[0:00] As we go into prayer, Eaton's, are you here? Eaton's, Carol and John, come on, wave your hand, don't be shy. Carol and John, oh, there you are on the right.
[0:12] They had a very harrowing experience. I'm not even going to say exactly what it was. I'm going to let you tell them when they get a chance. Life-threatening experience this morning.
[0:26] And look at where they are. Hallelujah. Morocco got hit with a horrible earthquake.
[0:41] Over 2,000 dead. Maybe more. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you are sovereign Lord.
[0:58] Nothing happens that slips by you. You don't fumble. You don't make mistakes. You neither slumber nor sleep.
[1:09] This world is not in the devil's hands, though he is a power here. It's in your hands. We don't understand all of your will, but we trust you, the Lord.
[1:27] Thank you for sparing John and Carol. We would have had sorrow upon sorrow if one of them had been harmed in any way.
[1:38] I thank you for grace for them. And thank you for giving them a heart to be here to worship. We pray for those in Morocco near Marrakesh.
[1:51] Lord, who are yet suffering. We pray, Lord, that some more would be found alive. Oh, God, the death toll is over 2,000.
[2:03] Lord, we can't get our head around that. Have mercy upon that country. Bring the light of your gospel to them.
[2:14] Send help. Oh, Lord, may the world gather to assist them. Oh, Lord, have mercy. Give their leadership great wisdom in knowing how to care for their people.
[2:26] Oh, Lord, every week it seems there's something else. Thank you that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
[2:41] Without him, what would we do? We pray again for the MacKillop family and for their encouragement as Mom MacKillop has now graduated to your side.
[2:54] 101 years old. A ripe old age. But she is missed even now. Bless this family and comfort them and encourage them and give Pastor Billy great words from your word as he must preach her homegoing service.
[3:11] Use him for your glory. Save, save those grandchildren. Lord, would she not rejoice even more in seeing her grandchildren brought to Jesus?
[3:23] Oh, Lord, will you use your word? Use our dear brother. Use he and Sherry to be of comfort even as they are comforted by you. Lord, and those in our church who are grieving, who are recovering.
[3:37] We pray for Beth, Lord, and she is recovering from her surgery. Beth, Lord, bless her and heal her. We pray for all who are hurting in any way.
[3:47] Help us, Lord, to see Jesus. And may Jesus be enough. Use your unworthy servant now to preach your word.
[4:00] For Christ's sake and glory. Amen. Amen. If you have the pew, I hope you bring your Bible or at least your device or something with your Bible on it.
[4:15] If you don't, we do have Bibles in the pews. The text will be found on page 897 in the Pew Bible. And I'm going to read it, but I hope you'll walk with me through it.
[4:26] Keep in mind what I'm doing as I'm preaching through this book. Even though the chapter is there, we're always moving into different places. We're learning as we grow.
[4:38] Jesus is showing us something. That's why we're moving through the text. I want you to understand that. I'm not repeating myself. Somewhat. Good preachers do that. I'm trying to be one anyway.
[4:53] But that's biblical. But we're walking through the text. And as we walk through chapter 11, Jesus shows us more and more and more. That's my method. I'm not just saying the same old thing over and over again.
[5:08] I'm always moving. Move with me. As we walk through the pages of Scripture, this is the Word of God. I make no excuse and no apology for walking with you through it.
[5:21] Amen? Is that okay? I just want to be clear. I know sometimes some people get confused, and I just want you to be clear about what's happening. All right. So, chapter 11. All right. We've been looking at verse 17 through 27, I hope.
[5:38] Anyway, here's the Word of God. Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off.
[5:48] Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So, when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him.
[5:59] But Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.
[6:14] Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, yeah, yeah, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.
[6:29] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
[6:39] She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. Wow.
[6:51] That is the Word of the Lord. Please be seated. Welcome to Ron, Carol Ann, and that beautiful baby, newborn there.
[7:05] There you are. Wow. I love this passage. Jesus of Nazareth is God.
[7:16] God. He is God. He is God. Deity. Creator and sustainer of the cosmos. Nothing that has been made was not made by him.
[7:30] It's all been made by him. He strives through human history in a way that no one else can. He says and does things that no one else can.
[7:44] He is power incarnate. Yet, this same Jesus enters into our pain in a way that no counselor, thank God for counselors, but no counselor can.
[7:58] He does a better job. He is grace, mercy, and love in human flesh. There is none like him.
[8:11] This is what this world of disasters in Morocco, in Maui, in Florida, and elsewhere needs to hear and see through us who believe in Jesus.
[8:29] They need to see that Jesus. And he's chosen to reveal himself through his people. They need life.
[8:42] But as you see Jesus as the Lord of life yourself, are you daily being drawn to him to give you life?
[8:52] Because we can't reflect the life unless we are knowing the life. A life that is worth sharing because it's his life.
[9:09] Jesus loves this family. Quick review. Some one of a review and a little bit more. He loves this family. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
[9:21] I have to wonder if Lazarus is probably around the age of Jesus. I get the impression he is a, he's not an old man.
[9:31] I get the impression because Jesus fellowship with them. And you know how we do. We tend to hang around folk our own age, you know. And our Lord was in his 30s at this time, possibly 33 or so in his earthly life.
[9:46] And these people housed him. And he fellowshiped. He stopped by on his way to Jerusalem constantly to be with them. And this was the, and I got to, because I'm getting the feeling that Lazarus' death was premature.
[10:03] I'm feeling that. Are you with me? I'm feeling that. And so this, so they're feeling some kind of way about this. And this place, this home of, this home they had of welcome to Jesus.
[10:20] I have to stop just for a second and ask you a question. Is this your home too? Is your home a place of welcome for Jesus?
[10:33] Is it, I just got to ask the question. They lived in Bethany. This is Bethany House. Is your home a Bethany House? A place where Jesus is welcomed and, and listened to.
[10:48] Remember, they listened to Jesus when he came by. Is that your home? A place where Jesus, where the love of Jesus permeates it? I don't care if you're single, married, whatever.
[11:00] The same, the question is for you. Maybe you got a dorm. There still is your dorm. A place where Jesus is welcome. At least by you.
[11:11] Are you? Are God's people welcome in your home too? Yet, these people who welcome Jesus are suffering.
[11:33] They're hurting. But we saw last time Jesus as at work in their suffering, in our suffering, and even our death.
[11:45] He's at work. Because Jesus is the Lord of life, not the Lord of death. When speaking to the theological liberals of the Jews, they were called Sadducees.
[11:59] They were sad, you see, because they did not believe in the resurrection. I'm sorry, Charlie. It just came out, bro. We see this in Matthew 22, 31 and 33.
[12:15] Jesus is talking to these guys, and Jesus says, As for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said by your God? I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
[12:29] Jesus then says, He is not the God of the living, of the dead, but of the living. Jesus is the Lord of life, the God of the living. You can't stay dead in the presence of Jesus.
[12:44] Death is impotent in the presence of Jesus. Last time we saw that in the face of suffering and death, Jesus offers us purpose, His timing, and builds our faith.
[13:00] But in building our faith, now the Lord of life gives us hope in the face of suffering and death.
[13:13] Jesus shows up. Oh, I love it when Jesus shows up, don't you? He shows up. It was just a two-mile walk. People have been consoling the family.
[13:24] But when Martha hears that Jesus is here, she leaves—listen, pay attention here— she leaves the human comfort to seek divine.
[13:39] All their people were comforted. They came from Jerusalem to comfort, she and her sister. And that's great, amen. But notice this, when she hears that Jesus is in town, she says, thank you very much, I gotta go.
[13:54] And she runs out to be with Jesus. Application time.
[14:06] Sometimes you have to do this, saints. People will comfort you. Sometimes, and praise God's a beautiful thing, sometimes people who don't even know the Lord will seek to comfort you.
[14:18] They'll tell you things like, so-and-so's in a better place. And they'll tell you all kinds of things like that. And they believe it, or maybe not, but they just want to offer you some words of comfort when you're hurting, especially in the face of death.
[14:33] They want to comfort you, and that's a beautiful thing. Praise God for that. But they can't point you to the deepest comfort, because they themselves don't know it.
[14:45] They don't know Him. You will need, listen, if you're suffering or going through something, you will need to either get along with Jesus, or get with God's people, who will then point you to Jesus.
[15:03] Because the ultimate comfort in a time of suffering and death is not found in people, it's found in the divine, it's found in God, it's found in Jesus.
[15:23] Because ultimate human comfort will not be enough for you. Because people can't be your Savior. If you ask too much of people, they will fail you.
[15:36] Some of you have done that. You've asked too much of people. You want them to be your Savior and ultimate comfort, and they can't handle that.
[15:49] They'll try. Even the church will try, and we'll be there. But ultimately, you've got to leave the house and go be with Jesus. Amen.
[16:02] I'm in the text, y'all. She didn't wait for Jesus to come find her. She heard he was in town, and she went to Jesus. Now, he never even went in the house, I don't think, until later.
[16:15] We'll get to that in chapter 12. Okay. That was just a thought. When Jesus comforts you, you then are able to comfort others.
[16:32] When you see Jesus as a resurrection and the life in your life, when you see him as the Lord of life in the midst of your pain and suffering, you see, he comforts you.
[16:46] He's near you. You experience a moment with him. That's all you need. A moment with Jesus will erase all the pain that you're going through. Oh, and if it doesn't erase it, it will give you strength to go through it.
[17:02] It's what St. Corinthians 1, 3 to 5 talks about. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Do you hear me? He's the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.
[17:15] He's the source of mercies and the source of comfort, all kinds of comfort, and who comforts us in all, not some, all of our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction.
[17:30] With what? With the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
[17:45] He's going to comfort you and then He's going to use you because the world needs discomfort.
[17:58] The world's afraid of death, runs from death, does everything it can to avoid death and suffering and yet that is the lot of life and only we who know the Lord of life can give them what they need even as we receive it first.
[18:15] Come on somebody. Now, Martha goes, Mary stayed home for some reason. I don't know why Mary stayed home. I really don't. Kind of reversal here a little bit.
[18:29] But though Martha runs to the Lord, she needs to get something off her chest too. So she runs up to Jesus and she doesn't say, hey Lord, I'm so glad.
[18:41] No, the first thing out of her lips is, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Where were you, Jesus?
[18:57] You were only two miles away. I know that because I sent the letter to you, the message to tell you he was, the one you loved was sick.
[19:08] So she knows Jesus didn't come when he could have. She knows it. You should have been here to heal him.
[19:22] I hope you can feel her grief. That's how you read the Bible. You put yourself in the pages. But it's kind of weird though because even though she's grieving and she's a little bothered with Jesus, I'm going to suppose, a little disappointed, she does express a strange hope.
[19:42] Weird. It's kind of weird. She says, but even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Understand, she was not asking Jesus to raise her brother from the dead.
[19:55] That was not on the table. She didn't consider that. She wasn't thinking that. No one thought that. Jesus hadn't done that with anybody that she knew of, likely. And so she's, she's expressing something here.
[20:10] I think in some sense she's just grieving. You know how when you're grieving, when you're hurting, you just say stuff? Somebody knows. Thank you. Thank you, ladies. Thank you. You just say stuff and you really don't know what you're saying, but you say stuff.
[20:24] Jesus responds to her and says, your brother will rise again. She says, oh yeah, I know that. I know my Bible.
[20:36] At the last day, verse 24, at the last day, the judgment, he's going to, everybody's going to rise. He's going to, there's going to be judgment, sheep on the right, goats on the left. God's going to judge everybody. Nobody's going to escape the judgment.
[20:48] She knows this. She knows this. She knows this. She knows this. She knows this. See, but what was she thinking?
[21:01] What do you think Jesus can do? Isn't your faith like that sometimes? You know Jesus can do something.
[21:14] You just don't know what it is. Right? You know you need something from the Lord right here and you're not thinking of the impossible.
[21:25] You're not thinking, you're trying to be realistic with your faith and you're not, you know, I'm not expecting a miracle, Lord. I would like one, but I'm not expecting a miracle. But you know you need them to do something here and you're not exactly sure what that something is.
[21:40] I think Paul would agree with you. Romans 8, 26 and 27. He says, Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
[21:58] He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Paul says there are times in our life we don't exactly know how to pray.
[22:13] Martha stepped forward. Because she's, because see, we know what she doesn't know. We know Jesus really is God in human flesh.
[22:24] She has an idea and an inkling, but she's not positive. See, we know. So what she's doing is actually praying by talking to him. We know that. But she doesn't know what to really pray for.
[22:37] Isn't that beautiful that when you don't know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity intercedes, picks up your prayer. It's like, it's like, as your prayer is going up, my prayer, here's my prayer.
[22:50] It's supposed to be going up. My prayer going this way. And the Holy Spirit catches it and sends it the way it's supposed to go. He, he cuts in on my prayer.
[23:01] He says, Father, Father, that's not what he really needs. Let me tell you. And he sends it up right now. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I'm, that excites me to no end.
[23:14] Because I'm just Kevin Smith, a dumb sheep. And Jesus is feeling her. Oh, this is beautiful, isn't it? He's feeling her.
[23:25] And he utters one of the greatest statements in all of Scripture. Do you hear me? He utters one of the most powerful, most amazing statements in all of the Bible.
[23:36] I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
[23:49] And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Mic drop, boom. That's a better mic drop than, than, than the rock had in the fast and the furious number six.
[24:02] I'm sorry, number seven. Do you remember that one? I got it, I'm sorry, pop culture, I can't help it. I mean, I love fast, I love the whole franchise.
[24:13] But there's one scene, the rocks in the hospital. His arms in the cast. He, he's watching the news and, and Toretto and, and Letty and the team, they're being attacked and they're, they're, they're, they're about to go down.
[24:27] They're, they're, the bad guys are coming at him. I mean, it's horrible. He, he's sitting there watching it. His arms in the cast. He says, oh no. He gets out of the bed. He flexes, his cast pops off.
[24:40] Boom. He runs out, he takes off the tubes. He runs down, he gets in an ambulance and he drives this ambulance through the city.
[24:52] You know, it was amazing. And then, and then, there's a drone, sees a drone attacking them. He's going to, and the rock, drives his ambulance into the drone.
[25:06] And he doesn't die. No. He's on the ground. He's, he, the ambulance upside down. He kicks open the windshield. He staggers out, picks up this giant Gatling gun.
[25:22] Letty looks over. They're amazed. She and the girl, like, wow. And then she says, did you bring the cavalry? And he says, woman, I am the cavalry.
[25:37] I am the cavalry. That's Jesus. She's saying, in the resurrection, he's going to rise again.
[25:52] Jesus says, woman, I am the resurrection. It's me. Little theology.
[26:06] This is realized eschatology. Last days, last days study. The last days have come crashing into our reality. Jesus says, you ain't got to wait for the last days.
[26:19] I'm here. I'm all the cavalry you need in the face of your suffering and death. I'm it. You don't need nobody else.
[26:30] Woo. Woo. Woo. Woo. Woo. Woo. At the resurrection, those who die physically in Jesus now, mom, the kill up, will live again.
[26:42] Aunt Colin, mom, Protho, Miss Pat, Dick Mason. Yeah, physically you will die. But he says, but at the resurrection, you will live again. He's going to prove that in a little while.
[26:55] At the second coming of Jesus, our bodies will be resurrected to enjoy God's new heavens and earth for all eternity. Upgrade coming. That's as the resurrection.
[27:07] But as the life, eternal life, that is, those who are made spiritually alive to God through faith in Jesus in this life, will never die spiritually again.
[27:22] You see, once he gives you eternal life, that life is indestructible. We saw that already back in chapter, chapter 10. He gives his sheep eternal life and they shall never, never perish, right?
[27:35] You are alive forever. You may die physically, but your soul, your spirit is alive forever. Alive to God. It begins right now.
[27:46] You have eternal life right now. He is your life right now. Jesus is our life. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. And though we wade through this life of beauty, joy, dirt, and hardship, we will, listen, that life cannot be quenched in you.
[28:05] Amen. The life that he's given you right now cannot be, that fire cannot be put out ever again. It's, it's an eternal lit torch in you.
[28:16] Whatever happens, brothers and sisters, you, you hold on to that. You have all the life you need. Peter says, you have everything that pertains to life and godliness through your knowledge of him.
[28:32] Knowing him gives you everything you need for life and for godliness because his eternal life is in you. He is Lord of life and Lord of the life he put in you.
[28:43] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You will not be allowed to create paradise here. Stop trying.
[28:54] Amen. Stop insisting on paradise here. You can't do it. It won't, you won't, he will not allow you to. Amen. The garden is gone.
[29:06] Next time we see the tree of life, it's in the new heavens and new earth, baby. And that's an upgrade from Eden. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You will not create paradise here, but, but in Jesus, 20 to 8, themaly will find us for the????
[29:28] It's only like this one that needs to be alive. But it means when I'm Captioned with the poet, didn't transform us there. This is the gospel, saints. We're a lot frail, saints. Death and suffering can't put out the fire of the gospel. He is the resurrection and the life.
[29:40] and this calls for a response from you. It calls for a response. He looks Martha in the eye and says, do you believe this?
[29:57] What a question to ask. Do you feel it? Where is Martha? Not too far away from the tomb of her brother.
[30:10] Where is Martha? In the throes of grief and pain and loss and disappointment.
[30:24] And what does he ask her? Do you believe what I just said? Do you believe my word? Do you believe in me?
[30:35] Do you believe in me? You see, the faith that Jesus was calling forth from Martha was a firm confidence in his future blessing because he simply said so.
[30:52] That's Christian hope. It is faith in future grace. It is faith in future blessing. It is saying that though right now where I'm sitting, it doesn't feel good or look good, but I know who you are and I believe you.
[31:12] That's called hope, right? You see the same thing in Job. With unimaginable loss. Job 13, 15, though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.
[31:27] Unimaginable loss. His family, children, gone, dead. He's brought, all his wealth, gone, evaporated.
[31:38] And in the midst of that, he looks up to God and says, though you slay me, yet will I hope in you. Peter comes along, I think, and kind of helps us here.
[31:54] 1 Peter 4, 12 through 16. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.
[32:06] But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
[32:22] But here's the warning. Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a meddler, busybody. Don't suffer because you're a screw-up.
[32:35] Don't suffer because you're a jerk, that's what he's saying. Kevin Smith translation. It happens and he's still gracious, amen. But he said, that's not the kind of suffering I'm talking about.
[32:47] If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in that name. In the midst of our pain, God says, will you trust me?
[33:07] I don't know, I can't get around it. I keep coming back to faith. It's amazing how faith shows up all over the New Testament, all over the Bible. It's amazing, isn't it? Will you trust me? Can you trust him?
[33:25] Can you? Why should we? Dan McCartney, one of my professors from seminary, is quoted by Tim Keller. He said, Dan says this, the main reason that Christians insist that God can be trusted in the midst of suffering is that God himself has first-hand experience of suffering.
[33:45] Jesus is the Son of God who has come to experience firsthand our suffering.
[34:03] He wants you to know that suffering is not the last word for your life because he is the I am. He is the I am whom you can trust.
[34:14] He is the I am, the resurrection, and the life whom you can trust. You can have faith in him because he, the eternal, glorious Son of God, made himself vulnerable and suffered in ways we can never comprehend.
[34:30] And he did that suffering to save humanity, to save you. I can trust. Listen, Jesus is no armchair quarterback. Man, you know, people always think they can do your job better than you can.
[34:46] And we love being armchair quarterbacks. We're not in the game. Some of us ain't even played the game. You ain't never touched the football. You ain't never put on any pads.
[34:57] You ain't never been hit and had your bell rung and had a concussion. You ain't never experienced any of that. But you're gonna, you wanna, you're gonna tell the coach what they need to be doing.
[35:08] That's called armchair quarterbacking. You, you have no skin in the game. Zero skin. But Jesus played the game. And he is the undisputed MVP.
[35:22] He is the undisputed and undefeated champion. He is never lost. He played the game. He knows what it means to suffer. Listen, and check this out.
[35:36] Bruce, you gotta see this. Martha didn't know anything about the cross. She, she, she knew nothing about the cross.
[35:47] What is she, what is she being asked to base her faith in? what she knew about Jesus.
[35:59] His love, his compassion, and his power. She's seen these things. How much more us?
[36:11] How much more? Because we, on the other side of the cross, we know what she did know. We know about the cross and the resurrection and the ascension. We know even more.
[36:21] How much more when Jesus says to you, because he is saying to you, do you believe this? He's still asking that question. And don't miss Martha's response.
[36:35] Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. even though she wasn't clear yet about what all that meant.
[36:47] But she did believe. She believes. And by the way, that word believe, forgive me this, it's a little bit, it's, in the Greek, it's a type of tense that says, a past act with continuing results.
[37:07] So, so, she's saying, yes, I believe, but I'm going on believing. I'm, there are results that are going to continue on because of my faith.
[37:19] In other words, it's not just, I walked the aisle and shook the preacher's hand and then nothing. The kind of faith the Bible champions and what true faith is, is yes, you made a decision for Jesus in the past, but now you're still walking with him.
[37:38] Two years, five years, 20, 50 years later because that was real, real faith. Is that you? Not just the right answer to a theological question, but this is the Christian life in the face of tragedy and disappointment.
[38:00] This is Christian faith. This is application. What do you believe? That's application, saints. What do you believe? She's answering this question right in front of the beautiful face of Jesus near the tomb of her brother.
[38:18] She's confessing her faith in Jesus in the face of grief. It is the ongoing response to suffering and death as we walk with Jesus. What say you?
[38:32] What say you? Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you believe? And if you're facing a diagnosis that's pretty negative, do you believe?
[38:44] Do you believe? You see, the reasons our actions are off and nil is because when the rubber meets the road, when pain strikes, when suffering is before us, when we have to make hard choices, we don't believe.
[39:09] The reason we fail often is because we have a lapse of faith we don't believe. Sometimes it's true we don't believe at all.
[39:21] We're just religious. But whatever it is, it's always a lack of faith. Something miscued in our faith. And when that happens, we give in to the world's values.
[39:34] Whatever the world says sexually is true becomes our reality. Whatever the world says you should do with your money and how your money should control you and whatever becomes our reality. Whenever we think ethnically, we become ethnocentrists.
[39:48] It's all about my ethnic group and your ethnic group. And forget, it's a black thing, you don't understand. It's a white thing, get back. It's a Latino thing. You see, when we lose our faith, we turn the wagons in.
[40:08] We give in because there are hard decisions that have to be made. There are hard calls that have to be made. Jesus way or the highway.
[40:24] I should say the low way, really. We all have them all the time. And it comes back to this. Do you believe?
[40:38] It's always going to come back to that. That's why faith is de-application. Because it leads to action. When lack of faith leads to action too.
[40:51] But it's not the right action. The most important thing is what do you believe? Because that will spur you. And I'm not talking about just, again, not just an intellectual belief.
[41:06] No. What has grabbed your heart? What has grabbed you and made your life worth living and makes living real?
[41:18] What gets you up in the morning? When you understand that he is your life, you don't have to go looking for life in the wrong places. If you allow your pain to bring to Jesus the resurrection and life who wants to glorify himself in your suffering, whose timing is perfect, who is growing your faith and offering you hope, then you will be blessed.
[41:42] You will find blessing in him. You will find a life in him. But listen, saints, what do you believe? Who do you believe?
[41:55] So we need to ask Jesus. Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God. Faith is a gift from God, an ongoing gift.
[42:10] Ultimately, we must go to him and say, Lord, help my unbelief. Lord, forgive me. Forgive, Lord, you got to work this faith in me. Let the word speak.
[42:21] You call your word to bear fruit in my heart right now, Lord, because I need you. Oh, give me faith. Give me faith. Help me to trust you in the midst of the darkness. Help me to look at your light.
[42:35] Help me to go to your word. Help me to believe your word simply because you said it. And you are trustworthy because you are glorious and you have purchased me with your own blood.
[42:49] You have proven it, Lord, that you can be trusted because you suffered that I might live. You want life?
[43:08] You got to go to Jesus. and you'll find all the life you can handle and all the love you can handle in him.
[43:21] Father, thank you for your mercy and grace. Thank you for your faithful love in the midst of our suffering and even death, Lord. You are worthy of all praise.
[43:32] You are the Lord of life. Help us. Help us. Help us, Lord. grow our faith. Deepen our commitment to you.
[43:43] May your word, may your word live in our souls. Make us people of the book and people of the God of the book. So that, Lord, you might work in us so that we can be used of you to touch the lives of those around us who are also suffering and suffering even greater because they don't know you.
[44:14] So help us and use us in Jesus' name. Amen.