Awesome. Well, welcome back. I don't know. I I guess I'm welcoming back myself. I was down in Arizona. My wife and I took, we risked it, took two young kids on a road trip over 26 hours down to Arizona. And so we risked it and it was all good. The kids were awesome. And we were down there in plus 38 degrees weather, thinking, oh, this is the life. This is the life. And uh I was looking on Facebook and they had there was a storm here, and I'm I'm kind of, you know, you guys had some snow and I'm thinking, laughing, kind of, oh yeah, this is awesome. It'll all be gone when I get back. And then Thursday happened. And then again, apparently this week, but uh, we just pray against any more snow. As you can tell, I'm ready for spring. I got my spring gear on, and uh I hope you're ready for spring. I hope you're ready for summer. I hope you're ready for a message this morning that's gonna knock your socks off. Uh woo! No pressure. You know, uh, it was just Easter, and we're thinking about like even what Pastor Sessie came up and said about a testimony. Who has a testimony? My who has a testimony, right? All of us have a testimony, all of us have something to say. I mean, I look at my life and I say, Wow, look what the Lord has done. Look at what God has done. I see where I was and where he's taken me from, and it hasn't been a bed of roses, but I thank God that he's been with me through the fire, he's been with me through the storm, he's been with me through the valley, and he's been with me through the mountaintop. And I was gonna call this sermon the mountains and the valleys. So it was my first instinct, but it changed. But when we were hiking, we went hiking in in uh in uh Arizona, we went through Montana and through the mountains, and and there's these cliffs and these mountains. And you know, when you get you hike, you're hiking all the way to the top of the mountain, and you're going through these trails in the forest or the or the desert. We were going through the desert, it was hot. And you get to the you get to the the focal point, the viewpoint, and it's amazing. The view is amazing. The Grand Canyon, we went and watched, it's something to see with your natural eye. It's like pictures can't do it justice. And and and when you go to Banff and when you go to these mountains, you take all these pictures you want, it just doesn't do it justice. But it's like, wow, look at what the Lord has done. Look at the creation, look at what God has made. His creation is so wonderful, it's so good. And sometimes we have these mountain peak experiences in our lives. Pastor Brent talked about obtaining a faith that obtains. We have these mountain peak experiences where we've been healed, where we've been delivered, where we've been rescued, and we're on the mountain peak, and we're looking, look at what the Lord has done, look at what God has done in my life. Amen. But then there's valleys, there's valley experiences where you can't see the mountaintop. All you can see is this big mountaintop, and you're in the valley, you're in darkness, you can't see what's in front of you, you can't see what's beside you. You're in this crevice, and you're just walking and you're trying to get out, and you can't see nothing. You can't see nothing, you're in a dark place. Has anybody ever been into a valley? Physically? Has anybody been in a valley spiritually? Come on, you're in a fight for your life, and you're barely hanging on, and your faith is just hanging on. You know, I look around the room today, and and and as as we were singing that song, you're with me through the fire, you're with me through the flood. I'd be I just I was just quiet. I was just quiet, listening to the voices, looking around at the people who may be going through a valley experience, who may be struggling spiritually or struggling with something, but yet they're crying out, God, you're with me through the valley. God, you're with me through the fire, God, you're with me through the flood. And I call this message the glory of God, for the glory of God, because each and every one of us have a testimony, and it's for the glory of God. Our lives are for the glory of God, our lives are an example of what God can do. It should be, right? It should be a testimony of look what the Lord can do. Look what the Lord can do. We should have lives that that that that that that spiel out the glory of God. Amen. But like I said, life is not always about roses and it's not always mountain peaks. There's valleys there, there's there's hunting, there's working, there's diligently walking, there's diligently seeking. And faith, right? Hebrews 11, it says, faith shows the reality of what we hope for. It is the evidence of things we cannot see. And through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. The people in the days of old they had a testimony. They earned a good reputation because of their faith. And faith, right, is the evidence of things hoped for. You didn't see these things happen, but now you're walking in them. For me, you know, I didn't have some things, but now you can see there's evidence, there's evidence of faith. And I'm gonna share a little bit about my story. Uh and I and I'm gonna preach from uh from a chapter here, but Pastor Brent talked yesterday, uh last week about Abraham being the father of many nations, and it says that in Romans 4, verses 17-ish, it says this happened because Abraham believed in God who brings the dead back to life, and who creates new things out of nothing. That's faith. He creates something out of nothing. There was nothing here, but then God created it, right? There was nothing, but then God created it. He brings dead things back to life, right? Sarah's womb was considered dead after a hundred years, and God brought life into dead things. He is the resurrection and the life, amen. And that's a testimony that Jesus Christ, we had Easter, rose from the grave, right? Amen. What a testimony, the power of resurrection. It says that same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells on the inside of us. Hey, that's good news. That's a testimony right there. That's powerful, and it says here that uh this happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates nothing out of something out of nothing. Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping. Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping. He kept fighting, he kept believing, he kept marching through the valley, believing that he would become the father of many nations, for God had said to him, That's how many descendants you will have. And Abraham's faith did not weaken. It did not weaken. Even though at about a hundred years of age he figured his body was as good as dead, and so was his woman, so was Sarah's womb. Abraham never wavered in believing. Come on, these words should be popping out to you. He never wavered, he never wavered, his faith did not weaken. And God's promises, he never wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger. Come on, you hear these words? And then it says, in this, he brought glory to God. He brought glory to God. Our lives should bring glory to God for his glory, our faith, our testimony for his glory. It says he was fully convinced that God was able to do whatever he promises. Are you fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises? Come on. In him, all our promises are what? That's right. And so there is resurrection power living on the inside of you. Do you believe that? Come on, Christ was raised from the grave. He, you know, he wants you to live a blessed and prosperous life. And it doesn't matter what things we may go through, what hardships or difficulties, God wants us to prosper. He wants us to have an abundant life. The enemies come to kill, steal, and destroy. The enemies come to bind you up, tear you down, break you apart. But life, God has kid, Jesus has come to give you life and life more abundantly. There is life on the inside. Jesus declared it, and this is where I'm gonna go, John chapter 11. Jesus declared, I am the resurrection and the life. God wants to resurrect some things today. Things that have been buried, things that are locked up, things that are in the grave. He wants to resurrect those things. He wants to resurrect. Come on, say the resurrection. My message is for his glory, for his glory. You know, and so I've been in a dark place before, I've been in a hardship, I've been in a difficult thing, and I love how whatever. Adam, he says, he says that he's seen me, you know, the same all the time, and I'm glad that that's what it looks like, but you know, on the inside, I've had some difficult things I've had to deal with. I gotta get to I gotta get to this, but I've had some some I like I said, I look at what the Lord has done and the things he's delivered me from addiction, you know, uh brokenness, hurts, uh lust, you know, uh no job, broke, torn down, uh whatever, you know, uh no kids. My wife and I struggled to have kids for 10 years, going through a hardship, going through a valley, going through difficult things, and I've learned some things along the way. I've learned some things along the way that I want to share with you, and you all have heard this message probably before on John chapter 11 about Lazarus. When Jesus comes and raises Lazarus, he says, I am the resurrection and the life. We've all heard this story, we all know the end of the story that Lazarus comes out of the grave. Amen. That's the end. We all know Lazarus comes out of the grave, but I'm gonna take you through a little bit piece by piece, and hopefully God will speak something to you. I know he will. Father, we just give this time to you. Holy Spirit, come and sit on our hearts, come and sit on our minds. Holy Spirit, I allow you to use my voice and use my words and the unctions to come and penetrate hearts that are listening. Father, we just thank you. We give this time to you, we allow you to speak to our hearts in Jesus' name. Make it simple, make it simple, Lord. Come and change and resurrect today, God. Bring life today in the name of Jesus. And so in verse 11 or in chapter 11 at the start, it says, A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters Mary and Martha. And uh we know Mary, Martha, Lazarus, right? Jesus, he went. If you're familiar with your Bible, uh Mary and Martha, Jesus came to their house quite frequently. They were friends with Jesus, and he came and ministered to them. And Mary, you Mary's the one sitting at his feet. Martha's, you know, bickering back and forth. Mary, come, help me. Let's go. We gotta cook. And uh, you guys know that. So Jesus is friends with them, and uh and so it says in verse 2 this is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was sick, verse 3. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, Lord, your dear friend is very sick. Lord, your dear friend is very sick. So here they're they have an issue, they have a problem. Their brother, Lazarus, is sick. They know Jesus, Jesus is their friend. They've uh they've had, you know, they've they've had acquaintances with Jesus before. He's been to their house, and here they have a problem. And so what are they gonna do? Send a letter, send a message, send a text. Hey, Jesus, Lazarus is sick. Lazarus is sick, so why don't you come on over to Bethany and what and we just need you to come over and heal him. He's not doing very good. Just come over and heal him, you know. And uh lots of times, I don't know, first thing I do when I have a problem, oh Lord, come. Oh Lord, come and help me. Oh Lord, come and help me. I am your dear friend, the one who loves you, the one who laid my life down. I Lord, I surrender to you. Come, come and help me, come and be here, come and heal me. I'm the dear one that you've loved, Lord. Remember all those things that I used to do? Remember all those things that I've done? Lord, I'm in trouble now and I really need your help. anybody do that? anybody? So it says, but oh, yeah, but when Jesus heard about it, he said, Lazarus' 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 and Mary and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. You know, Jesus, I really could use your help over here. You know, I don't like to wait. I'm waiting on the Lord, but I really don't want to wait anymore. Come and rescue me, come and heal me, come and deliver me, come and take this thing from me because I'm just I've got no more patience, right? And Jesus' timing might be a little bit different than our timing. Hey, his timing is a little bit different, and so you know, just because you're delayed doesn't mean that you've been denied. It doesn't mean that you've been denied the healing power, it doesn't mean that you've been denied his grace, it doesn't mean that you're not loved. But sometimes when things don't go the way that we think they should, or in the timely manner that the way they should, we begin to question God. Do you really love me? God, am I in your will? God, are you doing what you should be doing? Am I doing what I begin, you know? Like, why like why is this happening to me? God, I love you. Don't you love me? Uh maybe you don't love me. Maybe I'm not loved. All these questions start coming, popping in our mind. Why isn't this happening? You're the God I read about in the Bible, right? You're the God that I read about in the Bible. Where are you, Lord? And we've been beginning to question our faith, begin to question God, begin to question, you know, and so sometimes we can bury these things. And something I noticed when I was reading this, and it's good to read, you know, the chapters before and the chapters after, and in verse 2, right, it says, This is the Mary who later, come on, later poured the expensive perfume on her Lord's feet. So Mary and Martha are going through an issue, but the writer says that later on it was the Mary who poured the alabaster jar on the Lord's feet. And if we skip over to chapter 12, it says that six days before the Passover celebration began, Jesus arrived in Bethany, the home of Lazarus. We all know what happens, right? He gets raised from the grave. You know, Jesus, the next chapter, Jesus is at his house, and the man who had been raised from the dead, and a dinner was prepared in Jesus' honor. And it says that Martha served again, and Lazarus was among those who ate with him. Then Mary took a 12-ounce jar of expensive perfume and poured it out on his feet. Worship. She worshipped her Lord. And I just I just find this fascinating how at the beginning of this chapter, where we have an issue, we have a problem, the writer wants to tell us and remind us about Mary, who was the Mary who worshiped, who poured out the alabaster jar. And so this signifies to me that there is a future worship. There is a future testimony coming out of this story. And some of us might be in this chapter 11 where we're going through a problem, where we're going through a sickness, or we're going through an issue, but there is a testimony. There is a chapter 12. You might be in a season right now, but there is another season after this season that will bring glory to God. Amen. So he still loves them. So although Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. Just because you don't see your breakthrough, just because you're struggling, doesn't mean that Christ doesn't love you. Jesus still loves you. Maybe there's a greater purpose, maybe there's a greater meaning, maybe there's something else that we can't see because we're in the valley, because we're going through the darkness. But Jesus said that I am the way, the truth, and the life. And if you fix my eyes on me, right? Fix your eyes on me, the author and finisher of your faith, that you will walk through this thing. And so Jesus stayed a little while. Finally, he said to his disciples, Let's go, boys, we're going back to Judea. Let's roll. But his disciples objected. He said, They said, Rabbi, they said, only a few days ago the people in Judah, Judea, were trying to stone you. Are you really going back again? And he replies with something that is way over their head. He says, There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day, people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world. But at night there is a danger of stumbling because they have no light. Then he said, Our friend uh Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up. The disciples said, Lord, if he's just sleeping, he will soon get better. They thought Jesus meant uh Lazarus was simply simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. See, the disciples didn't want to go back. Didn't want to go back to Judea. They knew Jesus was stirring something up and people were gonna begin to stone them and that their lives might be in danger. Hey, we don't want to go back. Are you sure you want to go back? Are you sure you want to go there? Are you sure? And Jesus says, right? We we hear about Jesus uh in John uh in a couple chapters before, he says, I am the light of the world. Anyone who believes in me, you know, will not walk in darkness, but will have life that leads to life. And so Jesus says here, there's 12 hours of daylight. He says, I, if you walk with me, you will have life. But those who walk in darkness, he says, but at night there's danger of stumbling because they have no light. When we walk in darkness, we're walking in our own ways, right? We're walking in our own ways. When we walk in our own ways and we don't follow Christ and we don't follow the light, like like his disciples, they didn't want to go. They didn't want to go, they didn't know Jesus had a plan, they didn't know the plan, they didn't know that hey, nobody's gonna kill Jesus unless it's time, right? So, you know, the best thing to do is follow Christ, follow the light. He is the way, truth, and the life. He is the light of all men, right? But when we walk in darkness, when we walk in our own ways, when we take, when we go off the path and we don't follow Jesus, when we when we surrender and say, God, maybe this isn't your will. I'm just gonna go do things my own way because you haven't obviously heard me. Your timing is not my timing, and so I guess you don't love me, and now I'm gonna walk and do my own thing. Well, guess what? They're stumbling in darkness, right? They're stumbling in darkness, and so his his disciples didn't want to go. You know, they said, if he's just sleeping, let him sleep, he'll get better, right? Let him sleep, he'll get better. You know, sometimes we leave things for others to do. Let's not go there, God. I don't want you, I don't want to go there. I don't want to do that, I don't want to do what you told me. Somebody else will go. Surely somebody else will go. That's not your will. That's not your will. But sometimes God calls us to do, to go, to be his feet, to be his disciples. And so in verse 14, Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. He's not just sleeping, come on, he's dead. And for your sakes, I'm glad I wasn't there. For now you will really believe. For now you will really believe. Come, let's go see him. So Jesus is mustering up something. Hey, he's we know the story, but he's mustering up, you know. For now you will really believe, because the glory of God is about to be revealed. And Thomas, it says, Thomas, doubting Thomas in verse 16, nicknamed the twin. He said to his fellow disciples, You gotta love the faith of Thomas. Let's go to and die with Jesus. You know, he don't know, but he says, Yeah, we're dead. We're good as dead, but let's go with him and let's die. You know, you see these things, like all these little clips in here, is like, I hope you're picking out something, but you know, God, even if you don't do anything for me, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go. Even if I die, I'm gonna go. And Thomas is like, yeah, we're dead, but we'll go with you, Jesus. We'll go with you. We might not see, you know, the future, but we're we're coming. And so when Jesus arrived at Bethany, here, let me, uh, yeah. So uh, yeah. When Jesus arrived at Bethany, uh, it says he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Not one, not two, not three, but four days. And so, you know, I've heard there's a there's you probably heard this, but uh tradition, uh Jewish tradition said that the spirit would leave after three days. So after three days, there's definitely no hope. But after the first day, there's you know, there could be a chance that he comes back on the second day, possible chance that he comes back, third day, you know, he could get raised from the dead, but four days, they believe that after the third day, gone. That spirit is gone, the soul's gone, everything's gone, and so four days, gone, too late, nothing. There's nothing, comma, dead, and so some may think it's too late. I believe that, you know, God kind of said to me, Some of you have been burying things and think that it's too late. I'm too far gone, it's too late. Those dreams, those hopes, those things are too late. Some people, you know, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Mary and Martha are in a waiting season, right? They're waiting, they're waiting for their miracle, and they're waiting, and Jesus is delayed. And I'm I'm saying, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Some might be waiting for a job, some might be waiting for a healing, some might be waiting for for a child, some might be waiting for a healing, uh, you know, some what are you waiting for? We're all waiting for something. We're all waiting for Jesus to do something for us, right? One time, I'm trying to see how much time I have, if how deep I can go into some stories, but this one time I I had a I'll talk about my job. I I I had a job interview, I was coming to faith alive, and uh I was like, Lord, I I kept going by this place, and I said, that's the place that I want to work. That's the place that I want to work. Equipment, you know, I'm equipment operator, I got my class one, I'm a truck driver. My dream job was to run a track hoe and drive it down the road on a semi-truck. Some of you are thinking, oh boy, wow, what a dream. But I want to be equipment operator. I have a picture of me when I'm three years old, wearing a hard hat, playing in my Tonka toys in the sandbox, and uh, I just want to be equipment operator, run truck, run semi, and just dig. And so that was my dream job. I look at this place as we're coming to church, and we my wife and I started moving to uh Faith Alive when we first started coming here, so about 15 years ago, and uh I didn't really have any good jobs, but I said, God, I'm believing for a good job. I'm believing for a job that will that will, you know, provide everything I need. It'll be a family job, it'll be a good job. And and then as I drove by, I saw these semis and these trucks and these backhoes and these trenches, and I said, That looks like a good place to work. And I said, declared, I'm gonna be working there, I'm gonna work there, I'm gonna work there. And so week after week, we would go. We would go to New Island Sushi with JJ Ferraro, and uh he introduced me to Sushi. And we've been going there for 15 years to the same restaurant. Just a side note, we went to this other restaurant that we've been going to. I don't know why I'm getting side note, but there's this girl, little babies that were in the corner when we first started going to these restaurants when we came to Saskatoon. And these girls were in the corner coloring on their books, and their parents ran the restaurant. And here they are, little six, five-year-old girls. And then the other day we went to the same restaurant 15 years. We've been going for 15 years. Talk about loyal support. How much I've invested into this restaurant. I probably could have owned it by now. So here they here I said to my wife, I said, Look, that's the girl that was sitting in the corner on the coloring books. Can you believe it's been like 15 years since we've been coming? She's like, What? No way. Yeah, the girl's already gone through, she's already gone through high school, university, and now she's part business owner of a restaurant. I'm like, wow, look what the Lord has done. Where is the time gone? She's now, yeah, anyways, where was I with that one? Sushi. Oh, yeah, sushi. So I'm going by this job. I'm going by this workplace, and I'm declaring this is my job, this is my job, this is my job. I kept looking online. I applied. It was an opening. All of a sudden, there was an opening there hiring six people. I said, This has got to be my job. I am gonna have this job. This is my job. I wrote up a resume, I did everything humanly possible to talk to the company, to talk to the manager. I want to talk to the hiring manager. No, you can't. I said, Well, this is my job. This I know that this is my job. I called them. I said, Yeah, you couldn't even call, but I called and talked to, I don't know, even know who, but I said, This is my job. And they said, Okay, well, write in your resume. And I'm like, I need to talk to someone. And so weeks, a couple weeks went by. Finally, I got an interview, and I'm pumped, and I'm, you know, I'm shouting for joy. I said, God, look at what you're doing. This is so good. I'm getting an interview, and so I'm gonna get dressed up. I got this is my job. I got dressed up, I'm looking like a businessman going for a construction interview, and I'm ready to take the bull by the horns. This is my job. I'm 22 years old, three at the time. I'm like, oh yeah, they're gonna eat me up, they're gonna want me. This is oh yeah. And uh, so I go to the interview, I I I think I I think I kick it out of the park. I'm like, how could you not want this guy? You know, uh, I thought, yeah, this is my job, this is my job. I prayed, and when I went, and then we would go on Sundays, Sundays after church, we would go over there to sushi, but we would roll into the parking lot since it's in the way, and I started praying over the place. I started playing, praying over the parking lot. I would go, I literally went up. They probably thought I was a crazy person. I would go up to the doors and put my hand and say, God, this is my place, this is my workplace, this is what I'm doing. And uh, and uh so had the interview, and I remember to the day, it was a Friday afternoon, it was a few weeks later, because they take forever to get back to you. But uh I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting, and I'm and I'm in this waiting period. But I'm declaring and I'm confessing, God, this is my job, this is my job, and so uh uh I get this phone call Friday afternoon, and sorry, Mike, well, we don't have a position for you, uh, but thank you for all whatever your endeavors, good luck. Click. And I'm like, God, where are you? This is my job, this was mine. God doesn't work the way we think He should work sometimes. Sometimes we got it all planned out. Lad, hey Jesus, just come. Come. I'm a child of God, this should work out. What happened? Where are you, God? This is you know, so I came Friday night, that's when we had church on Friday nights. I came to this church kind of disappointed. Pastor Brent, thank God for men of God. He got up and preached a message on dealing with disappointment. Yeah, talk about timing, right? God's timing, dealing with disappointment. What happens when you don't get what you think you should have? What happens when you deal when you get disappointment? Something kind of like this message. And what does it say? Keep his eyes on him, worship, you know, worship. As I said, people down here believing for a miracle, believing for a healing, and all I can hear is, you're with me through the fire, you're with me through the flood, and even though I don't see it, God, you're still with me, I'm still gonna believe in you, you're with me. And so as I left that service, I said, God, God, you're with me, you're for me. And even if they said no, there's something better because all things work for the good of those who love him and are called to his purposes. So if it ain't good, it ain't God. And I was feeling down, and so my wife and I were driving by that place, we turned that corner, and she said to me, You know, they made a mistake. They made a mistake. Thank God for a wife. I'll never forget. She said, They made a mistake and that's your job. And I said, You know what? That is my job. They made a mistake and they're calling me back. I don't know, but faith rose up in us. That's my job. And so, in the meantime, I was in a waiting period when got a job that was terrible because we had to move to Saskatoon, and it was a terrible job. Some things you just gotta go and do, right? I was on a rock crushing uh, I had this experience, I was a rock crusher and working 14 hours a day, traveling like 45 minutes there and back, waking up at like five in the morning, getting home at eight at night, and terrible. And uh so uh one day my wife and I we're gonna go to Edmonton. We're gonna go to Edmonton for the weekend, and it was a Thursday, and I said, Yeah, we're going to Edmonton tomorrow after work. She's gonna come pick me up on the way, and he says, We're working Saturday. I said, What? Not a chance in my working Saturday. Like, he says, Well, yeah, I said, we've never worked Saturdays. We're working Saturday. I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm not doing it. He said, Well, I'll let it go this time. And oh man, just terrible. And so, Pastor Barb, I remember I we were filming the uh Faith Alive show, and so we were upstairs and at the old building. Pastor Barb's in her office, and she says, How's it going? I said, I'm really believing for a job, a family-oriented job that I don't have to slave my whole life over and work and let this work be my God because I want to spend time with my family. And so she says, Keep believing and keep working, keep keep serving the Lord. She said, Keep serving the Lord, and you know, timely words at a timely manner, and so I kept serving the Lord, and it was six months to the day that I got the phone call to say no job, was six months to the day they said, Hey, Mike, Sask Energy here. By the way, I didn't want to say my cut my work, but they said, Yeah, we've got a job for you. You can have it if you want. I said, Oh, interview? Nope, you're already passed. I said, Give me two weeks and I'm there. And so, uh, yeah. So I don't know. I just wanted to there's a waiting season. Sometimes it doesn't happen, but for the glory of God, there is a testimony, there is another chapter in your life, there is another season, there is a mountaintop waiting for you. Amen. Yeah, so in verse 17, it says, When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus has already been in his grave four days. I already said that, but it looks too late, you know? After a month or two of grinding in this old job, it looks too late. It's dead, it's done, nothing, you know, too late, but what, but God can resurrect some things. Amen. Yeah. Some of you may feel like a situation has been gone too far, gone too long. You know, some of us, I believe, have have had hurts and pains from childhood, and you've learned to bury those and say, that thing's gone, that thing's dead. I'm just gonna live with this Lazarus in the tomb all my life because I've learned how to deal with it. And Jesus never heard me back in the day, he never heard my cry. You know, some of us maybe have questions like, God, you say you're all powerful, you say you're almighty. Where were you? Where were you? And this takes me to uh the next verse. And many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Okay, Mary goes out to meet him. Martha goes out to meet him, Mary stays back in the house. Different people deal with things differently. Some people might stay in the house, some people might get under the covers, get depressed, get worried, you know, let this uh whatever's happening tear them down and and and let the enemy just put them down. But Martha goes out and she goes and meets Jesus. And what does she say? Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know, God, that God will give you whatever you ask. So Martha runs out to meet Jesus. I hear he's coming. Where were you? If only you had been here. If only you had been here, Lord. If only you would have been here, Lazarus wouldn't have died, and that's what I'm saying. Some people have said, Lord, if only you would have done this, if only you would have been here, I wouldn't have to deal with this trauma. If only you would have been here, Lord, I wouldn't have to deal with this grief in my heart. If only you would have been there, then I wouldn't have to carry this hurt and be locked down inside. If only you would have been there, Lord. Anybody say that? If only, if only, if only, if only look out of your past and say, if only, if only, I've said it before, if only I would have done this, I could have been there, if only I would have done that, it might have looked differently. If only, if only, if only. But God is here, Jesus is here, and he's standing in front of Martha, and she says a statement, but even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask. And many times, many times through uh waiting, my wife and I, like I said, we were waiting for a child. We were waiting, waiting, and waiting and waiting and waiting. And many times I said, God, where are you? If only, you know, the years have gone by, and if only this happened, why? The questioning, the doubt, but but even this statement, I said, God, but even now I still love you, I still am for you, and I still know that whatever you want, I'll do. I still gonna worship you. I'm still gonna be the same guy because you're the same yesterday, today, forever. And even if I don't get my miracle, God, I know that you're good. God, I know that you are right. God, I know that you're righteous and true. Worship while you wait. That's all I can say. Worship while you wait. Love on the Lord, worship, walk with him, follow him, worship while you wait. And if it doesn't happen the way that you think you were, it should happen. Lord, if only you were here, if only you would have done it the way that I think that you should have done it. But she doesn't know the miracle and the breakthrough that's just on the other side. Sometimes we don't see the miracle and the breakthrough that's ready to happen right in front of us. It says, uh, whatever, yeah. I know, God, that that yeah, God, you're gonna do whatever it is. I still believe in you, I still trust in you, I still have faith in you. You know, Abraham, I could see him looking out at the stars at night after the years and years and years of not having a child, looking at the stars and saying, God, you promised, you promised that I would have the descendants as many as these stars. You promised, and I you keep your promises, and this is who you say you are, and I believe you. And Jesus told Martha, your brother will rise again. Your brother will rise again. Yes, Martha said, He will rise when everyone else rises at the last day. Jesus told her, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha? Yes, Lord, she told him. I always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God. Then she returned to Mary. And so Martha believed, yeah, he's gonna rise again. I believe in the resurrection. I believe he's gonna rise when everybody else rises. And so sometimes we can have the mentality that, yeah, God, I believe that I that I will rise again. I believe that I'm gonna make it to heaven. I'm just gonna get to heaven. I'm this thing that, you know, I live in a fallen world. We live in a fallen world, it's true. And we have to deal with some things sometimes, sickness, you know, all these different things, but God said He will rise. He will rise. You will be healed, you will be delivered, right? And she says, Yeah, I know sometime in the future, sometime in the future, I'm gonna make it to heaven and everything will be all right. I'm just trying to make it to heaven so that everything will be all right because I know there is a future, I know there is a hope. Someday when I die in the sweet by and by, I'll be healed, I'll be delivered. I won't have to deal with this anxiety anymore, I won't have to deal with this worry, I won't have to deal with this heartache and this pressure, I won't have to deal with the stress any longer when I get to heaven in the sweet by and by. But Jesus says, Your brother will rise. He will rise, he will be healed. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the Zoe life, right? That word life is Zoe in the Greek, and that word life is the abundant life, the God kind of life. How many when I say the God kind of life that you can live now in the here, in the moment, the God kind of life. How many of us are living in the God kind of life? A God kind of life obtains the promises. A God kind of life obtains those precious promises that says that we are free, that says that we are healed, that says that we are a new creation created to be like him, right? That we are set apart, that we are holy, that we don't have to deal with addictions and brokenness and hurt. We don't have to. I'm here to tell you. He paid the price, we sang about it today, that the train of his robe fills the temple. He's defeated every enemy, he's defeated every darkness, and we can live an abundant life. We can live a resurrected life and just go from glory to glory. Yes, Lazarus woke up, he woke up physically, and he will die again, and we will all die one time, right? Our physical bodies. But Jesus says, We're just gonna sleep. We're just gonna go to sleep. We're just gonna go to sleep and we're gonna be transferred in, right? We will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha? Yes, she said. I've always believed that you're the Messiah. Then she returned to Mary and called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, the teacher is here and wants to see you. So Mary immediately went to him. Notice how the both girls they went to Jesus. Right? They went out to meet him. And Jesus is coming. He's here. We just have to go meet him. We just have to meet him. Mary immediately went to him. Jesus had stayed outside the village at the place where Martha met him. But when the people, yeah, Jesus is he is waiting. He is waiting for you to come to him. He is waiting for you to come to him. He's all power, he's all sufficient, he's all resurrection, all life. He is the peace, the joy, he is love, he is laughter, he is joy, he is he is the good father, and he is waiting for you to come to him. And even though he didn't respond when you cried out to him, because it was maybe his timing, and he says, There's something better on the other side for my father's glory. There's gonna be a testimony, there's gonna be a new chapter, but because he didn't come at your beck and call, right, in verse one says, Jesus, come and heal me, and he was delayed, didn't mean that you're denied your healing. So he's waiting. He made me wait it and delayed and said, For my glory, but he's on his way, and he's waiting for you to come to him. She says, She falls at his feet and said, Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. Again, she believes that Jesus can heal him, but she's like, All of this happened because you, Jesus, didn't come in the first place when I called you. You didn't come. And she's weeping and weeping and weeping, and Jesus saw, it says, Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, and a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. He says, Where have you put him? He asked them. Then they told him, Lord, come and see. In verse 36, it says, Then Jesus wept. Jesus wept. You know, Jesus is compassionate. He is full of grace. He is full of mercy. He is full of love. He, this anger that rose up on the inside of him. He's full of emotion. He sees us struggling. You know, he's compassionate with you. He sees you going through hardships. He sees you going through difficult things. He sees you dealing with a fallen world state. He sees the sickness. He sees the depression, the worry, the anxiety, the hopelessness. And this godly anger rises up inside of him. At the devastation of that sin has caused and the fallen world. And I looked this up, and there's there could be a few different answers, but I'm just gonna say them. You know, his anger was directed at the havoc and the sorrow that the enemy had afflicted upon humanity. It says, Jesus was enraged. Some other person says, Jesus was enraged by this destruction of his creation and by death and sin, viewing it as an enemy that needed to be destroyed. I could just see him like look. Look at what the enemy has tried to steal from my people. Look what the enemy has tried to create. Havoc has tried to create stress. The enemy has tried to calm and steal and kill and destroy. And God Jesus raises up this anger and he says, Look what this fallen world has done, and this sin, this death, sin has to be defeated. It's gonna be defeated. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the Son of God. I am gonna take this pain on the cross. I am gonna take this hurt, I'm gonna take this healing, I'm gonna take these beatings for my people, for my creation, because they are called to be different, they're called to have the glory of God. Maybe frustration, maybe Jesus was frustrated with the people who lacked faith despite his very presence. They lacked hope, they didn't believe. They said, Surely, they said in this in this scripture it says, uh, if we go on, where is it here? The people said, see how much he loved him, but some said this man healed a blind man, couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying? See, maybe he was frustrated that people, you know, were mocking him. Who? Jesus. He's standing right in front of them. He's healed many people. He just declared, I'm the resurrection and the life, and many people are weeping. Maybe he's frustrated that these guys still don't get it. I am the Son of God. I've already told you many times that I will die and rise from the grave. Maybe he's a little frustrated that we've been in church our whole lives and we've heard messages about freedom, about life, about the resurrection power that lives and dwells on the inside of us, and we're still living broken down lives, just trying to get by. And we our faith has been shipwrecked, and we have no perseverance, we have no endurance, we have no strength, and we're just saying, Lord, just uh just end it so I can come with you. Maybe we've put Lazarus or whatever it is in the tomb and said, we don't want to deal with this, we're just gonna carry it until we get to heaven. And one day, Lord, because I've quit believing, I lost faith. I quit believing that you could heal me of this, I've quit believing that you could take this pain from me. I quit believing, and so I'm just gonna take it with me to the grave. Have you ever heard someone say that? I'm taking it with me to the grave. People will take anger to the grave, they'll take bitterness and unforgiveness to the grave. They won't forgive people. You know, they live bound up by things that people have done to them, and they take it to the grave. And they say, How could I forgive that person who hurt me? How could I forgive that person who did that to me? I'm taking it to the grave. They don't deserve my forgiveness. God says, You can live the abundant life here and now. He says, I'm the resurrection and the life. I don't want you broke, I don't want you bound, I don't want you beaten down and destroyed. I want you free, I want you living in the next chapter, I want you living on the mountaintop. So he comes to the grave and he's comes to the cave, he says, the stone is there at the entrance. He says, Roll the stone aside, roll it aside. And Martha, the dead man's sister, protested, Lord, he's been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible. I can only imagine. I've I can only imagine. Uh I was gonna say, I've had some pretty rotten smells come out of me before. I can only imagine four days. Four days. I said I was going to say that, and then I ended up saying it anyway, so just ruined the moment. But Martha, and that's the enemy's voice. Don't don't go up for prayer. You're alright, you're good. Don't go up for prayer, don't open that stone, don't open that cave, don't go there because you've been hurt before, you'll probably be hurt again. Don't show Jesus that empty grave because it smells. Don't show Jesus, you know, those things that hurt you because it smells. Don't show him the unforgiveness in your heart because it stinks and it's rotten, and I'm embarrassed of what I've been holding on for so long. Four days it stinks, four months, four years, 40 years. I've been holding on to this grudge. And it stinks, and it's embarrassing, and he's too far gone, it's too far gone, it's too much over. They will always be like that, right? Someone said that he's too far gone, he's dead as dead as doorknob, he's done. I don't give him any more chances. I wasted, he's a wasted case, he's dead, and Jesus said, Didn't I tell you that you would see the glory of God if you believe it's for his glory. If you believe, you will see the glory of God. If you believe, you surely will have a testimony. If you believe you're coming out the other side, if you believe that mountaintop is right there, if you believe your breakthrough, your healing is right there. There's another chapter, right? If you believe. So they rolled the stone aside. You gotta think, who was rolling the stone away? Thomas? You know, Thomas, it's a word, Lord, we're going, we're gonna die, but we're gonna go. And he's probably thinking, Yeah, I'm dying. This is where I'm dying. I'm gonna roll the stone away, and this stench is gonna. But they rolled the stone away. I'd be like, Are you sure you want to roll the stone away? You know, I don't know. But he rolled the stone away. Somebody went and rolled the stone away. They listened to his voice. Jesus, roll the stone away. It doesn't matter how dumb it might look. God might tell you to do something that might look a little foolish. God might tell you to do something that didn't look like the way that you thought it would be done in verse one, but he's telling you to do something in verse 30 or whatever it is. And sometimes we just gotta believe. I don't care what I have to do. Can I tell you that you have is it all right? I've been going already too long. No, it's okay. I'm gonna tell you, anyways. You know, my wife and I, like I said, we believed God for 10 years. We went through this hardship, this difficulty. We kept praising, we kept worshiping, we kept saying, God, even if this doesn't happen, the enemy ain't getting my worship. I ain't gonna be locked down in a dungeon just because I don't get what I want, or because I don't get what I want when I want it. And I always figured I'm gonna run to the front. I kept telling my wife, you gotta run to the front. That's how you get your miracle. Run to the front, you know. I heard Jamie's, Sessie's, run to the front. You gotta go on your knees, and you this is how you gotta do this. Is how I thought we could do it, you know. God, it's just easy. It's just easy. Someone prays for us, we get healed, we have a baby, done. That's the way I thought it. Year after year. I said, our breakthrough's coming, just gotta get to the front, and I'm not saying that that doesn't happen here, it happens, it happens a lot. So if you're looking for a miracle, we're praying today. You can run to the front, and it might happen that way. I believe God. But for some reason, it didn't happen the way I thought it was gonna happen. And I could have got dis destroyed over it and and and you know, buried this thing. My wife and I, we went through tests, we went to doctors, we went here, there, we tried everything, and we tried it a lot. Praise the Lord. You know, some people told me, put the window open, window open in the shower, here, there, everywhere. Anyways, we're in a church service. I don't wanna we're in a church service, gotta be proper. Went to the doctors, the doctor said, You keep doing what you're doing over the years that you've been doing it, you have a 1% chance. And I I know I'm a man of, I thought I was a man of faith. I said, Yeah, it doesn't matter. God can do anything, 1% or 0%. He can bring dead things back to life, you know, and I almost said that right in the doctor. I don't believe what you say, which I didn't, but I had this, okay. Well, you know, so we had to go through this IVF process, and this is not what I wanted to do, and that's why we delayed for so long. I said, I don't want to pay for something that God can do in an instant, and this is not how I mustered it up, this is not how I believed it would go. But I felt after praying and spending some time with the Lord, I felt this is what we needed to do. You know, I'm ready to take the next step. I'm ready to do something that physically, everything possible I can. And when the doctor said you have a 1% chance, and then they said if you do IVF, you have a your your chances increase by I think 18 or 20 percent. Not very much. And I realized, what, this is not a sure thing? This is not a sure thing, and I said, Okay, well, I you still have to obviously go into this thing. Now I'm paying money for a process that might not even happen. I'm believing God, and it's not even the process that I wanted to go through. But for some reason, God, I believe, wanted me to go through this process. You know, we had people, not not people from here, but people that supported us the whole way through, that prayed for us. But some people, you can just tell when you talk to them about IVF, they say, Oh, you know, that's science. That's you know, all this stuff. But you don't know what I went through, and you don't understand. There's people that are gonna say things that aren't true, and the voices that come and say, This ain't gonna work. There's voices that say, This snow, don't do that, don't roll the stone away, don't open up that grave, don't open up those things, and so we had to fight those things, the process we had to wait, and we had to go through. I forget where why I was saying all this, but but through that whole process, I came closer to the Lord. Now, my money, so so it whatever, I'm not gonna get into the details of it, but we had to pay the a lot of money, and it just at the right time, I said, God, I believe that you said that we should do this. So I'm gonna go with it, I'm gonna do it. And as we're preparing to pay for this, we get this lump sum that covers the whole portion of it. And I said, Okay, all of my doubts, all of my unbeliefs, all of my thinking that said it should have been done this way, but I'm not gonna do it this way. You know, you tell me to roll the stone away, God, you're telling me to do this now is confirmation that hey, this is you're in this, God. You're in this, and so our first whatever, our first uh, if you if you guys understand, I that's a long story. If you want, I could tell you a lot more in detail later, my wife, but uh, you know, our first attempt, if you want to say, we got pregnant. We got pregnant, and it was a miracle, like I said, 20% chance we went through complications, but it all happened, and now we have a miracle standing in front of us every single day. We can say, Look what the Lord has done, but that wasn't even the hardest part. I we thought, hey, it's done. Now we're just gonna plan them one after the other, you know, and everything will be fine. But then we did another one and it didn't work. We did another one and it didn't work. We did another, another, another, and it didn't work. And I thought, oh my gosh, this isn't a sure thing, you know? This isn't a sure thing. And after having one kid, you feel like your family's incomplete. And Lord, you did it before, you can surely do it again. And one year goes by, and two years goes by, and the processes and the bills just keep stacking up, and we have to go now here, and we have to go there, and we have to do this and do that. And it's like, this is even worse than the first time, Lord. There's disappointment after disappointment after disappointment, and yeah, surely we have our testimony, but our family is not complete. So there's you surely you may have got healed, but there's something else that God wants to do with you. And so I said, the first time was easy, the second time was even more difficult because you know how much joy, how much life, how much love a child can bring to your family, and now you want another one. You know? It's like when God does something amazing in your life, you can't stop. God's gonna do more and more and more. He's got more chapters in your life. Amen. I'm gonna wrap up. So to make things short, we have another child. And it's a miracle again. Like I said, I don't want to get into all the details of it, but uh disappointment after disappointment, and finally, here he is, the second born, and we're believing for another. All right. You know, bedtime. I said, when your baby sister comes, uh, and we're talking about our baby sister, and every time I say your baby sister, he always says, Yeah, my baby sister and my baby brother. So I don't know what's coming. Bring it on. Bring it on, Lord, bring it on, but for the glory of your name. All for his glory. Look what the Lord has done. Look what the Lord has done. And so to wrap things up, Jesus says, Didn't I tell you that if you would believe, you would see God's glory? So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Man, you guys can come up. Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe that you sent me. Then Jesus shouted, Lazarus, come out. Right? The famous line, Lazarus, come out of the grave. Some people say that if they if he didn't call them by his name, that everybody in that tomb would come out of that grave. There's power in the name of Jesus. And when he says something, when he says that you should be free, when he says, I'm the resurrection and the life, that you may live a life, a life more abundantly, you may live a resurrected life, he means it. He doesn't want you broke, he wants you filled with the power of God, he wants you filled with joy, life, peace, power. He wants you healed and set free. His hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, unwrap him and let him go. You know, Jesus, he called us out and he's calling you out. He's calling you out of the grave. He's calling those dead things that you have hidden for so long, push them down. He's calling them out of the grave. He's saying, Come alive. He wants to heal. You know, as I spent time in uh in prayer before this message, I really felt that there are marriages. Maybe the spark has gone out and they're dull, and the fire, and your marriage is almost dead. I and then I saw like a like a like a flat line with a little beep, you know, like a heart boom boom boom boom, and you're barely hanging on. But he wants to resurrect those marriages. He wants to resurrect marriages. I just said that. He wants to resurrect relationships. I feel like he's got relationships. Maybe your child has been a prodigal son. We call them back. Maybe those relationships have been severed, maybe there's unforgiveness, maybe there's you know a grudge against somebody. He wants to heal those relationships, he wants to mend those broken things. I felt like maybe that you've been hanging on to something forever. Like maybe you got molested when you were a child, or beat, or something, and you've dealt with this pain your whole life, and you've lived, you've dealt with it, and you've buried it, buried it deep down, and there's a stone, and Jesus is calling out to you, and he's saying, roll that stone away. And you might think, No way, I've dealt with this, I know how to deal with this now. It's it's blocked, it's blocked, it's been dead for too long. I'm okay with it being in the grave. I don't want to deal with it. He's saying, I can heal those wounds. He's saying, I can heal those wounds. You may have dealt with anxiety your whole life. A pain, some sort of pain that you've dealt with your whole life, and you felt, hey, I'm okay with this, I'm okay with this, I'm okay with this. I've lived with this, I'm alright with this. I feel like someone's got dreams of ministry. Dreams of ministry, and you've had failure, and you and things didn't go the way that you wanted. Things didn't go the way they seemed that they should go, the way that you planned it in your head, and you've given up all hope. I speak to those gifts to come alive in Jesus' name. You've given up. Maybe you've given up on your relationship with God. Maybe it's flatlined, maybe it's dead, and you have no relationship with God, and maybe you've said, I have no testimony. Right? Maybe I have no testimony because I haven't been walking with God. I've been walking in my own ways, I've been walking in the darkness, I've stumbled over things because I don't have the light that leads to life. Jesus is calling you, open up your heart, move that stone away. He's calling you to come out of the grave. You guys can stand up. I believe the Lord has been speaking to you. He's been speaking to you, and he wants to resurrect some things today. And we're gonna open up this altar for prayer so prayer warriors, you can come up and get ready to pray. And if this message spoke to you for any reason, and you need prayer, maybe you don't need prayer, maybe you don't know that you need prayer, or maybe you're still debating within yourself, I'm good, I'm good, I don't need prayer, I don't need prayer. Those are the people that you probably should come up for prayer. I love what Pastor Brent said a couple weeks ago. He says, There is a secret that I'm gonna give to you, and it's the same secret that I've been living my life the last 15 years, is whether or not I think this message spoke to me, I'm gonna come up and receive prayer. Because it's just something about somebody else praying over my life, prophesying over my life, breaking things off my life that I don't even know they're there. All for his glory. And so, what did Jesus say? His final words, he says, unbind them, unbind them, take those grave clothes off, unbind them. Him, unbind him. Do you think Lazarus was the guy bound by chains, bound by grave clothes, bound by death? Do you think he was the one who said, No, I'm good, I can get out of this mess, I'm good, I can get out of this mess? No, Jesus said, There is someone who's here. There's someone who's willing to pray, who's willing to take those grave clothes off of you. There is somebody here today that is gonna pray over you, and those grave clothes are gonna come off, and that healing is gonna happen, Father. Lord, we just give this time to you right now, sacred time, because you want to move, you are the resurrection and you are the life, and God, you don't want us bound, you want us delivered and set free. God, we give you this altar, we give you this time to come and do what only you can do, God. Come and heal, come and set free, come and remove that stone. And so, if you want, come up and we're gonna pray. We're gonna pray for those who want prayer. Come on.