Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. We're gonna talk about that this morning. I'm excited about it.
Didn't need that lid anyway. Look at verse one. 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 so 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. Look if you would at the end of 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 saith 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 and I thank you for all that you've done and 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. Lord I pray that you'd help us today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Verse 15 to the intent ye may 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 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 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 going to 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 and 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 we are 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? Jesus 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 there by. 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 gonna be very short this morning now 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 gonna pray by faith and God's gonna do what I prayed. 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? And may I challenge you I doubt that God will do any resurrecting. 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. I have a problem with that verse don't 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. 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 Hotry is questioning me.
Reassess everything. Cause Lord knows I don't want to upset Daniel Hotry. Now 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. And before any resurrecting will take place we've got to understand that.
I started crying just right down. Number four we must believe that God loves us no matter what. If you don't understand that you're gonna question a lot of things in your life. If you don't understand that you're gonna get really bent out of shape with a pastor, with a church, with people, with family. You're gonna have constant friction between you and everything and everybody in your life if you and I don't just get a hold 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 seventeen 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. 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 how be it 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 them back to life? You see you want God to just keep nursing your little system. You 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 and 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. Jesus was able to keep Lazarus from dying by the way. He had already done this on many occasions with people. But they needed to know that Jesus could do more than that.
And so do you and I. So 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? Do you really believe? I mean not just church talk. Like junior church you grew up as kids we learned the answer to everything is Jesus! 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. Look at verse 17. Then when Jesus came he found that he, obviously Lazarus, had lain in the grave four days already. Resurrection hasn't even happened yet.
Number six. We must believe that there is no obstacle that his resurrection power cannot overcome. We must believe that there is no obstacle. Not even being dead four days.
That's quite an obstacle. You know before God brings resurrection power to 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 so ever 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 going to ask over the next couple weeks. 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? God bless you.
