Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / You Have to Risk a Mess to Expect a Miracle - October 19, 2025

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You Have to Risk a Mess to Expect a Miracle - October 19, 2025 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

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Good morning. It's a man named Dietrich
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Bonhoeffer. He died in a Nazi war prison.
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He was a pastor in World War 2 or during World War 2 that
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turned rebel against the German army.
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And he wrote a lot during his time in a prison camp.
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Here's one of the things he wrote on his way to execution.
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It said only the suffering God can help.
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A God who is invulnerable cannot save us, for he cannot truly
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understand us. But Christ suffered, Christ
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wept, Christ died, and therefore Christ can meet us in our
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darkest hour facing execution. Bonhoeffer didn't need a
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distant, powerful God. He needed a God who understood
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his suffering. In our story today, we're going
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to be back in John 11. Jesus tears at the tomb of
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Lazarus. Show us a God with both power
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and compassion. Welcome to Resurrection Church,
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whether you're a regular here or you just showed up and, and
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you're not even sure if you believe any of this stuff that's
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in the Bible. Today, today, today, we're going
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to see some things about Jesus that I, I think will change how
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we understand his heart and his power.
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So if you're, if you're skeptical about Christianity or
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welcome, I want to introduce you to a man named Jesus, the son of
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the living God. We're in a week 3 of a series
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that we called What If There's more?
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And we're going to be back in John 11.
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We're kind of tracking this story.
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Jesus finds out that a really good friend of his is sick and
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he actually delays going to see him and Lazarus dies.
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And so it's, it's kind of a wild story because Jesus is actually,
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you know, up until this point, been doing all these miracles,
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healing people. He heals people of leprosy,
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heals people of blindness. He's doing miracle after
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miracle. And then all of a sudden he
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finds out his really close friend is sick.
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And he intentionally waits and doesn't go.
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And he even tells his disciples that he's waiting so that his
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friend Lazarus can die and that because of that, they will get
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to see God's glory in that moment.
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And if you think, man, that sounds kind of weird, it is.
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But but there's a method here. There's a method to the madness.
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You'll see it kind of just a minute as we walk through it, I
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hope. Here's the big idea.
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If you get nothing else from today, if you're going to take
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one thing away, I just just think about this.
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You got to risk a mess to expect a miracle.
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You got to risk a mess to expect a miracle.
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We're going to pick this up last week when Shawn was preaching,
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Jesus has met and talked to 1 of Lazarus, 2 Sisters.
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Her name was Martha and we're going to see the other one Mary
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today here starting in verse 28 of John 11.
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If you're in the Bible, go ahead and open that up.
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Otherwise we'll put on the screen.
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Here's what it says. When she Martha had said this,
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she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, the
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teacher is here and is calling for you.
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And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.
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Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in
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the place where Martha had met him.
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When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw
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Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing
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that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
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So in the 1st century in this in this culture, grieving was a
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communal affair. The whole community is grieving
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over Lazarus death. And it's not just her or the
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family, it's the neighbors, it's the community, it's a host of
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people. They see her leave, they're
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going with to grieve. Verse 32 Now when Mary came to
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where Jesus was and saw him catch this, she fell at his feet
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saying to him, Lord, if you'd been there, my brother would not
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have died. Now Mary and Martha are sisters,
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but they have vastly different personalities.
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Anyone have kids where man they are not like at all.
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That's him for kids. He got some very different
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personalities. Mary and Martha very different.
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We know this because we there's a whole story about them in Luke
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10. Martha is the Super logical,
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very rational, like taskmaster get stuff done and and Mary is
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the feeler, the empath, very emotional.
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But in this moment, what Mary says, Lord, if you'd been here,
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my brother would not have died is exactly the same as her
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sister. If you go back to verse 21 last
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week when we covered that, the logical sister said the exact
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same thing. She said, Lord, if you'd been
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here, my brother wouldn't have died.
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What they're actually saying in this is this moment is this
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Jesus? You had the power to stop this
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and you didn't do anything. It's a question inside that
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statement. You didn't do anything.
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Verse 33, When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had
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come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved.
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You can underline that in your Bible, deeply moved in His
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spirit and greatly troubled. Now in the original language
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this was written in that term, deeply moved was one word.
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That word is Embry Maomi, and that word literally means snort
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like a horse. It means righteous indignation.
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He's angry. He's mad.
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Who's he angry with? He's not angry with the sisters.
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They're his friends and he understands the grieving that
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they're going through and even the questions.
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But who's he? Why is he angry?
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You see, he's not angry at at the sisters at all.
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He he's angry at death. You think that seems weird?
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Well, death is the enemy that Jesus came to defeat.
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Death is the ultimate consequence of sin.
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The Bible says we live in a fallen world and the consequence
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of our disobedience to God is that death entered the world and
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that was the consequence. And we couldn't fix death.
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We couldn't solve death. So he sent Jesus.
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And so in this moment, and Jesus is, is both fully man and fully
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God, right? This is a, this is a, a
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beautiful nature about Jesus, which means that he's come to
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earth for this eternal supernatural purpose of
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conquering death. But in this moment, he's also
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faced with this this the human result of this cosmic struggle.
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Death has has taken his friend, he hears the Son of God, but he
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has human friends, human relationships.
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He's dealing with the human consequences of this, this
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eternal, this huge thing. And so here's what Jesus is
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going to say, verse 34, he's going to look at this and he
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says, where have you laid him? Where is it?
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Take me there. They said to him, Lord, come and
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see. And then verse 35, Jesus wept.
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So the Jews said see how he loved him, but some of them said
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could not he who opened the eyes of a blind man also have kept
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this man from dying. Jesus wept.
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It's the shortest verse in the Bible.
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Now, not only do we know if you've read the story, but but,
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but Jesus knows in this moment that he is about to raise
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Lazarus from the dead. And so it's it's kind of here.
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Here's I guess the question I have.
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I think a lot of people ask this when they see this, if Jesus
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knows that he's about to fix the problem and, and everyone's
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about to be overjoyed because Lazarus is going to be alive,
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then why in the world is Jesus crying?
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Nothing weird, right? Why don't you just go raise
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Lazarus and everyone can cheer and we can have a party.
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Why is he going to why does he cry?
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And so here's here's where I want you to stop.
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I don't want you to gloss over or miss this and read this too
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fast. Just press pause.
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I don't care what you know about Jesus, what you think you've
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heard about Jesus, your, your current understanding of Jesus.
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You need to understand this. Jesus is not some puppet master
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who's just off in some distant place controlling all of our
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lives like some cold, irrational, logical person.
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Jesus is not distant at all. Jesus is right here, today, in
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this place. He has a heart.
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It is gentle and lowly. It beckons us to come to Him and
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seek comfort and rest and protection.
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Jesus doesn't just love the Instagram you, the 1 you put out
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there to make everything seem like it's OK.
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Jesus loves us deeply in our grief, in our failure.
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He's not cold and calculated in this moment.
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He he, he. We see his empathy and his
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compassion for this family. Now here's why.
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Because Jesus loves them just like he loves us.
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And love is a choice. It's not an emotion, it's not
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feelings, it's a choice. And and when you choose to love,
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there's always a cost involved. This is a couple weeks ago.
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My wife and I had our opportunity, first opportunity
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ever, to welcome a foster kid into our home.
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And so we we drive down on Saturday night to the Jameson
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Center where they're keeping these kids for emergency
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placement. And before we walk in the room
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to meet this 11 year old boy, we've already chosen to love
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him. We haven't met him.
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He hasn't earned it, hasn't done anything.
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We're making a choice to love him.
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That's why it's so silly when people talk about like, oh, I
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fell in love. You can't fall in love.
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Billions are emotions. They rise and fall like the
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ocean waves. This isn't a Hallmark movie.
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This is real life. We choose to love by doing so,
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that means we can love in good moments and in bad moments, in
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difficult ones. And it's going to cost us
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something to make that choice. And because love is a choice, I,
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I choose to wake up every day and love my wife.
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Now she makes that relatively easy, but I'm still choosing.
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When I choose to love someone, that means I, I, I, I laugh with
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them, but I also cry with them. I go through the good and I go
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through the bad and I'm opening myself up to the risk of
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betrayal, to the risk of of failure to the to hurt the ups
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and downs of their life, not just mine.
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That's what Jesus has done with this family, but that's also how
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Jesus chooses to love us. He opens his heart up to what
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you and I are going through. That means that that you haven't
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tasted failure and shame on your own that that horrible,
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scandalous mistake that you made Jesus, Jesus saw that you didn't
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hide that from anyone. He weeps, he comforts, he mourns
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and while he does, he calls us into the light into repentance
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while walking with us. So that that horrible secret
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that I, I think I hid from everyone, that is, not only does
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he know all about that, He's calling me to repentance to a
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better way. You know why?
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Because His grace is more scandalous than my sin.
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Do you understand how scandalous this love is?
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That he would know my every thought and my every deed and
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love me anyway. So he weeps with them, even
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though he's about to move in power and change everything
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because he loves them. We sing this like, oh, every
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Sunday we sing this and. Oh how he loves us.
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Oh, oh, how he loves us, how he loves us.
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All sing with me. He is jealous for me.
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Love's like a hurricane. I am a.
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Tree bending beneath. The weight of his.
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Wind and mercy, when all. Of a sudden, I am unaware of
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these afflictions eclipsed by glory, and I realize just how
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beautiful you are and how great your affections are.
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For me and. Oh how he loves us.
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Oh, oh how he loves us. How he loves us all.
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Jesus loves you, He loves you so much more than you think he
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does. And in this moment he chooses to
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walk through this with them and he weeps just like he does with
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you and I, but he also moves. Verse 38 Then Jesus deeply moved
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again, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone lay
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against it. And Jesus said, take away the
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stone, Martha, the logical one, the sister of the dead man said
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to him, Lord, by this time they'll be an odor because it's
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been 4 days. And Jesus said to her, did I not
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tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?
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Practical, Martha, think about it.
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Jesus, the author and creator of all things.
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It says that all things that were made were made and are held
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together through him by the power of his word.
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He's standing in front of death, eye to eye.
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That tombstone moment, right? I'll be here.
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Huckleberry. He's like, move away the stone
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and Martha's like Jesus, I don't know if you know this or not,
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but it's going to smell. Jesus.
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I don't know if you know this or not.
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It's too late. It's going to be a mess.
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Jesus, he's far too gone. I can relate to Martha really
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well. My life is a constant struggle
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between wanting to be expectant that God is going to move in
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power and and my my rational worldly intellect telling me
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that God can't break the laws of the universe, the ones he
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created. God can't do that.
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God can't make me gentle. God can't save marriages.
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God can't fix my finances. God can't change that person
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that I love. God can't.
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How often do you and I sit in a moment where God is about to
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move in power and all he's doing is waiting for a simple act of
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obedience from us and we stall and we drag our feet and we make
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excuses. God can't.
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The reality for Martha is the reality for us.
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You got to risk a mess, to expect a miracle.
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This is the formula of the gospel.
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Jesus doesn't ask me to fix myself, to fix my situation, to
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save my marriage, to resurrect something from death.
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I can't. If I could, I'd have done it
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already. It gives you and I the same
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simple steps that he gave Martha.
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Take it to Jesus. Choose to believe.
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Move the rock, take it to Jesus. Choose to believe, move the
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rock. And for the Lord's sake, can we
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stop telling Jesus what he can't do?
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He's Jesus. Can we start acting and living
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like he's God? We sing it every Sunday.
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What if we lived life like it were true?
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If you're you're watching online or you're here today and you
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called Jesus King and, and I realize not everyone here does,
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but but listen, if you, if you do, that's you, then there was
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at least one moment in your life where you emotionally and
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intellectually just surrendered everything to God and you
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dropped to your knees and you just cried out God, I that's it.
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I'm not enough. I can't do it.
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I need help. And at that moment, God was
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like, yes, now I got something to work with.
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You see, up until then you kept thinking you just needed a
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little Jesus. And at some point you finally
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went, actually, I think I need all Jesus.
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And that was the moment. And in that moment you met the
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God of the impossible. You realize that's the way the
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Bible talks about him, that he is the God of the impossible,
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right? Like it's what he does.
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He is in the business of the impossible.
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And friends, business is good. All of the Bible OK from the
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beginning to the end is story after story of God architecting
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the situation to be more impossible so that you would
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understand that when he shows up, it wasn't you, it was him.
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So from Abraham to Moses to David to the ragtag disciples
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that are like all rejects, he does it on purpose.
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If you turn to Judges chapter 6, there's a story about a guy
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named Gideon. Now here's the thing, Gideon is
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a complete coward in the moment. He's hiding in a wine press.
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And if you ever think that God is not sarcastic, read Judges 6.
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An Angel shows up to Gideon and goes hail mighty man of valor.
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And Gideon's hiding and he's like what?
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Who? What?
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And he's like, yeah, I'm going to choose you to lead a
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rebellion against this invading army of 135,000 soldiers.
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I'm sorry. What?
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And so Gideon spends like 2 chapters being like, running
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away, coming up with excuses, all the reasons he can't do it.
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I wasn't called. I'm not gifted.
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I'll prey on it. All that stuff that you say.
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I'm sorry. You meddling now, Pastor, And he
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finally does it and and he, he calls people to war and he'd get
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32,000 men to fight. 135,000 men.
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You don't have to be a math major.
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No, that's not very good. And God's like, yeah, too many.
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He says, listen, if you're scared, go home.
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Well brothers, I'm out. So there's only 10,000 people
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left. That gets 135,000.
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It's 14 to one odds. And God's like, yeah, you got
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too many men. He leaves him with 300 men to
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fight 135,000 and not the 300 from the movie.
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They don't have the cool ABS or all the baby oil or anything.
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No, these are guys that are such rejects they can't even drink
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water properly. 300 why? Why?
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Because the purpose is that when God moves, there would be no way
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you could miss the fact that it was Him.
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He's showing you His glory. There's no way Gideon gets to
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take credit for that. If you're sitting here, look
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around for just a second. Go ahead and look around.
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Look around, over the past 18 months, over 100 people have
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come to Christ here. We didn't do that.
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Are you kidding me, man? I can't change someone's heart.
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I can't even get my kids to wash the dishes.
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God started moving and we saw it and went, let's move the rock.
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That's what happens. This is the formula.
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Just like Gideon, obedient coward, really good God,
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miracles. Look what happens.
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Verse 41. They obey.
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So they took away the stone. You know what they did?
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They moved the stone. They didn't fix Lazarus, they
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didn't go like do CPR on him still dead.
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They just obeyed in the little thing God asked them to do and
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they risked a mess. They risked a smell, they risked
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that it wasn't going to go well. They chose to believe.
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And God responds by revealing His glory.
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Listen, in how many ways of my life, of your life are we
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fighting and delaying and slowing God down to move in a
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supernatural way? Because I choose not to believe,
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I choose to doubt. I choose worldly thinking.
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I choose not I, I choose to place my faith in, in the
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thinking of this world rather than the next World.
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What if I chose to believe? And Jesus lifted his eyes up and
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said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
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I knew that you always hear me. But I said this on account of
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the people standing around that they may believe that you sent
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me. I love that he's captioning his
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own moment. When he had said these things.
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He cried out with a loud voice. Lazarus, come out.
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The man who had died came out. OK, hold on.
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I want you to see two things here.
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First, he didn't have to touch him.
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He didn't need a magic wand. This was no like Wingardia,
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Leviosa, Harry Potter moment. He's the Lord of Lords and the
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King of Kings. His voice has power that holds
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all things together. He said.
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Lazarus come out and a dead man came alive.
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OK? Number two, it was a family
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tomb, so he doesn't say Lazarus. It's possible we got, like, the
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zombie apocalypse going on. Could have been like a family
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reunion right there. So he's very specific.
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Lazarus, come out now. Here's what it says.
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The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with
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linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth.
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OK. Can you, I mean what?
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And not, you're thinking probably like white stuff.
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No, no, no. This cloth would have been the
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throwaway stuff. It'd been the worst of the
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worst. The stained, gross garments.
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That's all they had leftover. Most, most of these folks were
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poor. It's the leftover nasty garments
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that are all wrapped all around this body.
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And I don't care if he was dead or not, or he stunk or not.
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But those kind of garments in Palestine, Jerusalem, in the in
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for four days are nasty, OK? And here he comes.
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Here what Jesus says, unbind him and let him go.
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Now I want you to see that picture right here, OK?
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And here's why. Because when God called my name
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and he woke me up from death to life, I still stunk.
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I was clothed in death. I was walking the path of this
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world. I had old habits and old hurts
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and old hang ups. And I might have been saved, but
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I sure didn't look like it or act like it, or probably smell
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like it. So even though God had freed me
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from the bondage of sin, I needed other people to teach me
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how to live life in the freedom of Christ, how to pursue
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holiness, how to walk in the light, how to live surrendered
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to Jesus, not the flesh. See, not only did Lazarus not
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have the power of raising himself from the dead, even
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after he's been raised, he's stuck and bound and needs help
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getting loose. He needed help becoming unbound.
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He needed others. And you know what?
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You and I do too. I had someone ask me the other
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day who holds you accountable? And I was like, oh, and I have a
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list of people. People ask me hard questions in
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my life to help me walk in freedom, to help me pursue
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holiness, to encourage me when I'm struggling, to poke at me
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when my life is getting a little too close to the guardrails.
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They know I struggle with gentleness, so they ask me about
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those things. They know I struggle with
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control issues and wanting to. I have to get out of my way
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sometimes. I want to control everything.
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When I quit drinking, they asked me about it every single week
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because I needed it. So they're watching, they're
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checking on me, they're listening, they're keeping a
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close eye on areas that I struggle.
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I got 2 calls this week just checking on me.
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Probing questions. Hey, what's your schedule like?
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Are you pursuing your wife? Why?
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Because they love me. And here's the facts.
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I need Christ and I need his church.
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I need Christ and I need his church.
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And you do too. Maybe Lazarus could have freed
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himself eventually all by himself, but man, what a
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frustrating and dumb way to go about it.
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Like, no, no, I got it. I got it.
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Like people are here to help. Can you imagine, guys?
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The Christian life is not a solo event, it's a team sport.
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There going to be days in our lives when we stop being
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expectant that God's going to move and we get all tied up in
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our old nature depending on the flesh, not being expected that
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God's going to move. And in these moments, we need
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others to speak truth into our life.
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What about you, believer in Christ?
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What's that thing that you've given up for dead and gone and
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stopped expecting God to move? You see, the formula of the
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Bible is actually really consistent.
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We're going to take it to Jesus, choose to believe and then obey
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in the little things. Just move the rock and this
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formula, it is the gospel. It's how the gospel works.
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If you're not familiar with this term, the gospel, give me two
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minutes as we wrap this up to explain what that means.
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The Bible says that every one of us lives in a fallen world, dead
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in our sin. Dead is Lazarus in the grave,
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enslaved to sin, worse than he was wrapped up in those
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garments. But God, in mercy and grace,
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sent his Son Jesus to do what we could not do.
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To live a perfect life, blameless, and then to go to the
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cross and die as an innocent man in order to pay the debt that we
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had accrued through rebellion. So that we could be forgiven, So
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that we could be made clean, so that we could have a
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relationship with God that had been broken.
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And that's what happens when we surrender our will and life to
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Jesus. The Bible tells us how to do
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this in Romans 10/9 and 10. It says this because if you
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confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in
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your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
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saved. For with the heart 1 believes in
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is justified, and with the mouth 1 confesses and is saved.
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So if you would like to surrender your life to God
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today, I want to give you an opportunity to take a next step.
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Would you all please bow your heads and close your eyes for
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just a brief moment? If you're willing to ask God for
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forgiveness and salvation with every eye closed and every head
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bowed, I just want you to to quietly or even just silently
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repeat this prayer after me. Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner and I
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can't save myself. I want you to save me and adopt
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me into your family, so I surrender everything to you.
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Be my Lord. Please Jesus, if you prayed to
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surrender your life to Jesus for the very first time right now,
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would you be brave and raise your hand for me to see?
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Thank you, thank you, thank you. Put your hands down in Jesus
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name, Amen. Real quick right up here.
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If you have given your life to Christ in the service or in this
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last week, I just want you to hear something.
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Welcome to the family in a moment.
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When we respond to this service, we're going to sing a song.
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Our prayer team is going to be up here doing some prayer work
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with you guys. And, and if you've given your
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life to Christ and not told anyone about it or it just
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happened, there's going to be some tables in the back that say
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I raised my hand. We'd love for you to run back
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there during our song and say hi and tell somebody the decision
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you made. We have a gift for you.
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We want to walk with you and celebrate with you.
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But for those of us that have followed Christ maybe for a
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while, I have a challenge for us and I have an encouragement.
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It's a challenge and encouragement.
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Here it is. Once you ask these questions, I
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think they're at the bottom of your hand out.
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What is something you're treating with logic instead of
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expectation? You're being Martha instead.
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We need to look to Christ. What is something you're
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treating with logic instead of expectation?
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You should think about that. Here's the second thing.
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What is something you've written off as dead and gone that you
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need to give to Jesus, the God of the impossible?
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I challenge you to choose to believe, to give it to Jesus.
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Then move the rock, obey him in the small promptings, and expect
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the Creator of all creation to come do the miraculous.
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It's worth it. Taking it to Jesus might mean
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stop trying to figure it out and actually pray, write it down,
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confess it out loud, get on your knees and say I can't fix this
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but you can. I've been so many areas of my
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life that this is true. When the financial struggles of
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the church did a couple months ago, like I don't wanted to jump
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in and just fix everything all by myself.
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And I had to come to this realization that I didn't have
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the power to control at all. What I needed to actually do is
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pray to the God of the harvest and obey God in the small things
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that He's asking me to do. And I expect that God will
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continue to do great things through this church, not because
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we've earned it, but because we believe and we expect that He
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will do that. And so we're going to show up,
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expect that God's going to do something impossible, and we're
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going to move the rock. Maybe for you, you've been a
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believer for some time, but you realize that your pursuit of
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Christ has not been what you want it to be.
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And today might be a day that you want to rededicate your,
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your life, your your journey, your pursuit of Christ.
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And so that's you as as our prayer team comes up, we're
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going to pray for people we love praying for you.
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Whether you're hurting, whether you need healing for any reason,
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we want to pray for you. But if you feel like today's the
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day you need to rededicate your life, we'd love if you come down
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and we'll pray for you for that as well.
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Our prayer team is going to be up here.
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You move as the Lord leads you. Would you stand?
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We're going to sing a song and then we're going to participate
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in the Lord's Supper. If you made a decision for
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Christ, once you go to those back tables, if you need prayer,
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love to pray for you, you move as the Lord leads you.