God Do You Really Care? Part 2

If you are tired of your grave, all it takes is moving the stone. Dr. Tony Evans says finding a way back to an abundant life is sometimes as simple as asking God what He wants from us. Even though I don't like it, don't understand it, I'm going to exercise faith, and then I'll watch you make it right. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. Well done is better than well said. Today Dr. Evans takes a look at why we sometimes miss out on what God wants to do in our lives when we spend too much time thinking and discussing and not enough time doing.

Let's join him as he elaborates. In John chapter 11, two sisters throw a red flag out on God. The story behind this is that Lazarus is sick. Martha and Mary, in the first five verses of John 11, send word to Jesus that our brother is sick and we need your help.

So the first thing you need to know is they started with the right thing. They took their problem to Jesus. I mean, isn't that what you learn in church? Tell Him.

Tell Him all about your troubles. What a friend we have in Jesus. I mean, you told us to take our burdens to Jesus, so we took our problem to you.

Not only did we take our problem to you, but we have a special relationship. They came to Jesus and said, the one who you love is sick. So we're not talking about somebody who's been shucking and jiving on you. We're not talking about somebody who's not in the church. We're not talking about somebody who doesn't care about spiritual things. We're not talking about somebody who has no relationship with you.

We're talking about somebody who you love. But not only do you love Him, you love us, verse five. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So you got three good reasons to help us.

You love all three of us. And in the words of Sister Sledge, we are family. But not only did we do the right thing and come and tell you about our problem, which you told us to do, pray to, you know, you gave us hope. I mean, we told you about our problem and you sent back a word of hope.

Because you said in verse four, this sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so the Son of God may be glorified. We heard the word from you, having told you about our trouble, and you gave us shouting music. Because you sent back word, it's going to be all right. It's all covered.

It's all good. It's not as bad as it seems. God is going to be glorified by the miracle. We got our hopes up on you. You let us to believe that it was all good and it was all going to be all right. The problem occurs because Lazarus dies. After doing the right thing, after being in a loving relationship with God, and after getting hope from his word, things not only stay bad, they get worse. Because when we started this pilgrimage, Lazarus is sick. Now Lazarus is dead. So I go to Jesus with my problem, with my pain, with my anguish, with my hurt, get a little hope only to watch stuff get worse. Anybody ever been here? Where things get worse since you've been to Jesus.

Where you go to Jesus to win and you find out you're losing. I wonder if there's anybody here who's experienced a death. A death of your dreams, of your hopes, of your relationships. Stuff started off sick and now it's just dead. You had this plan for your life. You had this dream. You thought things were going to fall into place.

And now not only have they not fallen into place, it's died. Jesus says to her, your brother will rise again in verse 23. Your brother's going to live again. Martha said to him, well I went to eschatology class. I read Tony Evans' book, The Best is Yet to Come. I read the book of Daniel and Revelation. I read Ezekiel. I understand that by and by, when the morning comes, all the saints of God will be gathered together as one and will tell the story.

I got all that. One day he will rise again. I know that that is true on the last day. And Jesus throws a zinger. He says, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies.

Now, why is that a zinger? Because he says, until and unless, watch this now, you turn your theology about me into an experience with me. It will remain doctrine on a paper and not a reality in your existence. She had the right theology. On the last day, he will rise again. She spoke futuristically, but Jesus says, I am. Now that's a change of tense.

She said, he will. Jesus says, I am. Jesus, verse 38, is deeply moved. He comes to the tomb, to the cave where the stone was lying against it, and said, remove the stone.

Fairly simple request. Remove the stone. They had a stone over the grave sites where the body was entombed. Jesus says, remove the stone. Now, what we're about to enter into today is probably some of the deepest theological truth that I could ever share with me and you.

And if you will catch what I'm about to share based on this passage, it will be potentially the most revolutionary spiritual truth you could ever learn for your daily living, particularly when something in your life dies. He says, remove the stone. Martha hears him say, remove the stone, and said to him, Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days. Let me tell you what Jesus did not ask for.

An autopsy report. That is not what he requested. He did not request from her an analysis of the situation. He did not request from her, watch this, information about which he was completely already aware. She says, Jesus, look, let me explain to you, let me explain to you what the reality is. The reality here, if you think a minute, Jesus, if you just think a minute, what you have just asked makes no sense.

You have now requested a very illogical thing. He's been dead four days. Rickamortis has set in. The worms have begun eating him.

The stench of death is all over the place because he's been here four days. Jesus, could it be on this one occasion you missed it? Because what you're asking for is not logical. When God is ready to do something in your life that involves a resurrection, it will often include an illogical request. Because this request makes no sense.

That's what Martha is saying. It makes no sense. You look at the Bible, and the angel comes to Mary, Jesus' mother, and says, you're going to give birth to a baby boy. Her question was, but how can this be?

Because I am a virgin. What you just said is not logical. When Abraham is told to sacrifice his son, and yet he's going to be the head of a great nation, that's not logical. For Gideon to take his army now from 30,000 to 300 men and fight a war, that's not logical. For the walls of Jericho to fall down simply because we marched around it, and these are fortified walls for years and years and years, that doesn't make sense.

For Naaman to dip his body in the Jordan River seven times in order to get rid of it, the leprosy that was killing him, Naaman said to the prophet, that doesn't make sense. Whenever God is getting ready to do something in your entombed situation, don't be surprised if it doesn't make sense. But the temptation is to go logical.

The temptation is to use human views to explain what is a supernatural move. Dr. Evans will come back with more of our message in just a moment. Stay with us. When life throws us a curve ball, we all look for comfort. We all look for something or someone to bring us positive distraction. Well, God has some comfort for us too. The Holy Spirit's job is to join us and to calm our souls in the midst of our chaos and confusion and bring harmony to our headaches. Life can give you a headache, but the comforter can calm the heart.

You will find that the comforter can do what a movie or a television show, what a friend, and even what comfort food can. He can give you rest to your soul and that sweet rest. Go to TonyEvans.org to find out more and request your copy of Hope for the Hurting. Tony's latest book, Hope for the Hurting, goes hand in hand with the message we've been hearing today. And that's why we've created a special bundle that includes the book, the entire 20-message collection called Coming to the Comforter, as well as the optional companion, Hope for the Hurting Bible Study DVD and study guide. Together, these resources give powerful insight into the purpose behind our pain, afflictions, and the difficult times we all face.

When we approach the comforter, we can find the help and hope we need to carry on. And right now, we'd like to offer this package of resources to you as our gift, and thanks for your contribution to help support the ongoing work of Dr. Evans and the Urban Alternative. To get the details and make the arrangements, just go to TonyEvans.org. Or if you'd prefer, you can give us a call at 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night to let one of our team members assist with your resource request.

Don't miss out on this limited-time offer. Visit TonyEvans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 to request the Hope for the Hurting and Coming to the Comforter combo offer. I'll have that contact information for you again after Part 2 of today's lesson.

Here's Dr. Evans. To experience the living Christ active in your dead situation, belief must precede sight. Because without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Him that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him. Faith precedes sight. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

And let me explain that. Faith is acted on, watch this, when there is no empirical evidence to validate why you're doing what you're doing. There is nothing you can taste, touch, hear, that there's nothing the five senses can grab.

Because if the five senses can grab it, it's sight. And sight and faith are two totally different things. You don't need, we don't have to have faith in Christ if we were in heaven right now because we could see it. Sight, sight means that faith is not necessary because you now see it.

But on earth, God says, the just shall live their lives by faith. Now how would Martha know she had faith? There's only one way Martha would know she had faith and that's by removing the stone. How do you know when you have faith? You don't know when you have faith because you got a feeling. You don't know when you have faith because you feel faithish. You don't know that you have faith unless you're responding to the phrase, did I not say? If you're not doing something he told you to do, you're not having faith. If you're discussing it, you're not at the faith point yet, you're at the discussion point.

If you're thinking about it, you're not at the faith point yet, you're at the thought point. You're not at the faith point until I see that stone move. So they removed the stone. They left human logic and just did what God said to them.

They didn't try to figure it out no more, they didn't try to understand it no more. Matthew said, move the stone, let this move the stone. Get over with, move the stone. When they removed the stone, then Jesus, verse 41, raised his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.

I know that you always hear me. But because of the people standing around, I said it so that they may believe that you sent me. They moved the stone. Jesus is standing at the tomb. And he says, Lazarus, come forth. Now, I'm sure glad he said Lazarus, come forth. I'm glad he didn't just say come forth, then all the dead would have just gotten up.

You know what he does? He calls forth a specific person in a specific situation in response to specific faith exercised by specific people, and guess what those people got? They got a resurrection. They got a miracle. Lazarus was trapped in a grave. And only God could get him out of it. Anybody trapped in a dead situation? And you've tried to be part of the night of the living dead. You've tried to walk out of that tomb, but it just keeps dragging you back. And you are trapped, stuck. You know what Jesus said?

He said, come forth. God wants to make some dead marriages alive. Did you know God can take a dead marriage and give it new life? He just can't get husbands and wives to remove the stone.

They want to keep talking about all this other stuff. All you got to do is remove the stone. You just got to do this thing I told you to do, and then I will call life forth. They didn't make life come forth.

All they did was move the stone at his word, but he created a miracle. Somebody here needs a miracle. You need a resurrection. That means there's been a death.

Somebody's trapped in an addiction. You've tried everything you know to get out of it. No, what you need is a resurrection, not simply resuscitation. He brings life out of death.

Let me give you a closing thought. Earlier in the story, Jesus says, Lazarus is asleep. Then it says, later on, he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. Why introduce the word sleep? Why not just say, Lazarus is dead? Everybody would have known what you're talking about. It wouldn't have been any confusion, but when he said sleep, it said the disciples thought he was sleeping. Why introduce a word that really leaves me unclear about what's really going on?

I'll leave you with this thought. The reason Jesus uses the word sleep is he wanted to give them a different understanding of their physical reality. He was physically dead, but he doesn't call him dead. He calls him asleep because he did not want the disciples to look at death the way they had been taught to look at it.

In fact, that's true of us. The Bible talks about us being asleep in Christ. Well, number one, when you're asleep, you're very much alive. You're not dead.

Number two, when you're asleep, you're in another state of consciousness than the one you were in when you were awake, so you're alive. You're in a different state of consciousness. In other words, he wanted them to look at things differently. Here is the reason why God will allow a death to occur in your experience in order for you to have a resurrection, even using language that you don't first catch. It's because he wants you to begin to look at things through spiritual eyes, not through the eyes of the physical world that defines your existence day by day.

He wants you to look at it. See, the reason why we're not experiencing resurrections is we're too earthbound. We're too tied into the physical so we miss the spiritual so we don't get the resurrections.

So then, if you are tired of your grave, if you are sick of your cemetery, if you are claustrophobic in your casket, all it takes is moving the stone. That is, God, what do you want me to do? You tell me I will do it even though I don't like it, don't understand it.

It's illogical and doesn't make sense. I'm going to exercise faith. And then I'll watch you make it sight. It's time for resurrection. Dr. Tony Evans, wrapping up a message called God, Do You Really Care?

And if that's a question you've ever struggled with, let me encourage you to take advantage of that special package of resources I mentioned a little earlier. For a limited time, when you make a contribution to help keep Tony's messages coming to you and others here on this station, we'll say thanks by sending you all 20 full-length audio messages on CD or digital download from his current audio compilation called Coming to the Comforter. And as an added bonus, we'll also send you one of the first copies of Tony's latest book, Hope for the Hurting. Just reach out to us while there's still time, make a donation, and request this special resource bundle. You can make the arrangements online at TonyEvans.org or by phone 24-7 at 1-800-800-3222. We look forward to saying thank you for your partnership in this ministry by sending you this helpful package of study tools. In fact, you can also get the companion study guide and DVD Bible study. Check it out when you contact us.

Once again, that's online at TonyEvans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. You know, if you're trying to lighten your load in life, the last thing you'd want to do is take on something new, something heavy. But next time, Dr. Evans says that's exactly what it takes to find the rest your soul has been looking for. I hope you'll join us for that.

And until then, be looking for opportunities to show kindness to others for the benefit of culture and the glory of God. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.