Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 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: 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 let's thank God for them as well,
Speaker 1: that this word would be received in your life. Got
Speaker 1: 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 going to look at something
Speaker 1: today together. From John chapter eleven, verse one. Now, a
Speaker 1: man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the
Speaker 1: village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose
Speaker 1: brother 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. So the sister sent word to Jesus, Lord,
Speaker 1: the one you love is sick. When he heard this,
Speaker 1: Jesus said, the sickness will not end in death. No,
Speaker 1: it is for God's glory, so that God's son may
Speaker 1: be glorified through it. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her
Speaker 1: sister and Lazarus. Everything up until this point, by the way,
Speaker 1: makes total sense to me. We're given the name of
Speaker 1: this man, Lazarus. His name literally means the one who
Speaker 1: God helps. Have you ever had God just help you
Speaker 1: out of a mess that you got yourself into or
Speaker 1: a mess that you couldn't get yourself out of? His
Speaker 1: name means the one that God helps. And his sister
Speaker 1: was Martha. She's the one who made the mortgage payment.
Speaker 1: His other sister was Mary. She was a good listener,
Speaker 1: and Jesus liked going by and visiting because Martha made
Speaker 1: these incredible lemon pepper wings. He liked to eat her food.
Speaker 1: And then Mary would sit at his feet and be discipled.
Speaker 1: And there's nothing better than somebody. Well, I was going
Speaker 1: to say, there's nothing better than a good listener. But
Speaker 1: a good cook is better than a good listener. And
Speaker 1: if you ever find a good cook and a good listener,
Speaker 1: marry him, marry her. Okay. And Jesus loved to go
Speaker 1: to this little place two miles outside of Jerusalem, and
Speaker 1: he would often be refreshed there in his ministry travels.
Speaker 1: But now they need his help, and it says that
Speaker 1: he loved them. He loved all of them. He loved Lazarus,
Speaker 1: he loved Mary, he loved Martha. And as lazarus sickness
Speaker 1: begins to overtake the affairs of the family, Martha issues
Speaker 1: not necessarily an invitation to Jesus, but a request for help. Lord,
Speaker 1: the one you love is sick. I love how she
Speaker 1: phrased it. 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 where he
Speaker 1: was two more days. And that's what I wanted to
Speaker 1: work on together today, because it would be one thing
Speaker 1: if the Bible said he loved them, but he stayed
Speaker 1: where he was two more days, because that would mean
Speaker 1: that he couldn't come. He had other people to help.
Speaker 1: But it says this interesting word. So so he stayed where
Speaker 1: he was two more days, and that means that verse
Speaker 1: six flows directly from verse five. He loved them, so
Speaker 1: he did not come when they wanted him. And I
Speaker 1: want to talk about this today from my heart. I'm
Speaker 1: going to title this message the Lazarus Factor, the Lazarus Factor.
Speaker 1: And Lord, I just pray that you would enable me
Speaker 1: to preach this word beyond my human understanding or my
Speaker 1: oratorical abilities. God, I pray that something would go forth
Speaker 1: from this pulpit today that would call forth from the
Speaker 1: hearts of your people the kind of faith that makes
Speaker 1: the difference in Jesus's name. I pray, Amen, Amen, you
Speaker 1: may be seated. Spoilert Lazarus dies and gets resurrected in
Speaker 1: John chapter eleven. I didn't want to leave you in
Speaker 1: suspend It's too long. But you ever think about how
Speaker 1: different people have different love languages. They have a book
Speaker 1: about it, the Five Love Languages. And I'm so thankful
Speaker 1: that God gave me a wife that one of her
Speaker 1: love languages is physical touch. Do you're not happy? That
Speaker 1: makes me? What a blessing. I'm so glad her love
Speaker 1: language is and acts of service. I much prefer physical touch. Amen.
Speaker 1: You know what God's love language is trust. If you
Speaker 1: were to ask me from just studying the Bible for
Speaker 1: however many years I've been studying since I was sixteen,
Speaker 1: how does God receive love? He loves to be trusted
Speaker 1: more than he even loves to hear you sing. And
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you don't have a great voice. He
Speaker 1: loves when you trust him more than he even loves
Speaker 1: when you, you know, wear a cross around your neck.
Speaker 1: He loves when you trust him more than he even loves.
Speaker 1: And I probably shouldn't say this as a pastor, but
Speaker 1: more than he even loves when you come to church.
Speaker 1: He loves when you trust him on Tuesday. He just
Speaker 1: loves to be trusted. One of the most difficult things
Speaker 1: I think in our life is that we often equate
Speaker 1: love with comfort, while God equates love with trust. If
Speaker 1: we are not studious and if we don't give attention
Speaker 1: to the scriptures, we will conflate and confuse our human
Speaker 1: definition of love with a divine love, a love that
Speaker 1: is not simply an action, but an essence of who
Speaker 1: God is. I don't know about your first job, but
Speaker 1: I would put myself out there as maybe having the
Speaker 1: most interesting first job in the whole room, because my
Speaker 1: first job at age fifteen was to work pet rest
Speaker 1: cemetery and cremation service, and I'm proud of that. I
Speaker 1: did those funerals with dignity, and I lifted one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty pound bull mastiffs. That's part of how I
Speaker 1: learned to, you know, preaching dead churches was because right
Speaker 1: after my ministry of burying dogs and cremating dogs, I
Speaker 1: had to go preach at Baptist churches, and you know,
Speaker 1: the atmosphere could sometimes be real similar. Some of the
Speaker 1: churches don't be hateful I'm just telling you about my experience.
Speaker 1: It was a good job, and people often judge me
Speaker 1: when I tell them, because you remember we used to
Speaker 1: go out there, and I'm on the way to the mall.
Speaker 1: I tell Eric, I just need to stop by real
Speaker 1: quick and take care of these dogs real quick. And
Speaker 1: you could tell who your friends are when you stop
Speaker 1: by the crematory on the way to the mall. Who
Speaker 1: who your friends are. But some people would judge me.
Speaker 1: You know, you tell them that you cremate dogs, and
Speaker 1: they look at you like you deal drugs. And it
Speaker 1: was a service with dignity. It was I'm again very
Speaker 1: proud of the fact that I was fifteen years old
Speaker 1: with a job that paid one hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 1: a week. Yeah, and I got my own beeper. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know nothing. And you know what, I think
Speaker 1: that one of the worst jobs would have been to
Speaker 1: be the pr manager for Jesus Christ, to have to
Speaker 1: explain his actions or to have to give a press
Speaker 1: conference for Jesus, especially when John chapter eleven says things
Speaker 1: like he loved them, he received hospitality from them, but
Speaker 1: when it came time for him to help them, he
Speaker 1: stayed away. Two extra days because he loved them. It's
Speaker 1: an interesting construct we come to find in all of
Speaker 1: our lives, the difference between God's job and our job. See.
Speaker 1: God's job is outcome, your job is process. Can I
Speaker 1: preach a little bit to the three people who are awake.
Speaker 1: The longer that you think you can control outcomes in
Speaker 1: your life, the more frustration you are going to experience
Speaker 1: in this journey of faith. And many of us were
Speaker 1: taught starting out that faith was a way of controlling outcomes.
Speaker 1: It was like, if you pray this and do that,
Speaker 1: then you can expect this. But everybody in here has
Speaker 1: a Lazarus. The Lazarus factor is the thing in your
Speaker 1: life that made the formula fall apart. The Lazarus factor
Speaker 1: is the thing in your life that caused you to
Speaker 1: question the very nature of faith and start to see
Speaker 1: at this point in this passage that faith is rarely
Speaker 1: a form of manipulation by which we get God to
Speaker 1: keep our I've got news for you. God will not
Speaker 1: be manipulated. God will not be moved just because we
Speaker 1: get uncomfortable in a situation. And I hate to break
Speaker 1: it to you, but faith is not a means of manipulation.
Speaker 1: It is a patience with mystery, the kind of mystery
Speaker 1: that can say, on one hand, God can do anything.
Speaker 1: But in that very same breadth that you say God
Speaker 1: can do anything, there is something in your life right
Speaker 1: now that God will not do. That you see in
Speaker 1: his word that he did for somebody else, but he
Speaker 1: has not done for you yet. I'm simply trying to
Speaker 1: say that everybody in here has a Lazarus. Everybody in
Speaker 1: here has something that was supposed to be done. If
Speaker 1: God really loved you, he would. If God really saw you,
Speaker 1: he would. If God was really strong like they say
Speaker 1: he is, he would. If God really had all power
Speaker 1: in his hand, he would have. Because we confuse God's
Speaker 1: love proof in circumstantial evidence, we never really get to
Speaker 1: the foundational core that the love of God is not
Speaker 1: always proven by the way I feel his presence. The
Speaker 1: love of God is proven by the way I deal
Speaker 1: with his perceived absence. The love of God is not
Speaker 1: only proven in the times where I thank Him for
Speaker 1: my blessings. The love of God is proven in my
Speaker 1: life where I cannot feel him, but by faith I
Speaker 1: praise Him because he is God. Even when I don't
Speaker 1: sense God, he is God, And I wonder, is there
Speaker 1: anybody who's willing to give God a praise by faith
Speaker 1: in this place today? At Gaston, at Blakeney, at Valentine,
Speaker 1: at you see online, give him a praise if you
Speaker 1: don't praise him for what he does, but who he is.
Speaker 1: And they didn't have text messaging, so when Martha sent
Speaker 1: the message to Jesus, you need to get here quick.
Speaker 1: The one who you love needs your help, she would
Speaker 1: have to wait several days, two days to be exact,
Speaker 1: from the time the messenger got there until the time
Speaker 1: he got back. But there was one problem. When the
Speaker 1: messenger started coming back to Bethany, he was by himself.
Speaker 1: He was supposed to bring Jesus. You know how it
Speaker 1: is when you see the person you didn't want to
Speaker 1: see and they don't have the person with him that
Speaker 1: you really wanted to see. Where is he? She sent
Speaker 1: him a message and Jesus left Martha on red. You
Speaker 1: ever been left on red? Honestly, I only became familiar
Speaker 1: with this phrase a few months ago. There was somebody
Speaker 1: I was ignoring and I ran into him. In real life.
Speaker 2: He goes, bruh, oh, I'm like, praise the Lord Brother
Speaker 2: you know, I get real fake when I have to
Speaker 2: see somebody face to face that I don't like.
Speaker 1: Like, what's up, man, what's been going on? He's like,
Speaker 1: I've been texting you. You left me on red? You
Speaker 1: got a new number or something like that. No, did
Speaker 1: you get my message? Yeah? I got it, and then
Speaker 1: I faked the heart attack. You know, I didn't know
Speaker 1: what to do. Hey, Jesus, the one you love is sick.
Speaker 1: Hey Jesus, I'm depressed. Hey Jesus, I can hardly breathe
Speaker 1: right now. Hey Jesus, I feel all alone. Hey Jesus,
Speaker 1: I need to know how to make this decision. Hey Jesus,
Speaker 1: I need you to show my husband how to stop
Speaker 1: being crazy. Hey Jesus, I need you to do for
Speaker 1: my kids what prozac can't do and calm them down.
Speaker 1: Hey Jesus, I need you to straighten this out. And
Speaker 1: Jesus left Martha on red. Have you ever been left
Speaker 1: on red by God? Have you ever prayed a prayer
Speaker 1: that hit the ceiling? Have you ever prayed a prayer
Speaker 1: that bounced right back? Have you ever prayed a prayer
Speaker 1: that came back to you with such velocity that you
Speaker 1: barely got it? Out of your mouth before you had
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: me somebody there with me in spirit. And then people
Speaker 1: are real annoying. They'll give you cliches and think that's
Speaker 1: supposed to comfort you. Well, if you know God put
Speaker 1: it on you, he won't give you any more than
Speaker 1: you can bear. They always got a scripture for you.
Speaker 1: You know. That's why when I sent you the scripture
Speaker 1: the other day, I said, delete this if you don't
Speaker 1: want to see it right now, because sometimes the scripture
Speaker 1: is annoying. I love how y'all look at me when
Speaker 1: I say stuff like that. That's how I know I'm
Speaker 1: preaching good because you give me that face. It's the
Speaker 1: face that you make when you've thought it, but you
Speaker 1: would never say it out loud. Halloween is over, take
Speaker 1: your mask off and admit for a moment. Come on, y'all,
Speaker 1: this is my job to say the stuff that you're
Speaker 1: thinking anyway, so you don't think you're going to hell
Speaker 1: for thinking it. You can have great faith and still
Speaker 1: be frustrated. You can have great faith and still wonder
Speaker 1: sometimes what the one day, I'm gonna put out a
Speaker 1: whole CD called Honest Worship, and it's gonna have songs
Speaker 1: you love like you're never gonna let never gonna let
Speaker 1: me down, except that one time you're never gonna It's
Speaker 1: gonna have ad libs like you seldom lost the battle,
Speaker 1: except when I was fourteen, And you're gonna sing about
Speaker 1: the real situations. The one you love is sick, and
Speaker 1: we often conflate God's love with the circumstances of our life. Now,
Speaker 1: if you look to the circumstances of your life for
Speaker 1: the proof of God's love, you are looking for love
Speaker 1: in all the wrong places. So Jesus says one of
Speaker 1: those 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. But if 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 the Book of John, because
Speaker 1: at the end of it he says, the reason I
Speaker 1: wrote all of this was that you may believe. And
Speaker 1: he organizes his gospel account. If you ever read the
Speaker 1: Gospel 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 Martha, 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 pre who is in
Speaker 1: chapter eleven today? Let me show you something. If you're
Speaker 1: in chapter eleven, it's in verse two. It's in parentheses.
Speaker 1: Now I want to caution you be very careful to
Speaker 1: never put a period where God put a parenthesis. What
Speaker 1: do you mean by that, I mean that some things
Speaker 1: in your life will make sense after the fact that
Speaker 1: don't make sense right now. And John chapter eleven, verse
Speaker 1: two is very interesting because it says not only did
Speaker 1: Mary cook for not only did Martha cook for Jesus,
Speaker 1: but Mary worship Jesus give me verse two. This Mary,
Speaker 1: whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one
Speaker 1: who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet
Speaker 1: with her hair. The only catch is this that didn't
Speaker 1: happen until John chapter twelve. That happened after what we
Speaker 1: are about to read. That happened after the revelation that
Speaker 1: Jesus was about to give. But the writer puts it
Speaker 1: in chapter eleven them because if you do not see
Speaker 1: yourself worshiping in John chapter twelve, you will not have
Speaker 1: the strength to wait. In John chapter eleven, I don't
Speaker 1: know who this is for, but God said this morning,
Speaker 1: I want you to see yourself in John chapter twelve.
Speaker 1: I want you to see yourself worshiping. I want you
Speaker 1: to see yourself grateful. I want you to see your
Speaker 1: self restored. I want you to see yourself better. I
Speaker 1: want you to see your self free. I want you
Speaker 1: to see your self delivered. I want you to see
Speaker 1: your self healed. I want you to see yourself with
Speaker 1: a testimony. Come on, y'all, high five twelve people. Tell
Speaker 1: them I read the next chapter. I found out it
Speaker 1: doesn't end in then. But for the glory of God,
Speaker 1: I speak that over your children. Your children will worship
Speaker 1: the Lord. Your children's children will have a legacy. You
Speaker 1: will see the goodness of the Lord in the land
Speaker 1: of the living. Shout if you believe it now, Shout
Speaker 1: if you want to believe it. But it's kind of
Speaker 1: hard right now. God liked that second shot better than
Speaker 1: the first one. They say, you've got to see it
Speaker 1: to believe it. God says, you've got to believe it
Speaker 1: to see it. And what I love about it, yew's
Speaker 1: it out is Jesus has to break it down. You know.
Speaker 1: This is for those of us who are in the
Speaker 1: remedial class and for the advanced students, the honor Christians.
Speaker 1: You can make your grocery list while I share this.
Speaker 1: But for the rest of us, this disciples, even the
Speaker 1: ones who followed Jesus, even the ones who had the
Speaker 1: most exposure to him, were constantly confused about his motives.
Speaker 1: And they doubted the outcome because they had not yet
Speaker 1: seen the cross. Even at the cross, most of them
Speaker 1: went home because they had not yet seen the resurrection.
Speaker 1: He's the God of the outcome. He's the God of
Speaker 1: the outcome. I'm not. And the reason I need that
Speaker 1: in my life is because all I can do is
Speaker 1: sow the sea. I was reading one scripture where Jesus
Speaker 1: said that we should pray to the Lord of the harvest,
Speaker 1: and for a long time I read it just thinking
Speaker 1: about how we should pray. But then I thought about
Speaker 1: the fact that he called God the Lord of the harvest.
Speaker 1: The harvest represents the result, the seed represents the process.
Speaker 1: He's the Lord of the harvest. He's the God of
Speaker 1: the outcome. But I'm the Lord of the seed. I
Speaker 1: decide what I saw, I decide what I withhold. He's
Speaker 1: the God of the outcome. And the only thing that's
Speaker 1: difficult for us in reading this passage is that we
Speaker 1: have the insight of hindsight. The disciples didn't. So he
Speaker 1: said to his disciples verse seven, let's go back to Judea.
Speaker 1: But Rabbi, they said, a short while ago, the Jews
Speaker 1: there tried to stone you and yet you are going back.
Speaker 1: What they didn't understand is that Jesus was invincible until
Speaker 1: his assignment was complete. He wasn't going to die until
Speaker 1: it was time to die. He wasn't going to die
Speaker 1: on accident because there was a price on his head.
Speaker 1: He would only die at that penultimate glory moment where
Speaker 1: God was revealing and releasing the salvation that he brought
Speaker 1: him to earth to carry. But they didn't know that.
Speaker 1: And see, we don't know that. You don't know when
Speaker 1: you're going through what you're going through, why you're going
Speaker 1: through what you're going through. But you're gonna find out
Speaker 1: that this sickness is not unto death but for the
Speaker 1: glory of God. So Jesus answered verse nine. Are there
Speaker 1: not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the
Speaker 1: daytime will not stumble, for they see by the world's light.
Speaker 1: It is when a person walks at night that they stumble,
Speaker 1: for they have no light. Well, that clears it up.
Speaker 1: Are we going to Judea or not? Are we going
Speaker 1: to help Lazarus or not? I know you feel this
Speaker 1: way when I preach. Sometimes it's like that's cute, but
Speaker 1: it's not anymore clear. Because I still don't know what
Speaker 1: to do. So after he had said this, he breaks
Speaker 1: it down a little further Verse eleven, y'all enjoying this
Speaker 1: Bible study today. After he said this, he wanted to
Speaker 1: tell them our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. He means
Speaker 1: he's died. He's speaking symbolically, but the disciples are kind
Speaker 1: of literal, you know. He says he's fallen asleep. I'm
Speaker 1: going to wake him up. His disciples replied, Lord, if
Speaker 1: he sleeps, he'll get better. Jesus had been speaking of
Speaker 1: 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 did not
Speaker 1: come when we want him to come, and did not
Speaker 1: do what we wanted him to do, does he still
Speaker 1: love us? This is the Lazarus factor. I know that
Speaker 1: he loves me, and I am no longer looking for
Speaker 1: proof of that fact. I am living from the proof
Speaker 1: that he loves me. This love is not based in
Speaker 1: just what he did. Sometimes this love is proven by
Speaker 1: what he chooses not to do. Jesus said, I'm going
Speaker 1: to wake him up, and I love Thomas's faith. Watch this,
Speaker 1: he says. Jesus says verse fifteen, I'm glad I was
Speaker 1: not there, so that you may believe. But let us
Speaker 1: go to him. And Thomas, also known as Didamus, said
Speaker 1: to the rest of the disciples, let us also go
Speaker 1: that we may die with him. What great faith. Jesus says,
Speaker 1: I'm going to wake him up, and Thomas says, let's
Speaker 1: go die. The Lazarus factor is the faith to follow
Speaker 1: him anyway. This message is from my heart today, because
Speaker 1: we all have a Lazarus. And whether that's a dream
Speaker 1: that didn't play out the way that you thought it
Speaker 1: would play out, or whether that's a way that you
Speaker 1: saw the most important relationships in your life materializing. You know,
Speaker 1: the starter kit version of Christianity that you started with,
Speaker 1: And now you're having to understand the fact that he'd
Speaker 1: loved them and he was still late. God's never late.
Speaker 1: You never read the Bible. You just memorized the cliche
Speaker 1: Jesus was late. Started to say he was fashionably late,
Speaker 1: but actually he was functionally late. It means he showed
Speaker 1: up late because of his love. Because there was something
Speaker 1: about his character that they would not see if he
Speaker 1: showed up at the sick bed. He had to show
Speaker 1: up at the tomb so they could see something about him,
Speaker 1: not a new thing that he was, but what God
Speaker 1: is doing in your life right now. He is going
Speaker 1: to show you his glory in a way you've never
Speaker 1: seen before. He's going to show you his demonstration of
Speaker 1: power in a way you haven't experienced it yet. And
Speaker 1: I know it's really difficult to stay in that place
Speaker 1: of faith. In fact, the Bible says in verse seventeen,
Speaker 1: on his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been
Speaker 1: in the tomb for four days. Now. This is significant
Speaker 1: to the Jewish audience for which John intended this gospel account.
Speaker 1: They believe that within the first three days of death,
Speaker 1: the spirit could return learn to a man. It was
Speaker 1: a sort of superstitious belief that was common to Judaism
Speaker 1: in the first century. But Jesus waited until after their
Speaker 1: time period expired to reveal his glory. I wonder, is
Speaker 1: God waiting past the point of your expectation so his
Speaker 1: strength can kick in with a new velocity. I feel
Speaker 1: your spirit, God, he showed up after four days. Now,
Speaker 1: now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and
Speaker 1: many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort
Speaker 1: them in the loss of their brother. So they came
Speaker 1: to comfort Martha and Mary because that's all they could do.
Speaker 1: There's only so much people can do for you, even
Speaker 1: if they mean well, There's only so much your friends
Speaker 1: can do for you. Stop worshiping people. People can only
Speaker 1: do so much for you. Don't make them an idol.
Speaker 1: They are not your God. People can be a gift,
Speaker 1: but they cannot be your God. There are some things
Speaker 1: in my life that only Christ can do. There's something
Speaker 1: I appreciate the help. I appreciate the prayers, I appreciate
Speaker 1: the well wishes. But I need Jesus for this child.
Speaker 1: This is a big one. I need the Master. I
Speaker 1: need the healer. I need the great I Am. I
Speaker 1: need the bread of life. I need the light of Heaven.
Speaker 1: I need Jesus. I need Jesus Verse twenty. When Martha
Speaker 1: heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him,
Speaker 1: but Mary stayed home. We all have different ways of
Speaker 1: dealing with disappointment. Some of us get under the covers.
Speaker 1: I love Martha. She met him at the gate. Oh
Speaker 1: you want to show up now. Welcome to Bethany, the
Speaker 1: same Bethany you came to to eat my cooking. You
Speaker 1: came when I cook, but you didn't come when I cried.
Speaker 1: It's good to see you. Would have been really good
Speaker 1: to see you about two days ago. It's good to
Speaker 1: see you. I appreciate the comfort. I appreciate the peace.
Speaker 1: But why didn't you just keep it from happening so
Speaker 1: I wouldn't need the peace? The stuff you won't say,
Speaker 1: but Martha would, Oh, yes, she would. The significant thing
Speaker 1: is not even what she said. It's the fact that
Speaker 1: she showed up. She comes to Jesus at the gate.
Speaker 1: And this is funny because every other time he's been
Speaker 1: to Bethany, she led him in the house, not this time.
Speaker 1: I love how God will come as far as we
Speaker 1: let him in our life, and she met him at
Speaker 1: the gate. This is just a story about a man
Speaker 1: named Lazarus. But it's really a story about whatever you
Speaker 1: brought in here today that died on you. It's really
Speaker 1: a story. People say sometimes that when you preach, you
Speaker 1: 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'd 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 touched 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 praying it'll take over us today because everybody in
Speaker 1: here has got a Lazarus. Everybody in here has got
Speaker 1: something that you're just buried or you're in the process
Speaker 1: of burying and there's a funeral going on at the
Speaker 1: same time that faith is trying to be born in
Speaker 1: your heart today. But something kicks into Mary's spirit and
Speaker 1: 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 her,
Speaker 1: your brother will rise again. And Martha answered, I know
Speaker 1: he will rise again in the resurrection at the last Day.
Speaker 1: And Jesus said, you're missing the point. I am, the
Speaker 1: resurrection and the life. You keep trying to prove my
Speaker 1: presence by what I do. But I want you to
Speaker 1: see who I am. So I didn't do what you
Speaker 1: wanted me to do because I needed you to see
Speaker 1: who I am. I am a friend of Stick. It's closer.
Speaker 1: The one who believes in me will live even though
Speaker 1: they die. Question question next verse, next verse, and whoever
Speaker 1: lives by believing him will never die? Do you believe this?
Speaker 1: Do you believe this? Do I believe what? Bro Preacher?
Speaker 1: Do you believe what I just said? And she answers, yes, Lord,
Speaker 1: I believe that you are the Messiah. Now it's two
Speaker 1: things in the text delay. One says your brother will rise.
Speaker 1: One says, I am the Resurrection. She says, I believe
Speaker 1: that you are who you say you are. I don't
Speaker 1: even know what you're going to do. But the Lazarus
Speaker 1: factor is that thing inside of you that somehow knows
Speaker 1: he is God. I believe that you are. It's sure
Speaker 1: would have been nice if you had. But even though
Speaker 1: you didn't, you are even even though you didn't. You are.
Speaker 3: Even though I wish you are, even though I hoped
Speaker 3: you are, even though he died, You are even though
Speaker 3: it happened.
Speaker 1: You are even though that's over. Even now, I believe
Speaker 1: you are. And God God brings us to these points
Speaker 1: to see what will we do with our disappointment. She
Speaker 1: met him at the gate, and she confessed faith in him,
Speaker 1: even in the absence of the miracle that she so
Speaker 1: desperately needed. I believe that you are the son of
Speaker 1: God who is to come into the world. And after
Speaker 1: verse twenty eight she had said this, she went back
Speaker 1: and called her sister Mary. A sigh. The teacher is here,
Speaker 1: she said, and he's asking for you. And when Mary
Speaker 1: heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now, Jesus,
Speaker 1: I love the Bible. Jesus had not yet entered the village,
Speaker 1: but 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 going to go over, but give God an
Speaker 1: angry praise. He fell down at his feet, not in
Speaker 1: faith but in frustration. But she came to him, and
Speaker 1: everybody followed her out there. Everybody that came around. Aunt
Speaker 1: Margaret just started with the letter m Mary. Martha Margaret said,
Speaker 1: she said, verse verse thirty two. She reached the place
Speaker 1: where he was and saw him and fell at his
Speaker 1: feet and said, Lord, if you had been here, my
Speaker 1: brother would not have died. And Jesus saw her weeping.
Speaker 1: The Jews who had come along with are also weeping.
Speaker 1: He was deeply moved in spirit and trouble. When he
Speaker 1: saw her pain, he participated in it. The Lazarus factor
Speaker 1: is not only that God gives miracles in desperation. The
Speaker 1: Lazarus factor says that He is with us in the
Speaker 1: pain of disappointment as well. And he asked Martha, do
Speaker 1: 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 is 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 has 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 place, everybody has a Lazarus.
Speaker 1: And the question is not whether or not you have
Speaker 1: a Lazarus. The question is what are you gonna do
Speaker 1: about it? Now? Jesus made the trip to the tomb,
Speaker 1: and when he got there, some of y'all said, you
Speaker 1: were going to memorize more scripture this year. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you one to start. Verse thirty five. Jesus wept,
Speaker 1: so you can go home and tell somebody you memorize
Speaker 1: the whole Bible verse today, that's the whole verse. Jesus
Speaker 1: webt how powerful that before he spoke the word, he wept.
Speaker 1: Before he demonstrates his authority, he demonstrates his empathy. He
Speaker 1: wants you to know, I'm with you while you're waiting
Speaker 1: for it. I'm with you while you're waiting for it.
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I was with you when you didn't
Speaker 1: see me. I was with you when you didn't feel me.
Speaker 1: I was with you when people couldn't do it for you.
Speaker 1: I was with you. And he wept. And when they
Speaker 1: saw that verse thirty six, many of the Jews gathered
Speaker 1: there said, see how he loved him, Look how much
Speaker 1: he loved him. And then some of the other Jews said,
Speaker 1: verse thirty seven, could not he who opened the eyes
Speaker 1: of the blind man kept this man from dying. So
Speaker 1: now I got one voice saying, he loves you so much.
Speaker 1: And then I got another voice saying, if he loves
Speaker 1: me so much, then why. And the Bible says that Jesus,
Speaker 1: once more deeply moved, did not respond to their opinions,
Speaker 1: but operated according to his purpose. I feel the presence
Speaker 1: of God in this place. Now watch this moment and
Speaker 1: receive it for your Lazarus in your life. It says
Speaker 1: Jesus once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It
Speaker 1: was a cave, but the stone laid across the entrance.
Speaker 1: The stone across the entrance means nothing else is going
Speaker 1: in and nothing else is coming. Now that's some of
Speaker 1: your hearts today. And then Jesus tells them something to
Speaker 1: do that he could have easily done without their help.
Speaker 1: Take away the stone. Isn't that crazy? He's about to
Speaker 1: raise this man from the dead, but he can't push
Speaker 1: the stone. He could, but he didn't until the moment
Speaker 1: where you open yourself to the possibility that God can
Speaker 1: do it. Your heart is a closed tomb keeping dead
Speaker 1: things in. But here's what's beautiful when Martha responded to Jesus' command.
Speaker 1: She was embarrassed because she didn't want to expose what
Speaker 1: was inside. She said, Lord, by this time there's a
Speaker 1: bad odor. I don't want anybody to see this. I
Speaker 1: don't want anybody to know this. I don't want anybody
Speaker 1: to go know what's really going on in my heart.
Speaker 1: But then Jesus said something. Did I not tell you
Speaker 1: that if you believe, you will see the glory of
Speaker 1: God and get ready to praise him by faith Verse
Speaker 1: forty one. They took away the stone, and Jesus looked
Speaker 1: up and said, get ready to praise him. Father. I
Speaker 1: thank you that you heard me. I know you always
Speaker 1: hear me. But I said it for them that they
Speaker 1: may believe, that they may believe I sent you through trouble,
Speaker 1: that you may believe I sent you through the sea,
Speaker 1: that you may believe that you sent me. And then
Speaker 1: Jesus get ready to praise him Verse thirty forty three,
Speaker 1: Come on, come up. When he had said this, he
Speaker 1: called out in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out, Lazarus
Speaker 1: come out. Forty four.
Speaker 4: When he said it, the dead man came out, the
Speaker 4: dead dream came out, the dead Daith came out, the
Speaker 4: dead place came to life. The tripos came together.
Speaker 1: Both to both hear the word of the Lord Lazarus.
Speaker 4: Come forth, Praiser, Lazarus, come.
Speaker 1: For in a loud voice. He commanded that thing that
Speaker 1: 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 Hollyanna Fredick
Speaker 1: loved He loved me so much that he let 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 plan 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 umeh. It means never. When he said
Speaker 1: never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.
Speaker 1: It's a double negative. Umeh 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 something.
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 at Elevationchurch
Speaker 1: dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
Speaker 1: enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
Speaker 1: with your friends. You can click the share button, take
Speaker 1: a screenshot and share it on your social stories and
Speaker 1: tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
Speaker 1: bless you.