Where are you?
Notes
Transcript
Well I would ask for a raise of hands but thats not going to work, but have you ever heard of something called blue Monday?
I cant tell if you guys have but for me I never heard of it until this past week.
Its actually a day that falls on the third Monday in the month of January and this is actually the day that people have calculated to be the saddest/ hardest/ all together worst day of the entire year.
And at first I was reading that and thinking there is no way thats true, how could you narrow down the worst day in the entire year for all humanity.
Well I found an article and it started to make sense because they explained everything that went into calculating this day as the worst day of the year.
First the weather is usually at its coldest during this time (no one likes the cold)
Then the debt people will aquire from Christmas starts to hit everyone. And its time to start paying those bills back.
And then to make it worst salaries are usually lower because people are taking more time off at the end of December and begining of December.
Christmas lights are coming down which makes people sad
and Its really dark outside at this point which does not help.
And since we just came from Christmas time we go from the most wonderful time of the year to the worst day of the year.
And to top it all off it is a Monday.
But you know as you read that list if I start to understand why its considered the worst day of the year.
Because it is not just one thing that makes it bad but it is the weight that piles up where you get hit by the cold, then its the bills, then your making less money, its dark outside… and each of these things add a little bit of weight where by this day there is a weight thats hard to carry.
And you know in our lives there are hard days, there are hard weeks, months, years, that we face. Maybe it has to do blue Monday, but chances are there are other times where you have a weight that had piled up in your life
Because for some of us we had a family member or loved one that passed away and it changed our world forever.
For some there may be a heath issue you are facing and the weight of that just always on your mind.
For some of us it may be just be there is that person that is a jerk and we get hurt by the words they say and it makes us question our value.
It may be this virus and there is anxiety in your life about it and its a weight on top of the weights you already have right now.
I am sure you know the things that are causing you to feel beat down right now.
But a question we ask when we go through a hard time is “God are you there?”
Can you hear me? Do you see me? Do you care?
Because it does not feel like it right now.
So today what we are doing is we will be in and we are going to be looking at a story that talks about a time where people had to ask this question “God are you there?”
And so with that we are going to be looking at what the response of different people in this story is and what our response should be when we are have a weight like this in our life and we are asking God to move but we do not see it.
So once again we will be in
and since it is so long we will be jumping around a little bit. But it says:
1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
So if you were with us last week this passage takes place right after where we were and Jesus is out doing ministry and teaching
But as He is doing this He is doing this He gets word that a man named Lazarus is sick and this was a person that the Bible tells us Jesus is extremely close to this man and his family.
in verse 5 it actually tells us Jesus loves them so you think Jesus would gun it down to heal Lazarous right?
But look at verse 6 because it says:
6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
He stays there two days?! Are you kidding me? I mean weren’t you close to Him so why are you not healing Him right now?
And look what actually happens because in the following verses Jesus actually discovers that Lazarous has died from this illness and at this point
and that is actually the point He says its time to go there.
And I don’t know but this passage just gets me mad. Maybe that makes me a bad Pastor but I go really Jesus? What is with that?
But verse four which we already read tells us the anwser to why Jesus did this it says:
4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
“This Illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God”
Let me unpack that for us because sickness and illness is not a creation of Go. If you read Genesis God created us perfect. But the issue was that when sin entered the world so did disease.
And this is not a thing where you did wrong so you got sick, but now sickness and death is somthing that we live with in our world.
And so what Jesus is saying here is actually beautiful.
and I know this is a lot, but if you have zoned out or are debating logging off listen to this.
Because what Jesus is saying is this illness that was created by the enemy and is not God glorifying. I am going to use that to create somthing that brings glory to God.
It would be like if you are a Major League Baseball fan you have probably seen pitchers who they know that there is someone at bat who is going to kill it (they are going to hit a home run.
So what that pitcher does is they will actually either make it so that batter has to walk by throwing balls, or by hitting them if they do not like the player.
and if you watch baseball we hate it when pitchers do that (and everyone boo’s)
But There was one game where it was the last inning and the bases were loaded.
This team needed just one more point to win
and the pitcher did this not realizing that it made the other team automatically win the game
You know what the pitcher intended for harm actually med the other team win.
And really this is the point I want you to get: There are things in our life that are things God never intended for, but in the middle of that God is going to use those things to bring life.
Maybe its something we had control of or maybe its something we had no control of
Maybe its a sickness, maybe a divorce, maybe a decision we made in the past
But in the middle of that God is wanting to redeem that barren place where there is death and use it for life.
What the enemy intends for harm God is going to use that to give life.
And this is hard to believe when we are in the middle of that situation. Isn’t it?
Because we go how could something like this be redeemed to be used for God?
and look what happens because in verse 21, Jesus finally gets there and He goes to one of the sisters named Martha and she says “Jesus if you had only been there my brother would not have died”
Then He meets the other sister Mary in verse 32 and she almost says something identical where it says
32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
You know Mary and Martha they both recognize that Jesus is real, they know He could have healed Him, but there is still this part of them where they are asking why diden’t you?
Because
Why didn’t you heal my marriage, why didn’t you awnser that prayer.
And there are others around that are referenced in verse 37 and they are going wow He could heal blind men, but could not heal a person he cares about.
And if you look at verse 37 it actually tells us that mary
and this is an emotional scene. I want you to picture end of the notebook emotional.
Because people are crying, people are sad and trying to comfort this family.
And somthing odd happens in verse 35 and its the shortest verse in scripture.
35 Jesus wept.
This is what I want you to get because you might look at your life and go its a mess, their is pain, their is heart ache, you may even be in the place where you are saying “Where are you God?”
But in the middle of that Jesus is not just standing off in the distance, but He is sitting there with His heart breaking for yours!
You know I think about Liam, and I remember one time it was in October and Liam got this nasty cold where he lost his voice and he had this cute little baby koo noise turn into a raspy koo and you could tell he felt awful and he would wake up a ton and it was just sad.
And I remember just being heart broken for him and Arika and I would just sit there and hold him and love him while he felt terrible.
And he is scream crying and I feel like the worse parent in the world.
But you know if we do things like that for our children imagine how much more God does it for His children.
And I remember just holding him for a few minutes and being there for him
you might be in a place today where you are asking God where are you? but God see’s you, He hears you, His heart breaks for you, He weeps for you and is ready to embrace you.
Well back in the story Jesus ask them to take Him to Lazerous tomb, and so they take Him and it is four days after he died.
So Lazerous has already been prepared and has been in the tomb for awhile.
And Jesus tells them to open of the tomb.
And Martha looks at Jesus and says are you crazy? He is buried, He has started to decompose, He smells bad at this point
And she is saying you can’t do this.
But look what Jesus says in verse 40 in response to this. He says
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
Basically what Jesus says is “Martha do you trust me?”
Do you believe that I can bring life out of place where there is no life?”
Do you believe that
Church this morning I have a question. And I do not know where any of you are this morning.
We have people who are watching who may not normally attend our church, so I do not know where everyone is
But my question is there a place right now in your life that seems dead?
A place that you are looking at saying there is nothing good that could ever happen here or come from it.
and what would happen if you said God I believe that you can resurect that area in my life.
I believe that even in this thing that the enemy intended for evil you can use for your glory.
Because what happens are is the people trust Jesus so they move the tomb stone.
We have to trust Him and be obedient, but then look what happens next because it does not say the people bring Lazarus back to life, but it says Jesus does .
He yells Lazarus Come Out! (loudly)
You know Jesus is the only way that, that place in our life can be redeemed.
This morning what would happen if we said Jesus, I am tiered of being stuck here, where I am questioning you, I do not trust you, I feel alone and hurting.
And we moved to a place where we recognize that first off God cares for you more then you ever know, He loves you more then you ever know,
and if He can bring life out of death in this situation don’t you believe He can bring life out of the situation in your life.
But you have to be willing to take that first step and say “yes”
Will you pray with me?
Song
Well Amen and if you would like prayer this morning I am going to invite you to do one of two things. You can Private message our facebook page and let us know and we will give you a call shortly
If this message spoke to your heart and maybe you are in a rough place and would like to have special prayer. I would invite you to private message our Facebook page and we would love to give you a call and pray for you over the phone.
Thank you and have a blessed day.
