A Better Story | Part Two | Dave Crosby

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION: 

Good morning, everybody. How we doing? All right. So good to see all of you here today. And before I dove into today’s message, I just want to just tell you what God did last week. It was our Back To Church Sunday, and I’m just excited to let you all know it was the highest attendance we’ve had since Easter. Can we celebrate that? And what’s even really more exciting is that last weekend, 58 people made a decision to become a follower of Jesus. Come on. Somebody’s got to give God the praise right now. That’s a big deal! 

So I just want to, just as a pastor, thank you. Thank you for showing up. Big thank you for praying hard. Thank you for inviting boldly. And thank you for serving and giving around here so generously. I just want you to know I love you so much and I’m so incredibly proud of you. And I’m so thankful for what God is doing. It’s something really special that God is doing in our church right now. And I’m just honored to be part of it. Amen? Amen. 

Hey, let me pray for you, “Heavenly Father. Thank you so much. Lord, I just thank you for our church. I thank you for our spiritual family. I thank you for this beautiful community that we have. Lord, I thank you for what you’re doing right now in our church. For lives being changed. God. For families being restored. For people finding life in you. I pray, God, that you would just continue to keep your hand upon your people. I pray, God, that you would just continue to move in a in a strong and a powerful, supernatural way in the season of our church. Lord, I pray that you would use us just to continue to boldly declare towards your goodness. And your mercy. To this mountain. It’s in your name. We pray everybody said? Amen! Amen. Amen. 

Well, you know, earlier this week, I went to go see my doctor. He’s a Functional Medicine doctor. And I don’t know if you have a Functional Medicine doctor or not, but I think you should really try one. I highly recommended it.  A Functional Medicine doctor takes a holistic approach to practicing medicine instead of just, you know, pumping you full of pharmaceuticals and pills to just treat the symptoms. A Functional Medicine doctor will really look at the underlying causes that if you’re experiencing some health concerns or issues. 

So I went to see my doc and the last time I saw him he recommended that I take a food sensitivity test and I was like, okay, you know, cause some of these issues I was having, you know, I found out I had to be gluten free and I’ve been, you know, gluten free for the last two years and still just having some ongoing issues. And so I took this food sensitivity test. They sent me this kit in the mail, and you go down to the lab and they take like, I don’t know, two, three, four vials of blood. They send it away. 

And, well, the doc called me, said “The tests are in. And so we need to we need to meet together. And by the way, you should probably bring your wife.” That’s what I said, “Uh oh, this is not going to be good news if my wife has to be there.” And if you know me, I’m already a hypochondriac. And I just go to the really dark places, like, really quick. My wife has blocked me from going on WebMD forever. 

So anyway, we go down to see the doc, and I can just tell, you know, it just didn’t look good. And we sat down and the doc just looks at me and my wife back and he basically said, Dave, “The test results are in. You’re not going to like it. It could be worse, but it’s going to be disappointing.” 

I was like, “Okay?” I start asking questions. 

He said, “You don’t say anything.” He handed me a piece of paper, handed me a pen, and he had the test results in his hand. He said, “I just want you to write down everything I said.” 

I was like, “okay.” 

And so he says, “Write down. IGG Red, never eat again.” 

I said “Okay.” 

“I.G.G. Yellow, do not eat for at least one year.” 

And then he gave me a couple others and I’m like, “Oh, man. What’s IGG Red? That sounds really bad. What can I never eat again?” 

And the doc looked at me and said, “Eggs. Dairy. Jalapenos, coffee.” 

I mean, let’s just go with eggs and dairy. Do you know what eggs and dairy are in? Everything! Like everything. And I’m thinking, like “what? I can’t have eggs. I can’t have dairy now. I mean, you already took bread away from me. At least the good kind. And I can’t have you know, I can’t have coffee. How do you start your morning without coffee?” 

I mean, he’s basically saying, “Dave, you can never smile again.” 

And I was like, even so, “Lord, come quickly. Just take me to heaven. I mean, what good is life without a nice charcuterie board every once in a while? Are are you with me?”

But the good news is, I already feel better. It’s only been like five days. I’ve lost 4 lbs. I going to be svelte in like another 30 days. So there are some good things though. And I do feel I already do feel feel better. But I want you know, man, that was disappointing. Especially, I mean, I love to cook. It was really disappointing news. 

Have you ever been disappointed in life? Sure. I think disappointment, that feeling, it’s a universal feeling. We’ve all been disappointed by someone or by something. We’ve all experienced disappointment in life. You know, you don’t get the job, you didn’t make the team, you didn’t pass the test, you didn’t get the girl, you didn’t get the guy, you didn’t get the job, You didn’t get the race, you didn’t get the promotion. I mean, we’ve all experienced disappointment in life. 

But you know what? Disappointment goes to a whole other level when you become disappointed with God. Isn’t that true? When you become disappointed with God, it’s a whole other level. When it feels like… Azeta shared so beautifully, like, where are you God? Are you even up there? Are you even hearing my prayers when you feel like God has somehow abandoned you? 

You know, I know some amazing single people in our church. I mean, they love God. They faithfully serve him. They show up every single week around here. They’re so incredibly generous and and in the way that they live their their life. But yet, for one reason or another, they just haven’t found that significant person that they’re going to spend the rest of their life with yet. And it’s disappointing. I know some incredible married people in our church family. I mean, they love God. They love this church. They even love each other. But yet they’ve been praying and asking God to heal their marriage. And it just hasn’t happened. It’s incredibly disappointing. I know some wonderful people in our church that are praying that God would heal them were the body of a friend or a loved one or a family member. And he hasn’t done it yet. And it’s incredibly disappointing. 

It reminds me of a couple we’re going to meet today. Their names are Mary and Martha. They were really close friends with Jesus, but yet they were disappointed with Jesus. 

If you’re just joining us, we’re in the series we’re calling “A Better Story.” And what we’re doing is we’re looking at some beautiful scenes from scripture and the book of John. A John was a follower of Jesus. He was about 17 years old when he met Jesus. And he became one of his very first followers. And and he traveled and he wrote down all these stories for us from his eyewitness account of the life and the teachings and the miracles of Jesus. And He and the Holy Spirit preserved these things through the years. And He He’s reminding us of how Jesus can write a better story. He shares some of these stories from his from his book, what’s oftentimes called The Gospel of John, one of the four Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And he writes these stories down for a very specific purpose. 

In fact, he tells us what that purposes. And John, chapter 20, verse 30, here’s here’s the purpose that John said. I wrote these things. “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book, but these are written…” here’s the purpose. “These are written. Why? So that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” 

Jesus said, “I have come, that you might have life to the full.” Jesus came to this earth so that we could experience life to the full. Jesus wants you and he wants me to experience His life. Life the way that He originally designed it to be. 

You know, John’s says, “I’ve written these stories down so that you may what believe.” I’ve read in the Holy Spirit preserve these through antiquity so that we could, when we read them, believe in the reason we we need to believe us and then read these stories and be familiar with them as because some of us struggle in our faith, some of us have doubts, can I get an amen? Some of us struggle in our faith. Some of us can be skeptical some time. So John said, “I’ve I’ve written these down so that when you read them, you might believe and when you believe you might experience life in his name.”

So today we’re unpacking one of the stories that’s found in John Chapter 11. If you have a Bible with you, it’s on your your iPhone or you got your iPad or you’ve got a paperback version you want to turn open there to John. Chapter 11. If you don’t have a Bible, it’s okay. Put all the scriptures up here on the screen so we can all follow along together. And this story that we’re going to look at involves a family, two sisters, Mary and Martha, and their brother, Lazarus. 

So here’s what it says, John. Chapter 11, verse one, “A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus, telling him, Lord, your dear friend,” What kind of friend? “Your dear friend is very sick.” 

So here’s this family, Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. They live in Bethany, which is just outside. It’s like the suburbs of Jerusalem. And these three were very close with Jesus. They were like besties. They were, you know, really good friends, like the best of friends. They were like family. And every time Jesus would go into Jerusalem, he’d always stay with them. He’d stay at their house, and they’d have these great, you know, parties and celebrations. And and so they were really, you know, tight with Jesus. 

And I want you to know today. Even if you’re close with Jesus. Even if you love Jesus, even if you’ve developed a really tight relationship with Jesus, that doesn’t mean that sometimes you’ll go through some difficult, disappointing circumstances in life. But even when you’re best friends with Jesus. Just because of that doesn’t mean that you get to escape from life problem free. But even when you’re close with Jesus, you know, your teenagers are still going to drive you up a wall, make stupid decisions, and you’re going to have a hard time parenting them, sometimes. Even when you’re close with Jesus, you you can still go through marital difficulties. Even when you’re close with Jesus, you’re going to still deal with sickness and illness and loss in life. 

Well, the story goes on. Next verse it says this, “But when Lazarus–” I’m sorry, “but when Jesus heard about it that Lazarus was sick. Lazarus sickness will not end in death.” So he gets he gets the message that his best friend Lazarus is sick. He hears about it. And right from the get go, he says, “his sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this. So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, he stayed where He was for the next two days.” 

So the word gets to where Jesus is with His disciples, and they’re on the road and they’re doing, you know, ministry together. And they get, you know, the the email, hey, Lazarus is sick. You need to come and you need to come now. Instead of just jumping on the first JetBlue flight, Jesus decides to stay where he is. He doesn’t rush in to fix it. Instead, he says his sickness will not end in death. Instead, he said he’s we’re going to stay right here. Well, eventually, you know, a couple days go by and he tells his disciples, “Okay, it’s time to head to the Bethany, to Jerusalem, and we’re going to go through Judea. It’s kind of a shortcut.”

And his disciples were like, “Are you nuts? Remember the last time we went through Judea? They tried to kill us there.” Well, anyway, they decide to go and they follow him and. And Jesus. He shows up at Lazarus House. 

And this is what it says. “Martha, one of the sisters, she came out to Jesus and she says, ‘Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.’” Do you hear the disappointment in her voice? I mean, this is the language of disappointment. “Lord Jesus, if only you’d been here. He wouldn’t have died.” 

Like, where were you? Didn’t you get the email? I sent you, like, a million texts. Didn’t do what? Why did you come right away? If only you had been here. He’d still be with us. Where were you? I thought we were best friends. Jesus, don’t you even care about us? If only you had been here. 

So my question for you today, what is your if only statement to God, today? Like if only God, you would heal my marriage. If only God, you would help me get out of this financial crisis. If only God, you would heal my body. If only God, you would heal my friend. If only God, you would fix my broken relationship and restore my relationship with my son or daughter. What is your “if only” statement to God today? 

You see, disappointment with God is real for us. When he doesn’t do what we want him to do or we expect him to do. If only you would have been here. My brother would not have died. And here’s where we learned the first lesson from the story here. Disappointed? Write it down. 

Jesus doesn’t operate according to our expectations and timing. Do you know that? Jesus. He just doesn’t do it. He doesn’t operate according to our timing and to our expectations. I mean, let’s just be honest. We all hate to wait, don’t we? We just hate to wait in line. We hate the wait at the traffic light. We hate to wait when Netflix is rendering. We hate to wait when we send a really important text to somebody and they’re oh, the three dots. I got three dots to responding! And they just keep blinking and blinking and blinking. What are you writing? A novel. War and Peace. What do you– hit send already? I hate waiting to get that response. And some of you, you know, you’re waiting for the Giants to win another Super Bowl. I mean. we might be waiting for a while. 

But here Mary and Martha are waiting for Jesus to show up because their brother, his best friend, is sick. And Jesus doesn’t show up when they think he should show up. Mary and Martha are so upset. And then by the time that Jesus actually does show up, Lazarus the brother. It’s already dead. So what is the deal? Jesus. Why didn’t you show up? Where were you? Well, here’s what I want you to understand. That. There is a bigger story. Going on than just your story. There’s something more going on than just with their brother Lazarus that they didn’t understand. There was a bigger picture. 

See, Jesus, we already knew. We already know he knew what he was going to do. He told us right from the start. “Lazarus sickness would not end in death.” That’s the first thing he said. But yet he still didn’t show up because he knew what he was going to do. By the way, just spoiler alert, Jesus… when he shows up, he raises Lazarus from the dead. Okay? We all know the we all know how the story ends. But they didn’t! They didn’t know what Jesus was going to do. They didn’t know what was going to happen. But Jesus knew there’s a bigger story at play, because he knew that if he performed this miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, it would accelerate his own death on the cross. It would put him on a collision course with his own crucifixion. If word got out that he raised Lazarus from the dead, and no one knew that. Mary didn’t know it, Martha didn’t know it, the disciples didn’t know it. But Jesus knew there was a bigger story. My point is this. Jesus doesn’t always operate according to our timing and our expectations.Because there’s a story going on. 

It’s your story and God cares about you and your story. But there’s also a bigger story. There’s God’s story that is unfolding in your life, in your future, and in this world. So, Martha, she’s disappointed with Jesus. “If only you had been here.” He didn’t live up to her expectations and to her timing. But there’s also this beautiful acknowledgment of what she says next that I just love. Let’s look at it. 

The story goes on to verse 22. Here’s what she says to him. “But even now, I know that God will give you Jesus, whatever you ask.” But you didn’t show up. You didn’t heal our brother. That stinks. But I still know, that God will give you whatever you ask. Like, “I still know my brother’s dead and buried. He’s in the grave. But I still know, Jesus, you can do something about it.”

You know, I just love. I just love, love, love, just the raw honesty of this sister that’s just lost her brother. Incredibly disappointed with Jesus, her best friend. But he didn’t show up. He didn’t do what she thought he should do, when she thought he should do it. But yet there’s just this beautiful, raw faith that still believes that, Jesus, you can just do whatever- God will just give you whatever you ask for. I love that, and I believe that God loves it when we come to Him with honesty, with vulnerability, with transparency. What a divine, beautiful way to live out our faith. 

Well, the story goes on in verse 23. Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

 To which Martha says, “Yes, he will rise when everyone else rises at the last day.” In other words, “Jesus. You know what? I get it. I believe in it. That’s what everybody’s been telling me all week. ‘You’ll see him again, Martha.’ ‘He’s in a better place now.’ But there will be a day when we’ll all see one another up in the sky when the Lord returns.”

That mean that’s all she had heard. Maybe that’s all you’ve ever heard, too. At a funeral, she’s like, “I get that, Jesus. But you know what the reality is? It just really hurts bad right now.”

And then Jesus, he spoke what I believe are the most powerful and profound words. That have ever been spoken in all of human history. He looks at her and he says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live even after die. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never, ever die. Do you believe this, Martha? Do you believe this?”

Do you believe this? What a huge question. You know, I’ve I performed many funerals over the years. I’ve done a lot of fact, you know, the biggest funeral probably ever in our lifetime will be tomorrow. Case, you’ve been living under a rock, you know, Queen Elizabeth II passed away last week. Have you all been seeing all the news nonstop coverage of this? I saw yesterday they were waiting 14 hours in line just to pay their respects as she’s lying in state. It’s crazy. It’d be the biggest funeral. Millions. Millions. They say tomorrow, in all likelihood, that the Queen’s funeral will be the most watched television experience ever in history. 

So I’ve been to a lot of funerals. I performed a lot of funerals. Like I told you last week, I’ve done a lot of weddings through the years. And I got to be honest with you, as a pastor, I would much rather do a funeral than a wedding like any day of the week. I mean, nothing wrong with weddings, but I would much rather do a funeral than a wedding. And here’s why. Because at a wedding, nobody cares what the pastor says. They don’t. I mean, at a wedding, it’s about one thing and one thing only the bride as it should be. But at a funeral, when a pastor gets up to speak, people lean in and they listen. So I would ask any pastor, would you rather do a wedding or a funeral? They’ll all tell you, “I’d rather do a funeral.” So I always would rather do a funeral because, you know. But there’s one less person to complain. All right. So that’s that’s just saying. 

And so I’ll never forget the first funeral that I did. I was like 20 nothing. And I didn’t know anything. And I was on staff and at a church and working with my dad. And there was a family that had lost a loved one. They didn’t even go to our church. The funeral director just called our church and asked if one of the pastors would come down and do the the funeral. And I wasn’t there at the meeting when they talked about it. And guess who they voted to go do the funeral? Yeah. The young guy who wasn’t at the meeting. And so my dad gave me a few notes and said, “You know, go to the funeral.” I was like, “all right.” 

And I’m like, “What am I going to say?” 21 year-old kid that really doesn’t really doesn’t know much, “to this family, who I don’t even know.” They don’t even go to church. And then I find out they’re not even believers. Wow. I mean, no hope, for this family, that they’ll ever see the deceased again. No hope that this deceased even has eternal life in Christ because they were not even followers of Jesus. And I showed up and I did my best to point them in the direction of faith and hope that comes and following and knowing and living, believing in Jesus. 

You know, I’ve asked– You know, I’ve had people say to me all the time, “You know, how do people, pastor… How do people go through those things without faith?” 

And my answer is, “They don’t.” They just don’t. That funeral was a disaster. They were so angry, literally angry, yelling at the deceased, banging on his casket, yelling at each other. Like a fight breaks out at the– not before, not after– Like during the funeral, uncontrollably sobbing and banging on the casket. Yelling, yelling at each other, and I was just like I was blown away. And I was heartbroken at the pain that I was witnessing. I’ll never forget it. 

And here Jesus says this to Martha, “I am the Resurrection, and the Life. Anyone who believes in me, even though they die. If they die believing in me, they will surely live.” Most profound and powerful words ever spoken. 

And then Martha, she responds to Jesus this way. “Yes, Lord.” She told him, “I’ve always believed that you’re the Messiah, the son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” In other words… “Yes.” She says this from a genuine place in her heart. “Yes, I believe you are exactly who you claim to be. The Messiah, the son of God. The one that came to Earth, that was sent by God.”

And she she goes and she decides to get her sister, Mary, who wasn’t there. She was still back at the house grieving. And she shows up then with all of the friends and all the family that are there. And this is what happens in the exchange with Jesus. “When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, ‘Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.’” Does that sound vaguely familiar? Did we not just hear her sister say the exact same thing? These girls have been talking, right? They’ve been sitting around talking for days, waiting for Jesus to show up. Disappointed in their “If only” talking to each other. Crying, you know, disappointed and “if only.” So they’ve been rehearsing this speech. I know exactly what I’m going to say to Jesus when he finally shows up. “If only you had been here, my brother would still be alive.”

I love Jesus’s response. And the story takes a little bit of an odd twist. Listen to what John and how he describes this as an eyewitness account to the story, “When Jesus saw her weeping and she saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him. And he was deeply troubled.” Jesus gets angry. Not just, like superficial anger. A deeply disturbing. 

And why is he so angry? Is he angry at them with their “only if only” statements? I don’t think so. Is he angry that they just wouldn’t believe? I don’t think so. I believe Jesus had this deep anger and was deeply troubled because he hates death. And he saw how death was tearing his best friends apart. He saw the results of death and all of this weeping and wailing and sobbing and the broken heartedness of people he cared deeply for. So Jesus got deeply angered at death, because Jesus knows this was not the original intention of the Father. Death was a result of sin. Sin was a choice our first parents made that ushered in death. And Jesus comes that we might have life in all of its fullness. That’s why the Bible refers to death as the final enemy. 

You know those of you that have ever been around death. You know, it stinks. Well, I’m thankful for hospice care nurses. They’re amazing. Those facilities are wonderful. That’s no picnic. Helping someone in their final moments. That’s no walk in the park. Arranging a funeral is not easy. Ordering a casket, flowers, putting all of that together… It’s hard. Saying goodbye. Placing a final kiss on cold lips that will not kiss in return. Throwing dirt on a freshly dug grave. Death… Stinks. Every part of it. And this moment, it just rips Jesus’s heart out. What he sees his close friends grieving. Believe me when I say this, no one hates death more than Jesus. 

And that brings me to my second thought: Jesus feels our pain when we’re disappointed with God. He doesn’t chastise them. He doesn’t rub salt in their wounds because they don’t understand there’s a bigger story. He doesn’t just rip them a new one because. “Hey, guys, there’s a bigger story here. I’m going to raise your brother from the dead. Would you just knock all this stuff?” He doesn’t do any of that. 

You know what he does? He just comes in close. He puts his arms around. Mary puts his arms around Martha. He stands there, tears rolling down his cheeks. Heart just being torn in two and he hugs. He doesn’t judge them. He doesn’t discipline them. He just draws close to them in their pain. And I’m just here to tell you to if you’re going through some disappointing circumstances, whatever you’re facing your life right now. Jesus, he feels our pain. And he comes close in those moments. 

You know, when John originally wrote this, he wrote it to an unbelieving Greek audience, and they would have found this next verse the most astonishing of the entire story. It’s the shortest verse in the Bible. It says this in John 11:35, “Then Jesus wept.” Shortest verse of the Bible. Jesus tears rolling down his face, arms wide around his friends as he wept with them because of the devastating effects of death. And the reason why the original Greek readers of this story would have found this the most astonishing part of the entire story was because they believed in many gods, but they did not believe that any god had emotion or compassion for people. And when John writes this, he’s drawing a picture of God. One that feels. One that cares. One that is deeply concerned about his people. And they would have been just blown away by this description and picture of the God that we serve today.

And why was he weeping? Was it just weeping for himself? He wasn’t just weeping because he was disappointed in their reaction. He was weeping because of the pain that they were going through. Because he cares. Well, the story goes on and it says. “Jesus was still angry. As he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. He says, ‘Roll the stone aside,’ Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, she protested.”

Got to love Martha, “Lord, he’s been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.” It’s just so classic that of all people to say This was Martha. You know, Martha was always the busy one. She was like the original Martha Stewart. She was always making sure the house is perfect. Whenever there’s a party, the the the tablescape had to be perfect. The work had to be perfect. The glass and the cup and the food had to be perfect. The drink had to be perfect. Everything had to be perfect. And it was just hard to go to say, “Jesus, time out. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don’t open the grave. He’s been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.” An actual King James version of the Bible. It says he thinketh. “So this would not be a good idea, Jesus, to open the grave because he stinks. And I’m fresh out of Febreeze. Don’t do it. Jesus.” 

Goes on a verse. Next verse 40 said Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe? But I’m about to do something here, Martha. And the last thing you’re going to remember about this is the smell. Didn’t I tell you? Don’t you understand? The reason I delayed in coming was so that I could do something in your midst. So special that God would receive all of the glory.”

 And I’m just here to tell you, friend, whatever you might be going through in life that stinks right now. It is an opportunity if you’ll believe in Jesus. He can write a better story. I know you don’t know how your story ends. Just like they didn’t know either. But if you just keep putting your faith and your trust in Jesus, if you’ll surrender the pen of your life to Him, Jesus can write a better story for your life too. You’re in– If you’re in a real stinky situation, that’s actually the best possible place to be to experience a supernatural miracle of God. I know it’s hard when you’re in the situation to see it that way, but you can’t have a miracle unless you first have a problem. 

So it says this, “They rolled the stone away and Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me. But I say this out loud for the sake of all those that are standing here so that they will not. Here it is again. I believe that you sent me.” He goes on and he says that Jesus shouted Lazarus, “come out,” and the dead man came out. His hands and feet bound in graves, closed in his face, wrapped in a head cloth. 

And Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go.” You know, one of my favorite stories is about a guy who’s drunk and he’s walking through a graveyard. It’s pitch black, middle of the night, and he fell into a freshly dug grave. He didn’t know was there. And he scratched and cried. Claws way out in too deep and he was too drunk. He couldn’t do it. So he sat down on the bottom of that dark grave and said, Well, I guess I’m spending the night here. Well, not too long after that. Early in the morning, before dawn, there was a jogger jogging through the graveyard, and they fell into the freshly opened grave as well. And that jogger scratched and climbed and tried to get out, but couldn’t just sat down. And then all of a sudden. The jogger felt a hand on his shoulder and heard the voice. “You can’t get out of here.” But he did. But he did. 

Some of you today, you might find yourself in a similar situation. I can’t get out of here. I can’t get out of here. I can’t get out of this addiction. I can’t get out of this brokenness. I can’t get out of this depression. I can’t get out of this anxiety. I can’t get out of this illness. I can’t get out of this cycle of brokenness and pain and hurt my life. I can’t get out of this broken relationship. I can’t get out of this mindset. But I’m here to tell you today that you can, because Jesus is the resurrection and the life of anyone who believes in Him. Even though they die, they will live again. There’s power in the name of Jesus to break every chain in your life and to set you free. Jesus today wants to be free. Free in your mind and free your body. Free from the memories of the past. That once your experience is healing, that you can move forward into your future. 

Jesus can write a better story if you just give him the pen and trust him to write a better ending than you could write. You see, the most powerful words Jesus spoke here were not Lazarus come out. The most powerful words that Jesus spoke was, “I am the resurrection and the life of anyone who believes in me will live even after death. Every one, anyone and every one who lives in me and believes in me will never, ever die. Do you believe this?”

Do you believe this? Do you believe that? Will you believe this? Even when you’re disappointed. With God. Will you believe this? Even when God doesn’t show up, when you think you should show up and do what you think he should do. Will you believe this? When he doesn’t measure up to your timeline and to your expectations, will you believe that he can write a better story so that God can receive all of the glory?