Eph 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, (NIV)

Rom 7:15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;

7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. (NIV)

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

v  The power of his spirit to LIVE!

John 11:1-45

1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick.

v  Lazarus was sick: Why didn’t he call for Jesus?  I think he had a worse sickness called Pride, being too familiar, false expectations? Others can call Jesus too but I think he wants us to cry out to him.

v  This sickness will not end in death: I love the confidence in Jesus. There is no hole too deep that he cannot pull us out of. This will not end in death.

v  Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up." Fallen asleep. Maybe that is our problem? We have allowed our close acquaintance to Jesus to trick us into thinking that that is enough. Do we have a close “I depend on you for my life” relationship with him?

o   No one can make us fall asleep we choose to do it ourselves.

v  "Lazarus is dead. That is a bad case of sleepiness! I’m going to go wake him up! Many of us need to wakeup. Are we going to allow him to wake us up from our walking death?

v  "If you had been here, my brother would not have died. V:21 + 32. Is that true? Maybe! Well maybe that is why he stayed where he was. WHAT? Yeah maybe sometimes Jesus will stay in the background and let us do our own thing so we can “learn more from our Resurrection since we have not learned anything from our Relationship!”

o   The presence of Jesus is not enough we must live and believe in him. We can confuse the fact that God is everywhere at the same time and that he is there to help us because of our faith.

o   Past tense faith? I can believe if….and v:24 at the last day… someday faith!

v  Take away the stone What is your stone? Pride, flesh, sin, busy-ness in the ministry, confidence in you friendship but neglect of the practical side of it? The stone of compromise, the stone of ACTING! "By this time there is a bad odour. Yeah, if there is a stone there is a smell! It stinks to God and to people! You may not know it but others smell it too.

v  The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." He not only needed a resurrection but an unwrapping. He came out, but he was still covered with the wrappings of the dead man.

o   Grave clothes? Maybe our grave clothes are our attitudes. Negative thinking, Bitterness, No vision or hope, religious cloning, lack of reality and truth with ourselves….

o   You have to take care of the reasons of death also. If you just revive someone then what killed him will kill him again.

v  "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

o   Hope for those that have died! Has your desire to LIVE for Jesus died? Has your desire for ministry and to be a minister died?

o   And the life..I don’t only have the power to bring you back to life, but to keep you alive!

v  And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

o   This is our daily vitamin, our preventative medicine. LIVES and BELIEVES in me!

o   Never die, emotionally, soulishly and spiritually. You may die physically if he does not return in our lifetime but that is nothing. The fire won’t go out! Not a plastic, playing a role kind of life, but overflowing, abundant, “I’m glad I’M alive” kind of life.

How many of you can say:

1. I have allowed something to come between me and Jesus
2. I have fallen asleep and didn’t know that I was dead?
3. the grave clothes wrapped around me and “MY LIFE STINKS” and the stone has been rolled across the grave??
4. How many of you need a resurrection, and restoration in your relationship with Jesus?

1.      The touch of God for the dead! YOU WILL LIVE!

2.      The commitment to the walk. Will never die!

·         Lives in me.

·         Believes in me.