Easter - Hope for the Hopeless - Hope for the Hopeless, Part 1

There's a number of people asking right now, God, where are you? Jesus, do you really care? I've prayed. I've asked you. And things aren't getting bad. They're getting impossible. Where is God when you need Him the most?

And how do you know if He really loves you? That's today. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram.

And I imagine a lot of people are in that boat he just described. They're trusting God and believing He's good, but nothing in their life has changed and they're barely hanging on. And then something in their heart shifts and they wonder, how long do I have to wait? Do my prayers even matter?

If you or someone you know is struggling like that, well, this program will speak to you. In just a minute, Chip will share some biblical insights that'll really help. There's a lot to get to, so let's join Chip now for his message, Hope for the Hopeless, from John chapter 11.

So often when we think of Easter, we think of hope and resurrection and we've sung sort of those great songs about Jesus rising from the dead and sort of a great moment, but what about how does that work in everyday life? And so what I'm going to do is take you on a journey with me and I have a question to ask. I have a story that I want to ponder with you, not just read or tell. I really want to ponder it. And then there's an answer for you and me and the struggles that we have. So there's some notes.

Why don't you open those up? And here's the question. The question I have, it's an honest question, is where is God when you hurt? Or maybe someone really close to you. When you've lost courage, you've lost hope, you've lost heart. You know, maybe you've lost a mate, maybe you've lost your home as so many have. Maybe you've lost your job.

Maybe you've even lost a child. I mean, like where is God when your boyfriend betrays you or you find out your boss used you? Or you've been one of those people that you have really sought to break some kind of an addiction and you have prayed and cried and tried and then you keep falling back into the same hopeless situation or maybe that describes your son or your daughter or your mate or roommate. And you're saying, God, please help.

But experientially, he just feels silent and distant. In fact, there's some rare times, despite how God so often lovingly, lovingly intervenes and provides dramatic answers to prayer and helps us, there are sometimes even among those that he loves and cherishes the most. And instead of when we come with our hard, difficult, hopeless situation, it doesn't go from bad to worse. It goes from bad to impossible. And we're going to ponder a story of two women who find themselves in a situation where their experience with Jesus is, I know he loves us, at least I thought so.

And their situation goes not from bad to worse, but from bad to impossible. And in the midst of this story that we'll ponder, they get an amazing, amazing answer. And you'll notice in your notes, do you notice that you might want to pull out a pen? It says an amazing answer and then so that you and then there's two blanks.

Are you ready? I'm not going to give you what to fill in. Here's what I will tell you.

When I get done, you will very easily be able to go back and fill those in. But better than filling in a blank, you'll be able to fill those in in your life. You'll know how to find hope when you feel hopeless. So let's ponder the story together.

And when I say ponder, as much as your imagination, go there with me. Feel what they feel. Jump into the life of this story.

These are real people in a real situation. It's just a few days before Jesus is going to be nailed to a cross. Now, a man named Lazarus was sick and he was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick. And so there's a problem. And I don't know about you, but I didn't grow up as a Christian, but I did go to Sunday school some. And I taught at Sunday school, if you have a problem, you should take it to Jesus.

Right? And so here's these two people. And if you have a little background, they're personal friends.

These aren't just people out there. These are, this is where Jesus went for R and R. It's a little suburb outside of Jerusalem. And you watch Jesus' ministry and he does all this teaching and there's some people he just needs to sort of let his hair down and hang out with. And Lazarus was a personal friend.

Martha often would fix meals for him. And Mary just had that really close relationship with him that, you know, she wanted to listen and to learn and to grow. And so he's off doing ministry and we'll learn a little bit later that he's doing it in a way where he's getting near the end of his life. And the religious leaders have decided this guy's got to go.

So there's a contract out on him. They want to kill him. And their brother's critically ill. I mean, this is a very serious illness. And so they send a messenger to Jesus to say, hey, the one that you love is sick. Obviously you care, you love, you're going to take care of this.

Well, let's find out what happens. Not to people that are bad, not to people that in any way could be punished or that God doesn't care about. How does Jesus respond on occasion to some people that he loves the most? Jesus responds, when he heard this, Jesus said, this sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it.

And then a little piece of commentary. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So would you circle the word so? So he loves them. He gets word from a messenger and he says, the purpose of this will not end in death, but this is so the son will be glorified. Put a little box around the word glorified, because the Hebrew word, its origin has to with weight.

It means to enhance their reputation. It'll give weight to who Jesus is. It'll give weight to his identity. It's going to reveal with with power and clarity exactly why he came and what he's going to do. So this isn't going to end in death, but it's going to help people see something about who Jesus is like never before. And so then the author says, I want you to know that everything that's going to happen is motivated out of a deep concern and love. So here's how he expresses this deep concern and love. When he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. I don't know about you, but if I called 911 and a friend had come to my house and had a heart attack and I called 911, if the person on the other end of the line said, you know, I just really want you know, we here at 911 really love you and we'll be there in a couple of days.

That would not exactly warm my heart. Have you ever had a situation like that where you maybe it's right now and you feel like you cry out to God and you know, as far as you know, there's no big issue and no big problem and you love him and you've asked for help, but feels like he must be doing other things. Jesus out of his love is going to stay a couple more days. I remember the first time this passage, I've obviously read it a few times in the last many years as a Christian, but in terms of real personal, when this spoke to me, I was asked to lead this organization on the other side of America and so it meant leaving a church I loved and being uprooted and my wife wasn't real happy about it and as soon as I said yes, a month later her mother died and my youngest son was ready to get married and you know, he kind of wanted to do it where we used to live and if you're a mom and that changes and then as soon as we landed there, she needed oral surgery and she was in pain all the time, but the oral surgery didn't work and so we put everything that we owned in a truck and the truck slid on ice and so the car on the truck, it was damaged and then the organization that I joined, remember 2001, beginning of 2002, the bottom drops out so people had made millions and millions of dollars of commitments to help these people all around the world and I started getting calls and letters going, I would love to help you, but all the money I had now is gone and I remember sitting in my basement and you know how the phrases in the Psalms cry out to God, I wasn't crying out to God, I was just crying, have you ever been there? And I mean literally, I was reading this and I thought, literally, because here's the issue, the little messenger that comes back, Mary and Martha are thinking, you know Jesus, we've watched him, feed 4,000, feed 5,000, you know we've seen him raise someone from the dead, I mean he'll either come back and heal our brother or he'll do like one of those long distance miracles, remember? The one with the centurion, he says, I'm not worthy for you to even come into my house and he says great, he'll be healed, but what you're going to find is Jesus doesn't respond. See this message isn't for like people that are wondering where they're at with God, this message is for people that on occasion, how Jesus responds to people that he loves the most that haven't done anything wrong, that find themselves in a situation they don't understand. Now it applies to all of us, but I remember saying, God if you really love me, I obeyed you, I did what you wanted me to do and I sort of had that unconscious formula that if you do what God wants you to do, everything will turn out right and easy and I know that's not true, but it's so deeply in me and the first two or three years there, it was horrendous.

God doesn't always show up on your timing with your expectations to fulfill your agenda or mine the way we think, so let's find out what he does and why he does it. How does he give hope to the hopeless, because these two ladies feel pretty hopeless right now. The messenger came back and I just have to believe Mary and Martha said, what did the Lord say? What did he say? What did he say? I think the guy said, not coming.

What? He's not coming. Was he going to do something? We don't know, he's just not coming and Mary and Martha, we'll learn in just a minute, will bury their brother and not only will they have the sorrow of losing their brother, but they're going to scratch their head and say, was I wrong about Jesus? Does he even care? Does God care?

Have you ever thought that? Have you ever had something happen in your life that's so devastating or hard or maybe you've lost your home or you don't have a job or you've got cancer and you say, hey God, let's find out how Jesus operates. Verse seven, then he said to his disciples, let's go back to Judea. But rabbi, they said, a short time while ago, the Jews tried to stone you and yet you're going to go back there? And Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble for he sees by this world's light.

If he walks when it's night, he stumbles for he has no light. And after he said this, he went on to tell them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I'm going to wake him up. His disciples replied, Lord, if he sleeps, he'll get better translation.

We don't have to go. He'll wake up on his own. Jesus had been speaking of his death, but the disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sake, I'm glad I was not there so that you may believe, but let us go to him. And Thomas called Didymus said to the rest of the disciples, let us all go that we may die with him. So now all of a sudden, this is where there's a mystery, and it doesn't seem to make sense.

And these two people that he really loves, he doesn't respond to them initially. He waits a couple more days. We're going to learn in just a minute that he was far enough away that Lazarus has died. He's now been dead four days, and he says to the disciples, OK, guys, we're heading back to Judea. And they raised their hand, and I like what they call him, rabbi, term of endearment.

It's you're the teacher. You're the wise one. By this time, they've confessed that he's the Christ.

They believe he's really the son of God. And so, you know, you're wise. You're all knowing. You're smart.

This is not a smart move. You're going to go back there. There's a contract out on you.

They want to kill you. You go there. We go there. You die. We die.

Not a good plan. You see, sometimes when you feel hopeless, God will very clearly say, this is what I want you to do, and I want you to go to a place with me, and we're afraid because it doesn't seem to make logical sense. And then we get what I call a Jesusism. These times in scripture where, you know, you say, Lord, that doesn't make sense. What are we going to do?

And then can you imagine being those guys and thinking your heart's beating fast? If we go there, we're going to get killed, we're going to get stoned. And here's the answer. Are there not yet 12 hours of light in the day? If you walk during the day, you will not stumble. But if you walk at night, you will stumble. So let us walk while it's light. I mean, I'm thinking Pete's going to John. Do you have any idea what he's talking about?

I don't have a clue. Jesus speaks in these sort of, here's a literal truth, but there's a spiritual truth behind it. And basically we say to him, guys, you know, when you go anywhere in life and the sun's out and you can see, you don't stumble or fall into a ditch or trip over a rock.

But at night that happens. Have you guys forgotten chapter eight, I told you I'm the light of the world. When you feel hopeless and we feel I haven't come through at the right time and the right way to fulfill your agenda, here's what you know. Draw close to me. I've got a plan. If you will do what I ask you to do, whenever you're with me, I'm the light and you'll never get in trouble as you're close to me.

So guys, I'm the light of the world. You stay with me. You don't have to be afraid. Our response when we don't understand and feel hopeless is fear and we get paralyzed and we often don't want to go or do exactly what God has told us to do.

And the other is not fear, it's fatalism. This is Thomas. Some of you are a little more familiar with the New Testament and this is not the hero in terms of who has a lot of faith, Thomas guy. This is a guy that even after the resurrection won't believe unless he personally can stick his fingers into the holes in his hands and into where his side was pierced. And I call this fatalism.

It's like, well, it's really hard, it's really difficult and this marriage is really a challenge, but I know I'm a Christian and my son or daughter is having a big problem and our house is upside down and I need a job, but God's out there somewhere, whatever we'll be, we'll be. What the heck? There's no faith there. Just let it roll out. I'll just go through the motions. I'll just intellectually say, I believe in God. I trust him.

But in your heart of hearts, bam, you're capped out. I want to tell you that when you are hopeless, God says, I want you to trust me. I don't want you to be afraid. I don't want you to go on autopilot and just whatever will be will be.

That's just not true. And now what he's going to do is something very powerful for these two ladies, but maybe more powerful for us today because see what I wanted God to do in my situation, fix my life. Would you cause my wife's health to get better? Would you get me a car that works because the one that got wrecked in the storm doesn't work now and gasoline poured all over it. So it's in the middle of winter in Atlanta and I have to drive with the windows down.

I mean, it was crazy. But I couldn't afford another car, but this one's kind of ruined, but I signed off on the papers. And by the way, you know, all those people that committed all these millions of dollars before I got here, could you kind of bless them? So I've got all these guys around the world and I'm supposed to pay their salary and God, where are you? Answer.

I'm the light. Trust me. There's enough grace for today.

Just take the next step. I will deliver you not always out of it, but through it. Sometimes God has a bigger gift than fixing your problem.

Sometimes he has a bigger gift than just snapping his fingers and causing your marriage be more fulfilling or one of your kids to come around or getting a better report on your scan. And that's what Jesus does with these two ladies. Jesus gift to Martha and Mary is better verse 17 on his arrival. Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort her in the loss of her brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

And you need to just get a little picture. The Jewish form of mourning was very, very serious. For seven days, no food could be prepared.

No one could do any business in the home of the person that died. People would come from all over. You talk about sort of a moral obligation. If you knew these people out of respect, you would come and the women would go first and they would walk to the tomb and then they would walk to the house and people would line on both sides. And unlike us where we talk about he's passed and people are very quiet and we don't really want to look death in the face. They would mourn and they would wail. Sometimes they would hire professional mourners.

The more mourning it was thought more honoring of the dead. And so they're crying and they're weeping. And I mean, there's this there's a sense of chaos and you're hearing these people moan and oh God and the loss and into that Mary's there and Martha's there and as they're there she gets word Jesus is here.

So she pops up and she goes over to Jesus. Now what do you think she's thinking? What do you think she's feeling? Where have her emotions been the last four days? Number one, where would you be if you lost someone very close to you?

Your mate, your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister. So she's dealing with sorrow over here, but nagging in the back of her mind, where's Jesus? I thought he loved me. I thought he cared and he didn't show up. And so Martha comes, she meets Jesus and the first words out of her mouth, Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

Translation, I don't get it. I mean, like, where are you when I really needed you? I mean, I'm the one that fixed those meals and I heard all your messages and you know, my sister, she sat on the floor and she listened to you and Lazarus, I overheard all your conversations.

I mean, we were your friends. If you would have showed up, why don't you fix my problem? I love you. I believe in you.

Why don't you fix it? And I think it was unvarnished what was really in her heart and I think immediately after it came out of her mouth, she kind of remembered who she was talking to and she backpedals a little and then she says, but I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. And Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.

And Martha answered, I know he'll rise again in the resurrection at the last day. I mean, I've been to your seminar, Jesus. I get it. Okay. I've heard the sermon on the Mount.

Have you been in our house? I heard the Q and A with the disciples. I really get it that everyone is born and everyone has an opportunity and those people that trust in God and trust Yahweh and believe in the Messiah and those will go forever and ever to heaven and resurrection with you and those who stiff arm you and reject you will be separated because they don't want to be with you and you've created a place for them.

I get it. I understand the facts of the theological teaching. There is a resurrection and my brother someday, some way we'll get resurrected.

See that's, that's where an awful lot of us grew up. You know, I don't know about you, but if you would have asked me when I was 10 years old, 12 years old, 14, 15, maybe, maybe close to 16 even, do you believe in the resurrection? Yes.

Do you believe in Jesus? Yes. I mean, I'm an American.

Are you kidding? But it was a, it was a fact. It was a concept. It was what I heard. It's what my parents said. It's, I probably would have believed in something else, but it was a, it was a fact that I intellectually sort of marked off as that must be true.

Not because I reasoned it, not because I've experienced anything, just because that's what I was told. And I think Martha was farther along than that. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. He'll be back in just a minute with his application for today's message, Hope for the Hopeless. But before we go any further, Chip's joined me in studio and Chip, I'm convinced there's countless people listening right now who feel a lot like Martha did in John chapter 11. They believe in Jesus as a concept, but that's about as far as it goes. There's no deeper connection.

Where can they go from here and what can we do to help them? Well, Dave, you know, at Living on the Edge, our mission, our passion is to help Christians live like Christians. But there's a lot of us that have grown up with an idea of God or Jesus, maybe a lot like Mary or even Martha who, you know, they knew what he stood for and they, you know, they believe in God and we heard the story that he died on a cross and rose from the dead. But we never really grasped how to have a intimate, personal relationship, like God actually speaks and guides and empowers you. And for every single person listening to my voice, that you might be in your heart of heart saying, you know, I wonder, I wonder if I have a personal relationship.

I wonder if there's maybe more to it than what I'm experiencing. Go to Living on the Edge, all one word, livingonthedge.org, and there'll be some information there absolutely free that'll just help you maybe confirm, yes, I do have a relationship with God because this is what it says, or it might be, well, I believe in God, but I had no idea how to kind of go to the next level and make it very personal. We love you. We care for you.

God cares for you. And he wants you to have that moment that Martha and Mary had where he looks into their eyes and says, I am the resurrection and the life. And so, go to livingonthedge.org and let's continue the journey together. Thanks, Chip. To get your hands on the resource Chip's mentioned, find the New Believers button at livingonthedge.org. This tool will help you or someone you may be mentoring gain a clear biblical understanding of what it means to follow after Jesus and actually be a Christian who lives like a Christian. Again, to get your hands on this free resource, go to livingonthedge.org and click the New Believers button. And as Chip always says, welcome to the family of God.

Well, here again is Chip to share some application for us to think about. Let me ask you to turn back in your mind's eye, if you would, to what I call the Joseph journey. God gives him a dream, basically a promise, I'm going to use your life. Then his brothers betray him, so he ends up in a pit for a while and then he's sold into slavery.

He has a good attitude, it says the Lord's with him, he keeps trusting God even though his circumstances stink. So he's in this pit and he gets sold into slavery. Well then, a man named Potiphar buys him as a slave, puts him over his household and blessing happens. Well, the wife comes on to him, falsely accuses him of rape, so he goes from the pit, now he's in a prison. Well, Joseph won't give up, he says, you know, I know God's purposes, I know he's in control and many of you know the story, but now he does something in the prison. A couple of guys have dreams, he interprets the dreams, he says to him, now by the way, when you get out of here, make sure you get me out of here.

They completely forget him. So two more years. Here's what I want you to hear. God had to take him from the pit to the prison in order to get him prepared and to have him end up in a palace where he was the second in command. Now I know that's just a little story for you, but here's what I want you to get.

Are you ready? You might even, you know, write this down. Number one, you can have hope because God's in control.

You might even say that out loud if you need a car by yourself. I can have hope because God's in control. You don't see it all, Mary didn't see it all, Martha didn't see it all, you have hope because God's in control.

Joseph would say to his brothers, you know what? Your motives were wrong, what you did was wrong, but you meant it for evil, God meant it for good to preserve this entire nation alive. He sent me to Egypt ahead of you.

Sometimes we suffer deeply as God is preparing circumstances and situations where he wants to use us and bring about higher good than we could imagine. Second, you can have hope for tomorrow because his promises are true. Okay, his promises are true for you.

He's going to keep them. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. He will work all things together for good. And so you've got to be in his word, pray, and hang tough and say his promises are true.

And here's the last one, you can have hope forever because he's prepared a place for you. There is a heaven. It's real. It's not some just, you know, floating on clouds.

It's real. It's hopeful. There's a new heaven, a new earth. Regardless of the suffering you ever experienced, there's a heaven that's real. And I'll tell you, there's been times where all I can say is, you know, fallen world, terrible things happen, but a good God will make it all right. And it's going to be all right forever and ever because my God has made a heaven for me with him and the people that I love. You know what? You have hope today.

Don't let go of it. Great word, Chip. And since he mentioned that eternal hope we can have in Jesus, if you've been searching for some solid biblical answers about heaven, let me encourage you to get plugged in with our resources for The Real Heaven. Whether you get a copy of Chip's popular book or you and your friends dive into the small group study, you're going to walk away with a more accurate and exciting view of the place God's prepared for us. For complete ordering details for either of these resources, visit Special Offers on the Chip Ingram app or at LivingOnTheEdge.org. Well until next time, this is Dave Drouy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.