Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today.

Our sermon today, our first installment is this. Believing before the resurrection. Believing before the resurrection. I don't know if you know this or not, but there must be some things that you believe before. God resurrects some things in your life. We're going to talk about that this morning.

I'm excited about it. Didn't need that lid anyway. Look at verse one. Now a certain man was sick. Named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Therefore, his sister sent unto him saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Timing couldn't be better for those of you that were here last Sunday night. Brother Kurt Skelly, of course, did a fantastic job. And on Monday, we had kind of a pastor leader training. And we had a great, I think we had 40, 45 men here, pastors and things here on Monday morning.

It really went even far greater. We just kind of called a few pastors that I knew and God really used him for that. And as he shared last Sunday night about Mary and Martha. And I want to reiterate this that you know what's interesting here in verse two. The Bible says it was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. You know what's interesting, it doesn't say it was that Martha that worked so hard. He said it was that Mary. Now I understand there is, God wrote his word, I didn't.

I understand that is that we don't get Mary's confused. But I do want you to understand that many times what you think God is so pleased with, he's not. And many times what you think God overlooks, he sees as very, very important.

And I want to challenge you just in your personal life. I'm trying to learn this lesson in my life that I think it pleases God as much for you to spend time with him every day. Nothing could please him more than that. After that, all that you do for him, he notices, keeps track of, will reward you.

He is not a debtor to any man. But I think what pleases God the most is that we spend time with him at his feet. Verse four. When Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the son of God might be glorified thereby.

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. When he had therefore, when he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. Then after that sayeth he to his disciples, let us go into Judea again. His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again? Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumblest not, because he seeth the light of this world.

But if a man walk in the night, he stumblest because there is no light in him. These things said he, and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.

There are things that he did not think of thinking physical sleep here. Howbeit Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest and sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent ye may believe. Now verse 15 is kind of our key verse today for us to have a springboard into this story. Verse 15, I am glad for your sakes, Jesus says, that I was not there to the intent ye may believe. This whole thing was intended to produce belief. Believing before the resurrection. You see before there was ever a resurrection to take place, there were some things that had to be put in action so that there would be believing before the resurrection.

It's easy to believe after. But real faith believes before. Notice if you would, verse 16, then said Thomas, which is called Didymus unto his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. Then when Jesus came, he found out that he had lain in the grave four days after the resurrection.

Look at verse 21. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou would ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Now she was going on what she had already been told. That there would be a resurrection day. But that is not what Jesus was speaking about here. And may I remind you that no matter what happens to you on earth, if you're saved, there will be a resurrection day.

Everybody understand that? We prayed for healing for my mom. God decided not to resurrect her in a sense on earth, but there will be a resurrection day. But here Jesus was talking specifically about now. Notice in verse 24, Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection day. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

And here we go again. Believest thou this? Lord, we love you. I thank you for all that you've done, Lord, as we just begin to start taking this story apart piece by piece.

I pray that you'd help us to see the importance of it all. Lord, of all the I am statements, as we end with this one, so many things that we must not just understand, not just apply to our life, but so many parts that we must claim by faith because you've said it. Lord, you are the resurrection.

You make dead things alive. We must believe. As I look at this story, I hope that you've paid attention as we read it because I'm not reading it all through again, all right?

But number one, if you are keeping notes, these will be on the screens for you. I just want to give you kind of a, as I said, a kind of a springboard for the rest of this chapter, I am the resurrection. You see, there are some things that you and I have to believe before resurrection happens.

Number one, I want you to write this down if you can. Number one, we must believe that the Lord is in me. We must believe that the Lord is in control.

We must believe that the Lord is in control. Now, a couple of things, I've got a couple of verses up here, but let's just start real quickly. Look at verse four, if you have your Bibles open. It says, When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God. You see, already in verse four, we see he had a purpose, and that was the glory of God. Look at verse 11.

These things said he, after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Not only did he already have a purpose, but here we find that the Lord is in me, and he already had a plan. Nobody knew it yet, but he already had a plan. Then you notice verse 15, And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent that ye may believe.

You see, third, he had already identified a problem. They had trouble believing if they couldn't see. You see, Jesus was in control this entire time. In fact, may I say this from the start of this real life experience, Jesus had the whole thing under control.

And may I say that in your life, whatever your experience and whatever your situation is, he has it under control too. You see, God does not always show us what he is doing. Now, there were no obvious comforting signs here that Jesus had this under control.

I'm gonna be honest with you, from the looks of everything, it looked as if he didn't have control, and not only that he didn't have control, it looks as if he didn't care. And there will be some times in your life, in my life, where our human thinking will begin to think maybe Jesus doesn't care about our situation. You see, I find here in the story that he did not do what the disciples thought he should do. I find in this story that he did not do what Mary thought he should do. I also see that he did not do what Martha thought he should do. In fact, instead of going to help a family that he loved, he decided to go to a group of people that didn't even want him there to begin with.

It even got to the point that Lazarus actually died, which seems like that couldn't be fixed now. You see, everybody was intent that Jesus gets there before that happened, but now that that had happened, what hope is there now? You see, Jesus loves it when things get to a point that we think they can't be fixed.

That's exactly where he loves things to be. You see, Jesus was in control. He knew what had happened, he knew what was happening, and even better, he knew what would happen in the future. Can I challenge you today for there to be resurrection in your life, you've got to understand from the start that God is in control.

In fact, as long as you or I think that we are in control, you're in control. I believe with all my heart, God will continue to do things to remind you you're not. Isn't he a great God? Number two, I'll give you a way to verse four. When Jesus heard that about Lazarus, obviously, he said, it was wrong, you would think, because he ended up dying. But he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Another thing, number two, that we must believe before resurrection, number two is this, we must believe that the ultimate purpose is for God to be glorified. The ultimate purpose for any situation in your life, my life, or in anyone's life is for God to be glorified.

God's purpose for every situation is to bring glory to himself. Can you agree with me on that this morning? Say amen. It's easy to say amen on a Sunday morning, and it's kind of hard to accept that on a Thursday or Friday when the bottom has fallen out of everything that you had trusted. You see, before God, listen to me closely this morning, because this is actually going to be very short this morning. I already, you perked up. And of course, if you believe that, I've got some waterfront property to sell you in Florida.

It is actually true though. Before God does any resurrecting, it must be clear that the only purpose for the resurrecting is his glory. Before God ever does any resurrecting, it must be clear before he does it that the only purpose is his glory.

Now hear me out. God's purpose is not to do what you want him to do. I know we know that, but sometimes in our prayer life, we kind of forget that. We think, I'm going to pray by faith, and God's going to do what I prayed. The earthly purpose. Listen to me. God's purpose is not to make you happy, and God's purpose is not to abide by your plans.

Now hear me. God does not want to resurrect your marriage just so you have less stress in your life. God wants to resurrect your marriage so that he can get the glory. You see, so many things that you and I pray for and pray about are really self-centered, because they're burdens on us, and we want those burdens gone. And so we think that if we can describe to God the burdens that we're bearing, and how this is causing so much damage in our life, that he will surely do something about this so that he can get the burdens off of our life. Last time I checked, Paul had a burden on his, and he asked three times for God to take it away, and God didn't. So God's purpose is not just to de-burden you.

Look at me. God's purpose is always to get the glory. God does not want to bring your wayward child home just so you can save your reputation as a good parent.

Now let that one sink in. I know so many people that pray, pray, pray, because deep down they're just embarrassed. Listen, God doesn't want to bring your wayward child home just so you can save face. God wants to bring him home so he can get the glory. What is the motive of your prayers? What is the motive of your desires? If you're asking God to resurrect something in your life, what is the motive for that?

God is not expecting until he sees in your heart and in your life that you understand that the only motive, the only purpose, and the only outcome of this has to be for him to get glory. I don't know if you realize how good this is this morning. I'm not tooting my own horn. I'm just saying this is the Bible. I didn't write it.

Number three. Look at verse six. I have a problem with that verse, don't I?

I just can't get that heard in there. When he had heard, therefore, that he was sick, he, being Jesus, abode two days still in the same place where he was. It wasn't that he took a long time to get there.

Look at me. The problem was he didn't even leave. He thought, well, he tried, he traveled, he had left, just didn't get here in time, but he never even left.

He abode where he was. Kind of hard to convince somebody you really care if you don't even move. The Bible says we're supposed to be moved with compassion. The way people know we have compassion is we're moved. We don't just stand there and say we have compassion. They're not gonna know we have compassion. But here, Jesus didn't move. He stayed where he was for two more days.

Number three. We must believe that God's plan is more important than our timing. Before any resurrecting takes place, we must believe and understand that God's plan is more important than our timing. And I have to understand from the start that God's plan is what's best. It trumps our desire. It trumps our dreams.

It trumps, and I hate to keep using that word, sorry, but it trumps everything that we have thought out, schemed out, decided this could be the best possible scenario. God's plan is always more important than that. If this needs to happen now, or it needs to happen by then, and I need to see God, at least if he's not gonna do what I asked, I at least need to see God do something. Have you ever prayed that?

I have. You know, God, can you just do something so I know you're at work? As if he owes me proof. Little Daniel Haughtry is questioning me, so I guess I better reassess everything, because Lord knows I don't want to upset Daniel Haughtry. No, he stayed there two days.

There was no sign of him doing anything. God's plan is more important than our timing. You know God's plan does not always go according to the timing that you and I would want. My time's just being, I guess, personal with you in a sense. I've thought about it over and over again, and probably shouldn't even waste the time on it.

I know, but you know what? It's my time. I'm gonna think about what I want.

Okay? Of course, the Bible says our times are in his hands, so I guess it's his time, but you know what I'm saying. Alright, Lord, I know my mom had to die, but why the timing? Why do that right when we're in the hospital for months with our son dying?

Where I could spend those last months with my mom, but no. I'm struggling to try to worry about a wife, and I got three boys, you know, an hour and a half away, and I'm taking over this church right then in a sense as pastor, and my mom's dying. Lord, why the timing? And Lord, if you knew I was gonna pastor here, you knew that I needed her prayer more than ever in my life.

Why take her now? I mean, I've questioned the timing over and over again, but you know what I have to just put down on my little paper and get over it for that day at least? That God's plan is more important than my timing.

I started crying just right down. Number four, we must believe that God loves us no matter what. We're gonna have constant friction between you and everything and everybody in your life if you and I don't just get ahold of the fact that God loves us no matter what it looks like. You see, there is a reason verse five was put in here because with everything else in verses one through 17, it might look like he didn't. We must believe that God loves us no matter what.

Listen to me this morning. No matter what process God puts you through. You've got to know he loves you. And he doesn't just love you.

He loves you more than anybody has ever loved you. You see, if we didn't know any better, we would think that this kind, this was kind of rude what he did. If we didn't know better, we would think it was me for Jesus to do this to a family that had been so good to him and had loved him and had been a blessing to him.

I mean, even, I mean, the Bible even says that Mary's the one that man washed his feet with her hair and poured ointment, expensive ointment over him. I mean, even those kind of acts, not everybody did that. It almost, if we didn't know better, it would look as if he just didn't even care here. In fact, if we didn't know better, we would almost think that he was being very unloving towards them.

But we do know better. We must always know that God loves us. No matter what it looks like.

You know, I don't know if it's recent days, present days, could be future days, but you might be going through some things in your life that eventually you might have a couple days that you wonder. And maybe not, it's not even that simple. It's not even just like, well, God, I don't think you love me. I think that all of us almost are afraid to utter that. And so I've thought in my mind at times like this, God, I know you love me, but I don't really feel like you love me. And there might be times where you don't feel that, but you've got to know before resurrection takes place that he loves you.

Number five, look at verse 12. The Bible says, then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Oh, so he's resting.

That's great. So you say this isn't a sickness unto death, so that must mean he's sleeping. So he would do well. Hey, we all need some sleep, God. Verse 13, howbeit Jesus spake of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking rest and sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. Well, why was he gone for two days?

Why did he not even start heading back? Because Jesus wanted verse 14 to come to fruition. Lazarus needed to die.

According to God's plan, this had to happen. Number five, we must believe that there must be death to have resurrection. We have to believe that there must be death to have resurrection. Do you know that there are some things in your life that has to die for God to bring him back to life? We want God to just keep those little things that you've held onto so hard and you've manipulated so much. We want God to just sweep in at the end, to just keep those things limping along.

But do you know before God can really unleash his resurrection power in your life, some things have to die. Listen to me, Jesus wasn't desiring to get glory for keeping a man from dying. Jesus wanted to get glory for raising him from the dead.

Did you hear that? You know, listen, Jesus doesn't want to get the glory just for keeping you together as a husband and wife. He wants to get glory for totally transforming your marriage. He wants to get glory for saving you. But they needed to know that Jesus could do more than that.

And so do you and I. See, you and I think that Jesus has to come in and do what we know he can do. But what he chooses and desires to do is to show us that he can do more than we thought he could do. Let me put it this way, to keep Lazarus from dying, everyone would believe that Jesus could do the probable. He loves him. He's going to show up.

He's going to keep him from dying. But to bring Lazarus back from the dead would make everyone believe that Jesus could not do the probable, but that he could do the what? Impossible. Do you believe that Jesus can do the impossible? The Bible. The cross. Candy. It's all spiritual terms there.

Quiet seat prize. No, I mean, do you really believe that Jesus can do the impossible? Until you do, there will be no resurrection in your life. As long as you continue to try to keep everything alive without him, there will be no resurrection.

Number six, last one. We must believe that there is no obstacle that his resurrection power cannot overcome. We must believe that there is no obstacle. At last, if that is the case in your life, you must believe that he can resurrect anything, no matter how long it's been dead. Mark 11, 24 says this, therefore, I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. What was the point of everything that was going on? To the intent ye may believe. You see, you and I have got to get to the point that we believe that there is nothing that God cannot resurrect.

Because if you believe there's something in your life that he can't resurrect, he won't. So I've got some questions to ask you today before we close. These are some questions I'm gonna ask over the next couple weeks. The first question is this. What needs resurrected in your life?

This is a good question to ask in 2020. What needs resurrected in your life? Your spiritual fervor? Your passion for God's house? Your spirit and attitude?

What needs resurrected in your life? Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.