like, praise
Speaker 1: the Lord. Brother. You know, I get real fake when
Speaker 1: I have to see somebody face to face that I
Speaker 1: don't like. Like, what's up, man, what's been going on?
Speaker 1: He's like, I've been texting you. You left me on Red?
Speaker 1: You got a new number or something like that. No,
Speaker 1: did you get my message? Yeah? I got it, and
Speaker 1: then I faked the heart attack. You know, I didn't
Speaker 1: know what to do. Hey, Jesus, the one you love
Speaker 1: is sit Hey Jesus, I'm depressed. Hey Jesus, I can
Speaker 1: hardly breathe right now. Hey Jesus, I feel all alone.
Speaker 1: Hey Jesus, I need to know how to make this decision.
Speaker 1: Hey Jesus, I need you to show my husband how
Speaker 1: to stop being crazy. Hey Jesus, I need you to
Speaker 1: do for my kids what prozac can't do and calm
Speaker 1: them down. Hey Jesus, I need you to straighten this out.
Speaker 1: And Jesus left Martha on red. Have you ever been
Speaker 1: left on red by God? Have you ever prayed a
Speaker 1: prayer that hit the ceiling? Have you ever prayed a
Speaker 1: prayer that bounced right back? Have you ever prayed a
Speaker 1: prayer that came back to you with such velocity that
Speaker 1: you barely got it out of your mouth before you
Speaker 1: had to stare at the same situation back in your face.
Speaker 1: And he left them on red because he loved them,
Speaker 1: not because he was busy, but because he loved them
Speaker 1: so much he didn't come. I don't know what to
Speaker 1: do with that. Humanly speaking, my love language is presence.
Speaker 1: You know, I love you, pastor, but you don't come.
Speaker 1: You don't love me if you don't come. That's how
Speaker 1: I feel about it. You know, people will say things
Speaker 1: sometimes we're there with you in spirit. I appreciate that,
Speaker 1: But there with me in spirit doesn't help me move
Speaker 1: these boxes. Huh. There with me in spirit doesn't cook
Speaker 1: chicken noodle soup when I have a coal talk to me,
Speaker 1: somebody there with me in spirit. And then people are
Speaker 1: real annoying. They'll give you cliches and think that's supposed
Speaker 1: to comfort you. Well, if you know God put it
Speaker 1: on you. He won't give you any more than you
Speaker 1: can bear. They always got a scripture for you. You know.
Speaker 1: That's why when I sent you the scripture the other day,
Speaker 1: I said, delete this if you don't want to see
Speaker 1: it right now, because sometimes the scripture is annoying. I
Speaker 1: love how y'all look at me when I say stuff
Speaker 1: like that. That's how I know I'm preaching good because
Speaker 1: you give me that face. It's the face that you
Speaker 1: make when you thought it, but you would never say
Speaker 1: it out loud. Halloween is over, take your mask off
Speaker 1: and admit for a moment. Come on, y'all, this is
Speaker 1: my job to say the stuff that you're thinking anyway,
Speaker 1: so you don't think you're going to hell for thinking it.
Speaker 1: You can have great faith and still be frustrated. You
Speaker 1: can have great faith and still wonder sometimes what the
Speaker 1: one day, I'm gonna put out a whole CD call
Speaker 1: Honest Worship, and it's gonna have songs you love like
Speaker 1: you're never gonna let never gonna let me down, except
Speaker 1: that one time you're never gonna It's gonna have ad
Speaker 1: libs like you seldom lost the battle, except when I
Speaker 1: was fourteen, And you're gonna sing about the real situations.
Speaker 1: The one you love is sick, and we often conflate
Speaker 1: God's love with the circumstances of our life. Now, if
Speaker 1: you look to the circumstances of your life for the
Speaker 1: proof of God's love, you are looking for love in
Speaker 1: all the wrong places. So Jesus says one of those
Speaker 1: things that could sound like a cliche on the surface,
Speaker 1: He says, this sickness will not end in death but
Speaker 1: for the glory of God. Well, hallelujah. Do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? God is your provider, but he's not
Speaker 1: paying my rent. The stuff you won't say. In fact,
Speaker 1: when we put this online, let's put the stuff you
Speaker 1: wish you had the guts to say. But Martha, Martha
Speaker 1: said it, and I want to show you how she responded.
Speaker 1: Because everybody has a Lazarus. Everybody has something that God
Speaker 1: was supposed to do for you that he did not do.
Speaker 1: What I love about the Bible is that it gives
Speaker 1: us the inside of hindsight. The inside of hindsight means
Speaker 1: I know why John wrote Book of John because at
Speaker 1: the end of it he says, the reason I wrote
Speaker 1: all of this was that you may believe. And he
Speaker 1: organizes his gospel account. If you ever read the Gospel
Speaker 1: of John, it reads differently than Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Speaker 1: Those are called the synoptic gospels. That means optic, you know,
Speaker 1: like see with sin, sin with see with they saw
Speaker 1: with one another. John's on a whole different wave. John
Speaker 1: takes seven signs that Jesus did, seven statements that Jesus made,
Speaker 1: and then he organizes it not as it's happening, but
Speaker 1: after it happened, and after he has the insight of hindsight,
Speaker 1: so he addresses who Jesus is with a knowledge of
Speaker 1: what he came for, after he saw him do all
Speaker 1: that he could do. The insight of hindsight is really powerful,
Speaker 1: but we don't live our lives with the insight of
Speaker 1: hindsight about every situation. I would like to suggest to
Speaker 1: you that Mary and Artha, who were mourning the loss
Speaker 1: of their brother Lazarus in John chapter eleven, never read
Speaker 1: John chapter twelve. That's just a guess, especially since John
Speaker 1: didn't write it until a D. Eighty five. Jesus died
Speaker 1: in a d. Thirty two, so that means they didn't
Speaker 1: get to read chapter twelve while they had to live
Speaker 1: out chapter eleven. Who am I preaching to? Who is
Speaker 1: in chapter eleven? Today? Let me show you something. If
Speaker 1: you're in chapter eleven, it's in verse two, it's in parentheses. Now,
Speaker 1: I want to caution you be very careful to never
Speaker 1: put a period where God put a parenthesis. What do
Speaker 1: you mean by that? I mean that some things in
Speaker 1: your life will make sense after the fact that don't
Speaker 1: make sense right now. And John chapter eleven, Verse two
Speaker 1: is very interesting because it says, not only did Mary
Speaker 1: cook for not only did Martha cook for Jesus, but
Speaker 1: Mary worship Jesus. Give me verse two. This Mary, who's
Speaker 1: other Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who
Speaker 1: poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with
Speaker 1: her hair. The only catch is this that didn't happen
Speaker 1: until John chapter twelve. That happened after what we are
Speaker 1: about to read. That happened after the revelation that Jesus
Speaker 1: was about to give. But the writer puts it in
Speaker 1: chapter eleven because if you do not see yourself worshiping
Speaker 1: in John chapter twelve, you will not have the strength
Speaker 1: to wait. In John chapter eleven, I don't know who
Speaker 1: this is for, But God said this morning. I want
Speaker 1: you to see yourself in John chapter twelve. I want
Speaker 1: you to see your self worshiping. I want you to
Speaker 1: see yourself grateful. I want you to see your self restored.
Speaker 1: I want you to see yourself better. I want you
Speaker 1: to see your self free. I want you to see
Speaker 1: yourself delivered. I want you to see your self healed.
Speaker 1: I want you to see yourself with a testimony. Come on, y'all,
Speaker 1: high five twelve people. Tell them I read the next chapter.
Speaker 1: I found out it doesn't end in then. But for
Speaker 1: the glory of God, I speak that over your children.
Speaker 1: Your children will worship the Lord. Your children children will
Speaker 1: have a legacy. You will see the goodness of the
Speaker 1: Lord in the land of the Living. Shouted. You believe
Speaker 1: it now, shout if you want to believe it. But
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard right now. God liked that second
Speaker 1: shot better than the first one. They say, you've got
Speaker 1: to see it to believe it. God says, you've got
Speaker 1: to believe it to see it. And what I love
Speaker 1: about it, yew's it down is Jesus has to break
Speaker 1: it down. You know. This is for those of us
Speaker 1: who are in the remedial class and for the advanced students,
Speaker 1: the honor Christians. You can make your grocery list while
Speaker 1: I share this. But for the rest of us, the disciples,
Speaker 1: even the ones who followed Jesus, even the ones who
Speaker 1: had the most exposure to him, were constantly confused about
Speaker 1: his motives, and they doubted the outcome because they had
Speaker 1: not yet seen the cross. Even at the cross, most
Speaker 1: of them went home because they had not yet seen
Speaker 1: the resurrection. He's the God of the outcome. He's the
Speaker 1: God of the outcome. I'm not. And the reason I
Speaker 1: need that in my life is because all I can
Speaker 1: do is sow the sea. I was reading one scripture
Speaker 1: where Jesus said that we should pray to the Lord
Speaker 1: of the harvest, and for a long time I read
Speaker 1: it just thinking about how we should pray. But then
Speaker 1: I thought about the fact that he called God the
Speaker 1: Lord of the harvest. The harvest represents the result, the
Speaker 1: seed represents the process. He's the Lord of the harvest.
Speaker 1: He's the God of the outcome. But I'm the lord
Speaker 1: of the seed. I decide what I sew, I decide
Speaker 1: what I withhold. He's the God of the outcome, and
Speaker 1: the only thing that's difficult for us in reading this
Speaker 1: passage is that we have the insight of hindsight. The
Speaker 1: disciples didn't. So he said to his disciples verse seven,
Speaker 1: let's go back to Judea. But Rabbi, they said, a
Speaker 1: short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you,
Speaker 1: and yet you are going back. What they didn't understand
Speaker 1: is that Jesus was invincible until his assignment was complete.
Speaker 1: He wasn't going to die until it was time to die.
Speaker 1: He wasn't going to die on accident because there was
Speaker 1: a price on his head. He would only die at
Speaker 1: that penultimate glory moment where God was revealing and releasing
Speaker 1: the salvation that he brought him to earth to carry.
Speaker 1: But they didn't know that. And see, we don't know that.
Speaker 1: You don't know when you're going through what you're going through.
Speaker 1: While you're going through what you're going through. But you're
Speaker 1: gonna find out that this sickness is not unto death
Speaker 1: but for the glory of God. So Jesus answered verse nine.
Speaker 1: Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks
Speaker 1: in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by
Speaker 1: the world's life. It is when a person walks at
Speaker 1: night that they stumble for they have no light. Well,
Speaker 1: that clears it up. Are we going to Judea or not?
Speaker 1: Are we going to health Lazarus or not? I know
Speaker 1: you feel this way when I preach sometimes it's like you.
Speaker 1: But it's not anymore clear because I still don't know
Speaker 1: what to do. So after he had said this, he
Speaker 1: breaks it down a little further Verse eleven, y'all enjoyed
Speaker 1: this Bible study today. After he said this, he wanted
Speaker 1: to tell them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. He
Speaker 1: means he's died. He's speaking symbolically, but the disciples are
Speaker 1: kind of literal. You know. He says he's fallen asleep.
Speaker 1: I'm going to wake him up. His disciples replied, Lord,
Speaker 1: if he sleeps, he'll get better. Jesus had been speaking
Speaker 1: of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
Speaker 1: So then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. Make
Speaker 1: it plain, Jesus, because I will always see things on
Speaker 1: the surface. See, everybody in here has a Lazarus. But
Speaker 1: I'm not just talking about a person that you've lost.
Speaker 1: Everybody in here has a Lazarus, but it might not
Speaker 1: be a relationship. Your Lazarus might be something in your
Speaker 1: character that you thought would be fixed by now, and
Speaker 1: you send a message to Jesus saying, come over here
Speaker 1: to Bethany and see about me. Come over here and
Speaker 1: break these chains off of my life so I can
Speaker 1: serve you. Everybody in here has a Lazarus. I'm not
Speaker 1: a rookie pastor anymore. I've been at this about as
Speaker 1: long as my oldest son has been alive. And one
Speaker 1: thing I've learned is everybody has a Lazarus. Some people's
Speaker 1: lazarus is buried so deep they forgot about it. It
Speaker 1: no longer even registers anymore. Because we've learned how to
Speaker 1: move on from the event, but we never process the disappointment.
Speaker 1: And the Lazarus factor says that how you process the
Speaker 1: disappointment determines whether it becomes faith that propels you or
Speaker 1: fear that paralyzes you. So when they send word to
Speaker 1: Jesus and he didn't come when they wanted, now they
Speaker 1: have a decision to make. If he did not come
Speaker 1: when we want him to come, and did not do
Speaker 1: what we wanted him to do, does he still love us?
Speaker 1: This is the Lazarus factor. I know that he loves me,
Speaker 1: and I am no longer looking for proof of that fact.
Speaker 1: I am living from the proof that he loves me.
Speaker 1: This love is not based in just what he did.
Speaker 1: Sometimes this love is proven by what he chooses not
Speaker 1: to do. Jesus said, I'm going to wake him up,
Speaker 1: and I love a well Thomas's faith. Watch this, he says.
Speaker 1: Jesus says verse fifteen, I'm glad I was not there
Speaker 1: so that you may believe. But let us go to him.
Speaker 1: And Thomas, also known as Didamus, said to the rest
Speaker 1: of the disciples, let us also go that we may
Speaker 1: die with him. What great faith. Jesus says, I'm going
Speaker 1: to wake him up, and Thomas says, let's go die.
Speaker 1: The Lazarus factor is the faith to follow him anyway.
Speaker 1: This message is from my heart today, because we all
Speaker 1: have a Lazarus. And whether that's a dream that didn't
Speaker 1: play out the way that you thought it would play out,
Speaker 1: or whether that's a way that you saw the most
Speaker 1: important relationships in your life materializing. You know, the starter
Speaker 1: kit version of Christianity that you started with, and now
Speaker 1: you're having to understand the fact that he'd loved them
Speaker 1: and he was still late. God's never late. You never
Speaker 1: read the Bible. You just memorized the cliche. Jesus was late.
Speaker 1: I started to say he was fashionably late, but actually
Speaker 1: he was functionally late. It means he showed up late
Speaker 1: because of his love, because there was something about his
Speaker 1: character that they would not see if he showed up
Speaker 1: at the sick bed. He had to show up at
Speaker 1: the tomb so they could see something about him. Not
Speaker 1: a new thing that he was, but what God is
Speaker 1: doing in your life right now. He is going to
Speaker 1: show you his glory in a way you've never seen before.
Speaker 1: He's going to show you his demonstration of power in
Speaker 1: a way you haven't experienced it yet. And I know
Speaker 1: it's really difficult to stay in that place of faith.
Speaker 1: In fact, the Bible says in verse seventeen, on his arrival,
Speaker 1: Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb
Speaker 1: for four days. Now. This is significant to the Jewish
Speaker 1: audience for which John intended this gospel account. They believe
Speaker 1: that within the first three days of death, the spirit
Speaker 1: could return to a man. It was a sort of
Speaker 1: superstitious belief that was common to Judaism in the first century,
Speaker 1: but Jesus waited until after their time period expired to
Speaker 1: reveal his glory. I wonder, is God waiting past the
Speaker 1: point of your expectation so his strength can kick in
Speaker 1: with a new velocity. I feel your spirit God, he
Speaker 1: showed up after four days. Now. Now Bethany was less
Speaker 1: than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come
Speaker 1: to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss
Speaker 1: of their brother. So they came to comfort Martha and
Speaker 1: Mary because that's all they could do. There's only so
Speaker 1: much people can do for you, even if they mean well,
Speaker 1: There's only so much your friends can do for you.
Speaker 1: Stop worshiping people. People can only do so much for you.
Speaker 1: Don't make them an idol. They are not your God.
Speaker 1: People can be a gift, but they cannot be your God.
Speaker 1: There's some things in my life that only Christ can do.
Speaker 1: There's some things I appreciate the help. I appreciate the prayers,
Speaker 1: I appreciate the well wishes. But I need Jesus for
Speaker 1: this job. This is a big one. I need the Master,
Speaker 1: I need the healer. I need the great I Am.
Speaker 1: I need the bread of life, I need the light
Speaker 1: of Heaven. I need Jesus. I need Jesus Verse twenty.
Speaker 1: When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out
Speaker 1: to meet him, but Mary stayed home. We all have
Speaker 1: different ways of dealing with disappointment. Some of us get
Speaker 1: under the covers. I love Martha. She met him at
Speaker 1: the gate. Oh you want to show up now, Welcome
Speaker 1: to Bethany, the same Bethany. You came to to eat
Speaker 1: my cooking. You came when I cooked, but you didn't
Speaker 1: come when I cried. It's good to see you. Would
Speaker 1: have been really good to see you about two days ago.
Speaker 1: It's good to see you. I appreciate the comfort. I
Speaker 1: appreciate the peace. But why didn't you just keep it
Speaker 1: from happening so I wouldn't need the peace? The stuff
Speaker 1: you won't say, but Martha would, Oh yes she would.
Speaker 1: The significant thing is not even what she said. It's
Speaker 1: the fact that she showed up. She comes to Jesus
Speaker 1: at the gate. And this is because every other time
Speaker 1: he's been to Bethany, she led him in the house,
Speaker 1: not this time. I love how God will come as
Speaker 1: far as we let him in our life. And she
Speaker 1: met him at the gate. This is just a story
Speaker 1: about a man named Lazarus. But it's really a story
Speaker 1: about whatever you brought in here today that died on you.
Speaker 1: It's really a story. People say sometimes that when you preach,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't make the Bible about the people. It's about God.
Speaker 1: A woman named Mary, a woman named Martha, a man
Speaker 1: named Lazard, a man named Jonathan, a woman named Rachel.
Speaker 1: I wish I had time to do every name in
Speaker 1: the house, but some of y'all got hard to pronounce names,
Speaker 1: and you'll be embarrassing me. He deals with her individually,
Speaker 1: and she says exactly what she means, Lord, You're still Lord.
Speaker 1: I love how she shifts the perspective from Lazarus to Lord.
Speaker 1: I love how she still has this understanding. Watch this.
Speaker 1: You didn't do what I wanted you to do, but
Speaker 1: that didn't change my understanding of who you are. I
Speaker 1: want to preach this kind of faith. So when he
Speaker 1: stays two more days instead of running to see about
Speaker 1: what you need him to see about, you won't change
Speaker 1: your mind about who he is. If you would have
Speaker 1: been here, she said, my brother would still be here
Speaker 1: if you would have been here, Like you used to
Speaker 1: come here when you needed a place to stay, and
Speaker 1: you didn't want to go on AIRB and B. I'm
Speaker 1: not cooking for you this time. I'm upset, and she
Speaker 1: offers Jesus an honest assessment about what she expected. The
Speaker 1: most godly prayer you can pray is the most honest
Speaker 1: prayer you can pray. The most honest prayer you pray
Speaker 1: will be the most godly prayer that you pray. So,
Speaker 1: she says, I expected you to come. Did you not
Speaker 1: get the message? You left me on red? You left
Speaker 1: me in my hurt and Lazarus kept getting sicker and sicker,
Speaker 1: and my faith got weaker and weaker. And at first
Speaker 1: I thought, well, just surely he's been detained. But then
Speaker 1: I found out you didn't come on purpose. If you
Speaker 1: would have been here, if they would have raised me,
Speaker 1: if they wouldn't have abused me, if you would have
Speaker 1: stopped it, if you would have prevented it, if you
Speaker 1: can do all things, why didn't you do what I
Speaker 1: needed you to do? That I've seen you do for others.
Speaker 1: I saw you heal people, I saw you touch lives.
Speaker 1: I saw you take better care of people who treated
Speaker 1: you worse. But you have confused my love with conformity
Speaker 1: to your agenda. If you would have been here, Lazarus
Speaker 1: would not have died. And then something takes over Martha,
Speaker 1: and I'm praying it'll take over us today because everybody
Speaker 1: in here has got a Lazarus. Everybody in here has
Speaker 1: got something that you just buried or you're in the
Speaker 1: process of burying, and there's a funeral going on at
Speaker 1: the same time that faith is trying to be born
Speaker 1: in your heart today. But something kicks into Mary's spirit
Speaker 1: and she's like, if you would have then we could have.
Speaker 1: But look at verse twenty two. But I know that
Speaker 1: even now, and I want somebody to shout right now,
Speaker 1: just say now, now, God is present in this moment.
Speaker 1: God is with me in this season. God is for
Speaker 1: me in this moment. God is with me in this season.
Speaker 1: Shout now now, I know that devil has been trying
Speaker 1: to keep you at the graveside, But let's bring our
Speaker 1: disappointment into the presence of God for a moment and
Speaker 1: declare that even now he is sovereign, even now he
Speaker 1: is holy, even now he is good, even now he
Speaker 1: is working, even now he's showing up. Even now, God
Speaker 1: will give you whatever you ask. And Jesus said to
Speaker 1: her your brother will rise again, and Martha answered, I
Speaker 1: know he will rise again in the resurrection at the
Speaker 1: Last Day. And Jesus said, you're missing the point. I
Speaker 1: am the Resurrection and the life. You keep trying to
Speaker 1: prove my presence by what I do, But I want
Speaker 1: you to see who I am. So I didn't do
Speaker 1: what you wanted me to do because I needed you
Speaker 1: to see who I am. I am a frivist. I
Speaker 1: think it's closer. The one who believes in me will
Speaker 1: live even though they die question question next verse, next verse,
Speaker 1: and whoever lives by believing them, we will never know.
Speaker 1: Do you believe this? Do you believe this? Do I
Speaker 1: believe what? Bro Preacher? Do you believe what I just said?
Speaker 1: And she answers, yes, Lord, I believe that you are
Speaker 1: the Messiah. Now it's two things in the text delay.
Speaker 1: One says your brother will rise. One says I am
Speaker 1: the Resurrection. She says, I believe that you are who
Speaker 1: you say you are. I don't even know what you're
Speaker 1: gonna do. But the Lazarus factor is that thing inside
Speaker 1: of you that somehow knows he is God. I believe
Speaker 1: that you are. It sure would have been nice if
Speaker 1: you had. But even though you didn't, you are even
Speaker 1: though you didn't. You are even though I wish you are,
Speaker 1: even though I hoped you are, even though he died,
Speaker 1: You are even though it happened. You are even though
Speaker 1: that's over. Even now I believe you are. And God,
Speaker 1: God brings us to these points to see what will
Speaker 1: we do with our disappointment. She met him at the gate,
Speaker 1: and she confessed faith in him, even in the absence
Speaker 1: of the miracle that she so desperately needed. I believe
Speaker 1: that you are the son of God who is to
Speaker 1: come into the world. And after verse twenty eight she
Speaker 1: had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary.
Speaker 1: A sigh. The teacher is here, she said, and he's
Speaker 1: asking for you. And when Mary heard this, she got
Speaker 1: up quickly and went to him. Now, Jesus, I love
Speaker 1: the Bible. Jesus had not yet entered the village, but
Speaker 1: was still at the place where Martha had met him.
Speaker 1: He will stand where you need him to stand, and
Speaker 1: he will come as far as you invite him. So
Speaker 1: listen what that means if you choose to keep God
Speaker 1: at a distance. He stood at the gate, and Mary
Speaker 1: was mad too. I love how they were both mad,
Speaker 1: but they still got a miracle. I don't know how
Speaker 1: this is gonna go over, but give God an angry praise.
Speaker 1: Mary fell down at his feet, not in faith, but
Speaker 1: in frustration. But she came to him, and everybody followed
Speaker 1: her out there. Everybody that came around, Aunt Margaret just
Speaker 1: started with the letter m Mary. Martha Margaret said, she said,
Speaker 1: verse verse thirty two. She reached the place where he
Speaker 1: was and saw him and fell at his feet and said, Lord,
Speaker 1: if you have been here, my brother would not have died.
Speaker 1: And Jesus saw her weeping. The Jews who had come
Speaker 1: along with are also. He was deeply moved in spirit
Speaker 1: and trouble. When he saw her pain, he participated in it.
Speaker 1: The Lazarus factor is not only that God gives miracles
Speaker 1: in desperation. The Lazarus factor says that He is with
Speaker 1: us in the pain of disappointment as well. And he asked, Martha,
Speaker 1: do you believe this? And he asked Mary for a location,
Speaker 1: where did you lay him? Take me to that place,
Speaker 1: not the place that you let everybody else see, that place,
Speaker 1: that place where you kind of buried your belief in God.
Speaker 1: It was a rejection that place. It was a loss
Speaker 1: that place, it was a betrayal. That place. It's a
Speaker 1: place where you feel exhausted, and it's sometimes a place
Speaker 1: where you're embarrassed of it. It's not the rooms in
Speaker 1: the house that you show the guests, it's the other
Speaker 1: rooms that place. What I couldn't figure out was why
Speaker 1: did Jesus wait when he could have come and spoken
Speaker 1: a word. And if he could have come and spoken
Speaker 1: a word, why didn't he just speak it from a distance.
Speaker 1: He didn't even have to come to Bethany to heal Lazarus.
Speaker 1: But I think he wanted us to see that He
Speaker 1: likes to come close to what other people would push away.
Speaker 1: Everybody has a Lazarus. Everybody as a turn that your
Speaker 1: life took that you didn't see coming and that God
Speaker 1: didn't prevent. And as simple as this message may be,
Speaker 1: I think it may be the deepest one that you
Speaker 1: ever hear, because God is saying, take me to that place.
Speaker 1: It is not a physical location, it is an emotional one.
Speaker 1: Take me to that place where you laid him, where
Speaker 1: you stop being optimistic, where you started going through the
Speaker 1: motions swinging an axe with no blade. Take me to
Speaker 1: that place where you just learned to manage the addiction
Speaker 1: rather than fighting it. Take me to that place where
Speaker 1: you just decided to show people a facade because you
Speaker 1: don't think they can handle what's really you in the
Speaker 1: core of your being that placebody has a Lazarus, And
Speaker 1: the question is not whether or not you have a Lazarus.
Speaker 1: The question is what are you gonna do about it? Now.
Speaker 1: Jesus made the trip to the tomb, and when he
Speaker 1: got there, some of y'all said, you were going to
Speaker 1: memorize more scripture this year. I'm gonna give you one
Speaker 1: to start, verse thirty five, Jesus Web, so you can
Speaker 1: go home and tell somebody you memorize the whole Bible
Speaker 1: verse today. That's the whole verse, Jesus Web. How powerful
Speaker 1: that before he spoke the word, he wept. Before he
Speaker 1: demonstrates his authority, he demonstrates his empathy. He wants you
Speaker 1: to know, I'm with you while you're waiting for it.
Speaker 1: I'm with you while you're waiting for it. I'm with you.
Speaker 1: I was with you when you didn't see me. I
Speaker 1: was with you when you didn't feel me. I was
Speaker 1: with you when people couldn't do it for you. I
Speaker 1: was with you, and he wept. And when they saw
Speaker 1: that verse thirty six, many of the Jews gathered there said,
Speaker 1: see how he loved him, Look how much he loved him.
Speaker 1: And then some of the other Jews said, verse thirty seven,
Speaker 1: could not he who opened the eyes of the blind
Speaker 1: man kept this man from dying. So now I got
Speaker 1: one voice saying, he loves you so much. And then
Speaker 1: I got another voice saying, if he loves me so much,
Speaker 1: then why. And the Bible says that Jesus, once more
Speaker 1: deeply moved, did not respond to their opinions, but operated
Speaker 1: according to his purpose. I feel the presence of God
Speaker 1: in this place. Now watch this moment and receive it
Speaker 1: for your Lazarus in your life. It says, Jesus, once
Speaker 1: more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a
Speaker 1: cave that the stone laid across the entrance. The stone
Speaker 1: across the entrance means nothing else is going in and
Speaker 1: nothing else is coming down. That's some of your hearts today.
Speaker 1: And then Jesus tells them something to do that he
Speaker 1: could have easily done without their help. Take away the stone.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? He's about to raise this man from
Speaker 1: the dead, but he can't push the stone. He could,
Speaker 1: but he didn't until the moment where you open yourself
Speaker 1: to the possibility that God can do it. Your heart
Speaker 1: is a closed tomb keeping dead things in. But here's
Speaker 1: what's beautiful. When Martha responded to Jesus' command, she was
Speaker 1: embarrassed because she didn't want to expose what was inside.
Speaker 1: She said, Lord, by this time there's a bad odor.
Speaker 1: I don't want anybody to see this. I don't want
Speaker 1: anybody to know this. I don't want anybody to go
Speaker 1: know what's really going on in my heart. But then
Speaker 1: Jesus said something, Did I not tell you that if
Speaker 1: you believe, you will see the glory of God and
Speaker 1: get ready to praise him by faith Verse forty one.
Speaker 1: They took away the stone, and Jesus looked up and said,
Speaker 1: get ready to praise him. Father. I thank you that
Speaker 1: you heard me. I know you always hear me. But
Speaker 1: I set it for them that they may believe, that
Speaker 1: they may believe I sent you through trouble, that you
Speaker 1: may believe I sent you through the sea, that you
Speaker 1: may believe that you sent me. And then Jesus get
Speaker 1: ready to praise him. Verse thirty forty three, come on,
Speaker 1: come up. When he had said this, he called out,
Speaker 1: in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. Lazarus, come out.
Speaker 1: Forty four. When he said it, the dead man came out,
Speaker 1: the dead dream came out, the dead thing came out.
Speaker 1: The place gave to lie. The tripones game together to boone.
Speaker 1: Hear the word of the Lord. Latharus, come for, praise him. Lazarus,
Speaker 1: come for. In a loud voice, he commanded that thing
Speaker 1: that was dead to come alive. And the Lazarus factor says,
Speaker 1: you don't always get Lazarus back, but his presence is
Speaker 1: always calling something forth. Come and let us sink in.
Speaker 1: You know I'm right about it. You know he's the
Speaker 1: god of the outcome. You know he's the god who
Speaker 1: is working all things together. Right. You didn't forget that,
Speaker 1: did you, Martha. You didn't let you didn't let your
Speaker 1: Lazarus convince you that he didn't love you. He loved Lazarus.
Speaker 1: He loves Larry Stevens Fredick Jr. He loves Holly Aanna Fredick.
Speaker 1: He loved me so much that he lets something die.
Speaker 1: Showed up at the spot, and he's still showing up
Speaker 1: at the tomb of every Lazarus. They didn't want him
Speaker 1: to show up at the tomb. They wanted him to
Speaker 1: show up in the hospital room. In this place, I
Speaker 1: want you to know that, even though it's not the
Speaker 1: place you planned to be, he's standing here. He has
Speaker 1: not forsaken you. He has not abandoned you. In Greek,
Speaker 1: the word is ume. It means never. When he said
Speaker 1: never will I leave you, never will I forsake you
Speaker 1: is a double negative. Oo mah, it means never, no, never. Father,
Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus, I thank you that you
Speaker 1: hurt us the first time. I thank you that there's
Speaker 1: nobody standing before you today who cannot declare that you
Speaker 1: are weeping with us in our disappointment, and your word
Speaker 1: is going forth into our future. I speak to every
Speaker 1: Lazarus in this room today in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: I call joy forth. In the name of Jesus, I
Speaker 1: call peace, purpose and glory forth, for we know that
Speaker 1: this sickness does not end in death, but for the
Speaker 1: glory of God. The Lazarus factor he is getting glory
Speaker 1: out of this situation. Look at me for one moment,
Speaker 1: I'm over my time, but I got to tell you
Speaker 1: it was the situation that gave the opportunity for revelation.
Speaker 1: God is doing that in your life right now. Thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you
Speaker 1: who give generously to this ministry. Is because of you
Speaker 1: that this ministry is possible. You can click the link
Speaker 1: in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot
Speaker 1: org slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with
Speaker 1: your friends. You can click the share button, take a
Speaker 1: screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag
Speaker 1: us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.