WEBVTT - The Lazarus Factor 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:04.080 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:06.560 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:09.920 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:11.959 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:14.760 see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:21.439 God still shows up at the tomb of every Lazarus. 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:26.320 And I want to show you the scripture that that 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.360 line came from today, and then I want to speak 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:33.400 to the Lazarus in your life. Everybody in here has 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:38.400 a Lazarus, and everybody in here has a God. And 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:40.920 today we just want to bring these things into God's 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.400 presence for a few moments. John chapter eleven is the scripture. 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:47.560 Welcome to our EPAM around the world. There are tens 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:50.239 of thousands of people right now who are joining us 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:52.880 on their devices, and let's thank God for them as well, 0:00:52.880 --> 0:01:00.240 that this word would be received in your life. Got 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:02.800 smart to beat up, brought my iPad today, my Bible. 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:05.520 I'm preaching from John eleven and I'm covering quite a 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.920 few verses of scripture, and my Bible yesterday kept blowing, 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.679 the pages kept blowing. It wasn't the Holy spirit. It 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.240 was the air vent, and it just kept blowing to 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.559 different scriptures, and so I brought it on the iPad today. 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:18.360 I hadn't preached from it in a long time, and 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:21.040 it's locked and loaded and charged, and I want to 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:23.520 preach to you. Well, it's not locked. It's going horizontal. 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:29.680 There's some old men stuff right here. You know, every 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.880 preacher gets persecuted. Paul had shipwrecks, and I have iPads 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.640 that go horizontal. It's kind of on the same level, 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.400 don't you think. But we're going to look at something 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:42.240 today together. From John chapter eleven, verse one. Now, a 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.720 man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.840 village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:52.920 brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.920 poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.560 her hair. So the sister sent word to Jesus, Lord, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:04.000 the one you love is sick. When he heard this, 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:06.520 Jesus said, the sickness will not end in death. No, 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.080 it is for God's glory, so that God's son may 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:14.600 be glorified through it. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.280 sister and Lazarus. Everything up until this point, by the way, 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.080 makes total sense to me. We're given the name of 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.920 this man, Lazarus. His name literally means the one who 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:28.800 God helps. Have you ever had God just help you 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.560 out of a mess that you got yourself into or 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.960 a mess that you couldn't get yourself out of? His 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.120 name means the one that God helps. And his sister 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.080 was Martha. She's the one who made the mortgage payment. 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.919 His other sister was Mary. She was a good listener, 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.399 and Jesus liked going by and visiting because Martha made 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.400 these incredible lemon pepper wings. He liked to eat her food. 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.840 And then Mary would sit at his feet and be discipled. 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.200 And there's nothing better than somebody. Well, I was going 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:01.920 to say, there's nothing better than a good listener. But 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.840 a good cook is better than a good listener. And 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.320 if you ever find a good cook and a good listener, 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:11.280 marry him, marry her. Okay. And Jesus loved to go 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.280 to this little place two miles outside of Jerusalem, and 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:16.720 he would often be refreshed there in his ministry travels. 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.160 But now they need his help, and it says that 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.200 he loved them. He loved all of them. He loved Lazarus, 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.360 he loved Mary, he loved Martha. And as lazarus sickness 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:30.920 begins to overtake the affairs of the family, Martha issues 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:36.280 not necessarily an invitation to Jesus, but a request for help. Lord, 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.640 the one you love is sick. I love how she 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:43.400 phrased it. You know, send him a message, say Lazarus, no, no, 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.400 say the one you love is sick. Because he's very 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:47.960 busy and we need to get him here. So let's 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.960 just remind him of how much he loves Lazarus and 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.080 get him here real quick so he can do that 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:56.400 healing thing that he does for us. And everything makes sense. 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:58.600 You know that he loves them, so he would come 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:00.560 to them, and he would visit them, and he would 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.480 help them because lazarus name means help, so it's in 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:06.640 his very nature to expect the help that his name identifies, 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:08.640 just like as a child of God, you call on 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:10.880 your father and you expect him to help you. And 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:15.880 everything up until here makes sense. But the next verse 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:17.760 is something that I want us to talk about for 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:19.960 a few moments today, because some of you are at 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.160 a place in your life that doesn't make sense anymore, 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.239 and it's that I want to speak to. It says 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.760 that he loved them, that Jesus loved them, He really 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:33.680 loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. Verse six. So when 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:37.599 he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:43.640 was two more days. And that's what I wanted to 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:46.800 work on together today, because it would be one thing 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.880 if the Bible said he loved them, but he stayed 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.800 where he was two more days, because that would mean 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.320 that he couldn't come. He had other people to help. 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:03.240 But it says this interesting word. So so he stayed where 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.719 he was two more days, and that means that verse 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:11.719 six flows directly from verse five. He loved them, so 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:16.279 he did not come when they wanted him. And I 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.280 want to talk about this today from my heart. I'm 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:23.600 going to title this message the Lazarus Factor, the Lazarus Factor. 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:26.520 And Lord, I just pray that you would enable me 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.479 to preach this word beyond my human understanding or my 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:34.560 oratorical abilities. God, I pray that something would go forth 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:37.560 from this pulpit today that would call forth from the 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.800 hearts of your people the kind of faith that makes 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:45.120 the difference in Jesus's name. I pray, Amen, Amen, you 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:54.920 may be seated. Spoilert Lazarus dies and gets resurrected in 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:59.560 John chapter eleven. I didn't want to leave you in 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:04.960 suspend It's too long. But you ever think about how 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:09.760 different people have different love languages. They have a book 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:15.120 about it, the Five Love Languages. And I'm so thankful 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:16.720 that God gave me a wife that one of her 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.880 love languages is physical touch. Do you're not happy? That 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:24.400 makes me? What a blessing. I'm so glad her love 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:28.719 language is and acts of service. I much prefer physical touch. Amen. 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:41.039 You know what God's love language is trust. If you 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:44.680 were to ask me from just studying the Bible for 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.440 however many years I've been studying since I was sixteen, 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.560 how does God receive love? He loves to be trusted 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:55.640 more than he even loves to hear you sing. And 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.120 I'm not saying you don't have a great voice. He 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.680 loves when you trust him more than he even loves 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.040 when you, you know, wear a cross around your neck. 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:09.080 He loves when you trust him more than he even loves. 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.280 And I probably shouldn't say this as a pastor, but 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:14.119 more than he even loves when you come to church. 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.400 He loves when you trust him on Tuesday. He just 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.960 loves to be trusted. One of the most difficult things 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.080 I think in our life is that we often equate 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:30.480 love with comfort, while God equates love with trust. If 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:34.280 we are not studious and if we don't give attention 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.560 to the scriptures, we will conflate and confuse our human 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:42.120 definition of love with a divine love, a love that 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:44.680 is not simply an action, but an essence of who 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:50.840 God is. I don't know about your first job, but 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.000 I would put myself out there as maybe having the 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:57.000 most interesting first job in the whole room, because my 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.760 first job at age fifteen was to work pet rest 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:05.480 cemetery and cremation service, and I'm proud of that. I 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:10.680 did those funerals with dignity, and I lifted one hundred 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:14.200 and eighty pound bull mastiffs. That's part of how I 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:20.960 learned to, you know, preaching dead churches was because right 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.600 after my ministry of burying dogs and cremating dogs, I 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:27.280 had to go preach at Baptist churches, and you know, 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.320 the atmosphere could sometimes be real similar. Some of the 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.319 churches don't be hateful I'm just telling you about my experience. 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.599 It was a good job, and people often judge me 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:40.439 when I tell them, because you remember we used to 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:42.520 go out there, and I'm on the way to the mall. 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.720 I tell Eric, I just need to stop by real 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.400 quick and take care of these dogs real quick. And 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.319 you could tell who your friends are when you stop 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:51.640 by the crematory on the way to the mall. Who 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.120 who your friends are. But some people would judge me. 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.360 You know, you tell them that you cremate dogs, and 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.720 they look at you like you deal drugs. And it 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.640 was a service with dignity. It was I'm again very 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:04.600 proud of the fact that I was fifteen years old 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:06.680 with a job that paid one hundred and fifty dollars 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:15.440 a week. Yeah, and I got my own beeper. Yeah. 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:22.400 I don't know nothing. And you know what, I think 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.120 that one of the worst jobs would have been to 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:30.679 be the pr manager for Jesus Christ, to have to 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:36.120 explain his actions or to have to give a press 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:42.440 conference for Jesus, especially when John chapter eleven says things 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:48.440 like he loved them, he received hospitality from them, but 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.440 when it came time for him to help them, he 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:57.839 stayed away. Two extra days because he loved them. It's 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.520 an interesting construct we come to find in all of 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:07.280 our lives, the difference between God's job and our job. See. 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:13.000 God's job is outcome, your job is process. Can I 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.079 preach a little bit to the three people who are awake. 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.480 The longer that you think you can control outcomes in 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.480 your life, the more frustration you are going to experience 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.760 in this journey of faith. And many of us were 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:31.280 taught starting out that faith was a way of controlling outcomes. 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.120 It was like, if you pray this and do that, 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.800 then you can expect this. But everybody in here has 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:42.559 a Lazarus. The Lazarus factor is the thing in your 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.840 life that made the formula fall apart. The Lazarus factor 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.040 is the thing in your life that caused you to 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.520 question the very nature of faith and start to see 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.920 at this point in this passage that faith is rarely 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.440 a form of manipulation by which we get God to 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:03.160 keep our I've got news for you. God will not 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:07.720 be manipulated. God will not be moved just because we 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.880 get uncomfortable in a situation. And I hate to break 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.000 it to you, but faith is not a means of manipulation. 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:18.400 It is a patience with mystery, the kind of mystery 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.760 that can say, on one hand, God can do anything. 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:24.760 But in that very same breadth that you say God 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:28.160 can do anything, there is something in your life right 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:31.320 now that God will not do. That you see in 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:34.320 his word that he did for somebody else, but he 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:38.160 has not done for you yet. I'm simply trying to 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:42.720 say that everybody in here has a Lazarus. Everybody in 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.640 here has something that was supposed to be done. If 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.920 God really loved you, he would. If God really saw you, 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:52.880 he would. If God was really strong like they say 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:55.920 he is, he would. If God really had all power 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.559 in his hand, he would have. Because we confuse God's 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:04.240 love proof in circumstantial evidence, we never really get to 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.360 the foundational core that the love of God is not 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.240 always proven by the way I feel his presence. The 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.520 love of God is proven by the way I deal 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.680 with his perceived absence. The love of God is not 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.000 only proven in the times where I thank Him for 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.920 my blessings. The love of God is proven in my 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.240 life where I cannot feel him, but by faith I 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.720 praise Him because he is God. Even when I don't 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.040 sense God, he is God, And I wonder, is there 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:35.000 anybody who's willing to give God a praise by faith 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:40.560 in this place today? At Gaston, at Blakeney, at Valentine, 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.000 at you see online, give him a praise if you 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.520 don't praise him for what he does, but who he is. 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.240 And they didn't have text messaging, so when Martha sent 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.440 the message to Jesus, you need to get here quick. 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.280 The one who you love needs your help, she would 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.319 have to wait several days, two days to be exact, 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:14.520 from the time the messenger got there until the time 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:16.719 he got back. But there was one problem. When the 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:21.160 messenger started coming back to Bethany, he was by himself. 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.920 He was supposed to bring Jesus. You know how it 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:28.599 is when you see the person you didn't want to 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:30.120 see and they don't have the person with him that 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:37.040 you really wanted to see. Where is he? She sent 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:43.120 him a message and Jesus left Martha on red. You 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:48.280 ever been left on red? Honestly, I only became familiar 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.360 with this phrase a few months ago. There was somebody 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:57.679 I was ignoring and I ran into him. In real life. 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:04.120 He goes, bruh, oh, I'm like, praise the Lord Brother 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:06.760 you know, I get real fake when I have to 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:11.600 see somebody face to face that I don't like. 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:12.840 Like, what's up, man, what's been going on? He's like, 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:17.000 I've been texting you. You left me on red? You 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:23.200 got a new number or something like that. No, did 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:29.400 you get my message? Yeah? I got it, and then 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:31.000 I faked the heart attack. You know, I didn't know 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:37.080 what to do. Hey, Jesus, the one you love is sick. 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:44.760 Hey Jesus, I'm depressed. Hey Jesus, I can hardly breathe 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:50.200 right now. Hey Jesus, I feel all alone. Hey Jesus, 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:54.560 I need to know how to make this decision. Hey Jesus, 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.600 I need you to show my husband how to stop 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:01.560 being crazy. Hey Jesus, I need you to do for 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:04.920 my kids what prozac can't do and calm them down. 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:09.120 Hey Jesus, I need you to straighten this out. And 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:14.160 Jesus left Martha on red. Have you ever been left 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.200 on red by God? Have you ever prayed a prayer 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.800 that hit the ceiling? Have you ever prayed a prayer 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.600 that bounced right back? Have you ever prayed a prayer 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.200 that came back to you with such velocity that you 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:27.640 barely got it? Out of your mouth before you had 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.720 to stare at the same situation back in your face. 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:37.880 And he left them on red because he loved them, 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:42.160 not because he was busy, but because he loved them 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:47.080 so much he didn't come. I don't know what to 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:51.880 do with that. Humanly speaking, my love language is presence. 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:57.400 You know, I love you, pastor, but you don't come. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.040 You don't love me if you don't come. That's how 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.080 I feel about it. You know, people will say things 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:10.600 sometimes we're there with you in spirit. I appreciate that, 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.240 but there with me in spirit doesn't help me move 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:19.960 these boxes. Huh. There with me in spirit doesn't cook 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:22.360 chicken noodle soup when I have a coal, talk to 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.320 me somebody there with me in spirit. And then people 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:29.160 are real annoying. They'll give you cliches and think that's 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:33.240 supposed to comfort you. Well, if you know God put 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.320 it on you, he won't give you any more than 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.480 you can bear. They always got a scripture for you. 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.680 You know. That's why when I sent you the scripture 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:45.200 the other day, I said, delete this if you don't 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:47.560 want to see it right now, because sometimes the scripture 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:51.200 is annoying. I love how y'all look at me when 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.320 I say stuff like that. That's how I know I'm 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.000 preaching good because you give me that face. It's the 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:57.840 face that you make when you've thought it, but you 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:06.880 would never say it out loud. Halloween is over, take 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:11.760 your mask off and admit for a moment. Come on, y'all, 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:14.760 this is my job to say the stuff that you're 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:19.000 thinking anyway, so you don't think you're going to hell 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.760 for thinking it. You can have great faith and still 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.679 be frustrated. You can have great faith and still wonder 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:34.919 sometimes what the one day, I'm gonna put out a 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:42.080 whole CD called Honest Worship, and it's gonna have songs 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:46.440 you love like you're never gonna let never gonna let 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:50.960 me down, except that one time you're never gonna It's 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.960 gonna have ad libs like you seldom lost the battle, 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:57.639 except when I was fourteen, And you're gonna sing about 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:12.600 the real situations. The one you love is sick, and 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:19.160 we often conflate God's love with the circumstances of our life. Now, 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.639 if you look to the circumstances of your life for 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.520 the proof of God's love, you are looking for love 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:37.720 in all the wrong places. So Jesus says one of 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:40.280 those things that could sound like a cliche on the surface. 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:44.560 He says, this sickness will not end in death but 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:51.840 for the glory of God. Well, hallelujah. Do you know 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:55.359 what I mean? God is your provider, but he's not 0:18:55.720 --> 0:19:01.200 paying my rent. But if you won't say in fact, 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.960 when we put this online, let's put the stuff you 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:09.959 wish you had the guts to say. But Martha, Martha 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.760 said it, and I want to show you how she responded. 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:20.359 Because everybody has a Lazarus. Everybody has something that God 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:24.040 was supposed to do for you that he did not do. 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.640 What I love about the Bible is that it gives 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:35.159 us the inside of hindsight. The inside of hindsight means 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:39.520 I know why John wrote the Book of John, because 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:41.800 at the end of it he says, the reason I 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.600 wrote all of this was that you may believe. And 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:48.000 he organizes his gospel account. If you ever read the 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:50.760 Gospel of John, it reads differently than Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:53.199 Those are called the synoptic Gospels. That means optic, you know, 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.280 like see with sin, sin with see with they saw 0:19:56.280 --> 0:20:00.280 with one another. John's on a whole different wave. John 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:05.359 takes seven signs that Jesus did, seven statements that Jesus made, 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:09.439 and then he organizes it not as it's happening, but 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:15.040 after it happened, and after he has the insight of hindsight. 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:20.879 So he addresses who Jesus is with a knowledge of 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:24.240 what he came for, after he saw him do all 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:29.200 that he could do. The insight of hindsight is really powerful, 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.840 but we don't live our lives with the insight of 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:35.639 hindsight about every situation. I would like to suggest to 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:39.439 you that Mary and Martha, who were mourning the loss 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:43.240 of their brother Lazarus in John chapter eleven, never read 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:48.399 John chapter twelve. That's just a guess, especially since John 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:52.119 didn't write it until a D. Eighty five. Jesus died 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.240 in a. D. Thirty two, so that means they didn't 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:57.760 get to read chapter twelve while they had to live 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:00.959 out chapter eleven. Who am I pre who is in 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.240 chapter eleven today? Let me show you something. If you're 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:08.919 in chapter eleven, it's in verse two. It's in parentheses. 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:12.480 Now I want to caution you be very careful to 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.199 never put a period where God put a parenthesis. What 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:18.840 do you mean by that, I mean that some things 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:22.399 in your life will make sense after the fact that 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:26.520 don't make sense right now. And John chapter eleven, verse 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:29.720 two is very interesting because it says not only did 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.920 Mary cook for not only did Martha cook for Jesus, 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.520 but Mary worship Jesus give me verse two. This Mary, 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:40.760 whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:44.080 who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:47.560 with her hair. The only catch is this that didn't 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:52.000 happen until John chapter twelve. That happened after what we 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:55.800 are about to read. That happened after the revelation that 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.919 Jesus was about to give. But the writer puts it 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:02.080 in chapter eleven them because if you do not see 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:06.600 yourself worshiping in John chapter twelve, you will not have 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.640 the strength to wait. In John chapter eleven, I don't 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:13.600 know who this is for, but God said this morning, 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:17.120 I want you to see yourself in John chapter twelve. 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:20.439 I want you to see yourself worshiping. I want you 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:23.600 to see yourself grateful. I want you to see your 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:27.359 self restored. I want you to see yourself better. I 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:30.000 want you to see your self free. I want you 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:32.720 to see your self delivered. I want you to see 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:35.520 your self healed. I want you to see yourself with 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:41.200 a testimony. Come on, y'all, high five twelve people. Tell 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:44.560 them I read the next chapter. I found out it 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:47.720 doesn't end in then. But for the glory of God, 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:54.000 I speak that over your children. Your children will worship 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:57.960 the Lord. Your children's children will have a legacy. You 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:01.480 will see the goodness of the Lord in the land 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:09.879 of the living. Shout if you believe it now, Shout 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:11.520 if you want to believe it. But it's kind of 0:23:11.560 --> 0:23:18.159 hard right now. God liked that second shot better than 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:24.000 the first one. They say, you've got to see it 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:27.800 to believe it. God says, you've got to believe it 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:37.720 to see it. And what I love about it, yew's 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:45.320 it out is Jesus has to break it down. You know. 0:23:45.480 --> 0:23:46.800 This is for those of us who are in the 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:52.520 remedial class and for the advanced students, the honor Christians. 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:56.600 You can make your grocery list while I share this. 0:23:56.880 --> 0:24:01.280 But for the rest of us, this disciples, even the 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:05.520 ones who followed Jesus, even the ones who had the 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:09.440 most exposure to him, were constantly confused about his motives. 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:14.640 And they doubted the outcome because they had not yet 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:18.680 seen the cross. Even at the cross, most of them 0:24:18.680 --> 0:24:21.040 went home because they had not yet seen the resurrection. 0:24:23.640 --> 0:24:28.199 He's the God of the outcome. He's the God of 0:24:28.320 --> 0:24:32.240 the outcome. I'm not. And the reason I need that 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:35.399 in my life is because all I can do is 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:39.320 sow the sea. I was reading one scripture where Jesus 0:24:39.359 --> 0:24:41.880 said that we should pray to the Lord of the harvest, 0:24:42.880 --> 0:24:44.720 and for a long time I read it just thinking 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:46.840 about how we should pray. But then I thought about 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:49.400 the fact that he called God the Lord of the harvest. 0:24:50.400 --> 0:24:55.440 The harvest represents the result, the seed represents the process. 0:24:56.400 --> 0:24:59.280 He's the Lord of the harvest. He's the God of 0:24:59.320 --> 0:25:05.800 the outcome. But I'm the Lord of the seed. I 0:25:05.920 --> 0:25:10.680 decide what I saw, I decide what I withhold. He's 0:25:10.720 --> 0:25:13.680 the God of the outcome. And the only thing that's 0:25:13.680 --> 0:25:16.840 difficult for us in reading this passage is that we 0:25:16.880 --> 0:25:22.040 have the insight of hindsight. The disciples didn't. So he 0:25:22.119 --> 0:25:25.280 said to his disciples verse seven, let's go back to Judea. 0:25:26.520 --> 0:25:30.160 But Rabbi, they said, a short while ago, the Jews 0:25:30.200 --> 0:25:33.440 there tried to stone you and yet you are going back. 0:25:33.520 --> 0:25:37.280 What they didn't understand is that Jesus was invincible until 0:25:37.320 --> 0:25:41.119 his assignment was complete. He wasn't going to die until 0:25:41.119 --> 0:25:43.920 it was time to die. He wasn't going to die 0:25:43.920 --> 0:25:46.359 on accident because there was a price on his head. 0:25:46.880 --> 0:25:50.440 He would only die at that penultimate glory moment where 0:25:50.480 --> 0:25:53.840 God was revealing and releasing the salvation that he brought 0:25:53.880 --> 0:25:56.480 him to earth to carry. But they didn't know that. 0:25:57.040 --> 0:25:59.560 And see, we don't know that. You don't know when 0:25:59.560 --> 0:26:01.720 you're going through what you're going through, why you're going 0:26:01.720 --> 0:26:03.880 through what you're going through. But you're gonna find out 0:26:04.119 --> 0:26:07.280