SPEAKER_04: Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.
SPEAKER_04: Church of the Lookout is an older Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.
SPEAKER_04: Visit us online at theLookout.church.
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: It is time for the message.
SPEAKER_00: Let's welcome Pastor Luke.
SPEAKER_04: Good morning.
SPEAKER_04: Happy Easter.
SPEAKER_04: You guys look better than usual.
SPEAKER_04: You took showers, you did your hair.
SPEAKER_04: This is amazing.
SPEAKER_04: It's so good to be here.
SPEAKER_04: I love this Sunday.
SPEAKER_04: If we haven't met yet, my name is Luke.
SPEAKER_04: I am so uh uh so honored that you would come and be a part of our gathering this morning as we worship Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: We open the scriptures, and I'm just gonna let the cat out of the bag in case you're on the edge of the seat, your your seat as far as what happens today.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus still gets out of the tomb alive, all right?
SPEAKER_04: So I just want to seal the punchline for a moment um just to make sure we're all on the same page.
SPEAKER_04: But I I am excited about opening the scriptures today.
SPEAKER_04: And uh let's give it up for Andrew Becker again for just being brave enough to come and be baptized this morning, and uh a new life is what we're about here today.
SPEAKER_04: And I just I hope that that was stirring in your heart even when you got out of bed this morning, um, that you're that we're not here because this is what we do on Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_04: We're here because we're entering into the possibility of what Jesus has opened up for us.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: And so this morning, if if uh if you're sheer, if you're newer sheer, again, I welcome you.
SPEAKER_04: If you don't have a Bible and you want one, you can go get one at the info hub.
SPEAKER_04: You can take it, it's yours.
SPEAKER_04: You can also go to the Lost and Found.
SPEAKER_04: There's tons of Bibles in there.
SPEAKER_04: You might even be able to find the Bible you left here on Christmas Eve, and uh you can take that back with you.
SPEAKER_04: Um but today we are actually starting a new teaching series that we're just simply titling I Am.
SPEAKER_04: And it's around the seven I Am statements that Jesus offered in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_04: In the scriptures, if you're not familiar with the New Testament, there's really four biographies in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_04: One of them is uh by a man named John, it's my favorite of the four.
SPEAKER_04: I'll just add that, but he he really is obsessed with this number seven, and and what happens is through the Gospel of John, we'll see that he uses patterns and numbers and all these types of things.
SPEAKER_04: And so um it's significant on a lot of levels.
SPEAKER_04: See, that the number seven, it wasn't a mistake, it wasn't just his lucky number that he wanted to weave into his biography.
SPEAKER_04: Um it actually seven represents completion and creation.
SPEAKER_04: God created the world in seven days, and uh, and so in the same way, the life and work of Jesus was in itself a fulfillment of God's promises.
SPEAKER_04: So seven times John records Jesus as saying, I am, I am the true vine, I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the good shepherd, I am the door.
SPEAKER_04: Today we're we're exploring I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_04: And just to back up just a little bit more, in the scriptures, our first encounter with this declaration, I am, if you guys remember it was written when Moses was in the desert, before he would go in back into Egypt, he hears a voice calling his name, he looks over, and there's a bush that's burning and it's talking to him.
SPEAKER_04: This kind of stuff only exists in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_04: God started speaking to him through a burning bush, calls him to go back to Egypt to set the people free.
SPEAKER_04: So Moses asks God, okay, so if they ask me who sent me, what name shall I tell them?
SPEAKER_04: God says, Tell them I am who I am.
SPEAKER_04: And Moses says, Okay, I'll I'll just tell them that.
SPEAKER_04: That'll clear things right up.
SPEAKER_04: But it was this declaration that this eternally self-existent God was calling Moses out of where he was at.
SPEAKER_04: And so Jesus adopts the same language to indicate I am the God of your forefathers.
SPEAKER_04: And this is important because in our culture, as you guys know, there's a lot that we say about Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: There's many ways to describe Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: And in fact, I would even argue that Jesus is generally very well respected.
SPEAKER_04: Christians and churches aren't necessarily well respected.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus, a lot of times, is very well respected as a prophet, a moral teacher, a guru, a sage, and a revolutionary.
SPEAKER_04: But very few of the ways that we talk about Jesus have to do with how Jesus describes himself.
SPEAKER_04: And that's really the interesting question.
SPEAKER_04: What does Jesus say about Jesus?
SPEAKER_04: And so when he takes on this title, I am, he's claiming to be God, not just God's little helper or a moral teacher, but the divine, eternal, pre-existent, infinite, perfect being, he is Israel's Messiah.
SPEAKER_04: It's the same voice that spoke to Moses through the burning bush, Jesus saying, That is me.
SPEAKER_04: And for those who were to believe Jesus, Jesus would become the very source of life and salvation.
SPEAKER_04: Those who did not believe Jesus became a threat to their life, which ultimately got him killed.
SPEAKER_04: So that's what we're entering into this morning.
SPEAKER_04: So I'm going to pray as we jump in.
SPEAKER_04: And I want to invite you to join me this morning.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus, we thank you that your words are live.
SPEAKER_04: We thank you that you came and you lived with us.
SPEAKER_04: You were born to us and you lived among us to show us what real life was.
SPEAKER_04: And this morning, as we turn our attention to you, as we behold you and your glory and resurrection life, I just thank you, God, that you're here even now.
SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Holy Spirit, that aside from my words, my words can't change anything.
SPEAKER_04: But your words can turn our lives around in just a moment.
SPEAKER_04: And so I thank you, God, that you're speaking today.
SPEAKER_04: Holy Spirit, we invite you to speak to every heart.
SPEAKER_04: You know exactly where we're at.
SPEAKER_04: You know what we need to hear.
SPEAKER_04: We thank you, God, that we're not here just for good advice.
SPEAKER_04: We're not here for inspiration.
SPEAKER_04: We're here to hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_04: And so we thank you to transform us from the inside out to see like you see, to live like you live, to free us from where we're at, so we can live with you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: We love you.
SPEAKER_04: And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: So if you have your Bibles, turn to John chapter 11.
SPEAKER_04: Again, we're going to be digging into this one particular identification of Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: I am the resurrection of the life.
SPEAKER_04: I'm just going to give you a little context here.
SPEAKER_04: It's a long chapter.
SPEAKER_04: Um, but we're walking into a miracle of Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't just any miracle of Jesus, it was the seventh miracle that John records, and that was purposeful because this was the miracle that would open up the possibility of what Jesus would be doing months later.
SPEAKER_04: And uh we're introduced to a man named Lazarus.
SPEAKER_04: He had become sick, and it wasn't just any sick, it was bad sick.
SPEAKER_04: And uh likely a violent illness came upon him.
SPEAKER_04: His sisters Mary and Martha were taking care of him, and uh they realized this was going bad very fast, so they sent a runner to go get Jesus, who is a little ways away, and the runner shows up to Jesus and says, Jesus, the one you love is ill.
SPEAKER_04: Not just anyone, it's the one you love, which um it really indicates to us that Jesus had this pre-existing relationship with Mary and Martha and their brother uh Lazarus.
SPEAKER_04: And so he learns that his friend Lazarus is ill.
SPEAKER_04: And so Jesus indicates to this runner, he says, this illness does not lead to death, it is for the glory of God, so the Son of Man can be glorified through it.
SPEAKER_04: And uh and then it says that he did love them, and but because he loved them, he decided to stay a couple extra days where he was before coming.
SPEAKER_04: And meanwhile, his disciples didn't really want to go back to Bethany because they were just there and they got into some trouble, and uh and so they were afraid of going back too soon because they were not really looking forward to dying, horrible deaths.
SPEAKER_04: But they were willing to do so if needed.
SPEAKER_04: So Jesus talks to his disciples and he says, My friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.
SPEAKER_04: They didn't know he was talking about death.
SPEAKER_04: They're like, Well, if he's sleeping, he'll probably just wake up, right?
SPEAKER_04: And so you can almost hear in the in the scriptures Jesus sigh, like, oh, he's dead, guys.
SPEAKER_04: He's really dead.
SPEAKER_04: And so he explains that it's death.
SPEAKER_04: And that's where we pick up John 11.
SPEAKER_04: We're gonna start in verse 17.
SPEAKER_04: Okay?
SPEAKER_04: You guys with me this morning?
SPEAKER_04: John 11, verse 17.
SPEAKER_04: Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
SPEAKER_04: Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them, der uh console them concerning their brother.
SPEAKER_04: So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
SPEAKER_04: Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been there, or been here, my brother would not have died.
SPEAKER_04: But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again.
SPEAKER_04: Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_04: Whoever believes in me, though he die, he yet he shall live.
SPEAKER_04: And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
SPEAKER_04: Do you believe this?
SPEAKER_04: She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.
SPEAKER_04: When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, Mary saying in private, The teacher is here, and he's calling for you.
SPEAKER_04: When she heard it, she rose quickly and went to meet him.
SPEAKER_04: Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.
SPEAKER_04: When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
SPEAKER_04: Now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
SPEAKER_04: When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.
SPEAKER_04: And he said, Where have you laid him?
SPEAKER_04: They said to him, Lord, come and see.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_04: So the Jews said, See how he loved him.
SPEAKER_04: But some of them said, Can not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have also kept this man from dying.
SPEAKER_04: So have you ever been in a position where you had to ask a friend for a favor?
SPEAKER_04: Or maybe you knew you had friends in high places that could pull strings to get things for you.
SPEAKER_04: And it could have been something like as simple as tickets to a sports game, or you know, an opening and their vacation rental or a booking at a certain restaurant you want to go to, or maybe something more serious, like you had somebody to rely on for either money or something you needed or a place to stay.
SPEAKER_04: Um, this is kind of the the situation that Mary and Martha were in.
SPEAKER_04: They had an existing relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: And if special favors were a thing with Jesus, which I'm not sure that they were, but if special favors were the thing, this would have been the time for one.
SPEAKER_04: Um by the time Jesus arrived to the scene, after we, if as we just read, Lazarus, we read, had been dead for four days already.
SPEAKER_04: And that was even a significant number because there was this Jewish superstition among the rabbis that the spirit of a person would, after they died, would hang around for around three days just in case the body came back to life and it needed a place to come back and go.
SPEAKER_04: And so day four was John's way of saying Lazarus was dead, he was so dead, he was really, really, really dead.
SPEAKER_04: He's not gonna get any more dead than he is on day four.
SPEAKER_04: And uh, if and and and you've missed your window, it's over.
SPEAKER_04: And so you can you can imagine the disappointment, Mary and Martha, as they're processing the reality of this and all of these dynamics coming together.
SPEAKER_04: And we see that they're processing differently.
SPEAKER_04: Martha, as the doer and the get things done woman, she runs out uh to meet Jesus and she starts verbally processing.
SPEAKER_04: Her mind is racing.
SPEAKER_04: Some people process grief through their minds through doing, through just kind of just trying to understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_04: So that's how she's verbally processing her disappointment with Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Mary, we read, stayed home and she was weeping, uh weeping in the house with others.
SPEAKER_04: And so she was processing very much more internally.
SPEAKER_04: She was not the external process.
SPEAKER_04: She she was internal until Martha came out to get her.
SPEAKER_04: Finally, she came and met Jesus out in the street as well, and even then she fell to her knees, which shows us that the way that she processes grief is much more guttural, much more in her body.
SPEAKER_04: And there's a lot of ways to process grief like that.
SPEAKER_04: Now, we know for many of us who know this story, the challenge that we come into year after year when we read this kind of story is that we know what happens on the backside.
SPEAKER_04: So it's hard for us to experience the depth and to really appreciate the depth of disappointment that was happening in this particular passage and the agony of what they had just walked through and caring for a sibling as their sibling was fighting for their life.
SPEAKER_04: And see, it's it's hard for us to imagine what exactly that was, but likely it was weeks of Lazarus becoming ill and maybe fighting a fever or fighting some symptoms, and then it just started progressing and getting worse and worse.
SPEAKER_04: And they didn't have caretakers, they couldn't take him to urgent care, they couldn't take him to the hospital, there was no ICU, there was no IV bag, there was no, let's let's put some some heart monitors on him and just keep an eye on him for the other room.
SPEAKER_04: No, his caretaking was his sister's, and they had him in the home, and they likely were caring for him in the bed, tending to him moment by moment, every single day.
SPEAKER_04: No electricity, no air conditioning, and the entire time having this understanding that the Son of God was actually walking on earth and wasn't too far from them.
SPEAKER_04: And so they're dealing with these symptoms and this kind of symptom, likely a violent illness, it's not a pretty thing to watch.
SPEAKER_04: No death is a pretty thing to watch, but you can almost imagine these sisters being with Lazarus as his breath turns into gasping.
SPEAKER_04: And they they they they know that this is going nowhere fast.
SPEAKER_04: They send a runner to Jesus, but it's about 20 miles away, 15 to 20 miles away where he was.
SPEAKER_04: So they don't know how long it's going to take Jesus to show up, but they watch their brother as they're holding him, and his breath breathing turns into gasping, and his gasping turns into gurgles, and they start to see the life fade away from his face, all knowing that Jesus could have come, but in this particular case, he was a no-show.
SPEAKER_04: Now that's real.
SPEAKER_04: That is a very real thing.
SPEAKER_04: Imagine being in a time where God incarnate was on earth and was 20 miles away.
SPEAKER_04: The only person who has the power to save your sibling of the their imminent death is 20 miles away.
SPEAKER_04: Imagine feeling the way that you would feel knowing that Jesus was in Lions, Colorado while you're holding your sibling, and he's a no-show, and you're not entirely sure why, but he's a no-show.
SPEAKER_04: What is he doing?
SPEAKER_04: Is he tubing the river in Lions?
SPEAKER_04: Is he what is it?
SPEAKER_04: Does he have something better to do?
SPEAKER_04: How long is it gonna take for him to get here?
SPEAKER_04: And so you can kind of hear it as both Martha and Mary, their first words to Jesus were the exact same thing they said, if you would have been here.
SPEAKER_04: And all of us, those those words, we ask those questions a lot.
SPEAKER_04: Those are the types of questions that aren't unique to Mary and Martha.
SPEAKER_04: In other words, where were you when we needed you?
SPEAKER_04: Thank you for coming now, but we needed you back then.
SPEAKER_04: That might be a familiar feeling to some of us in the room.
SPEAKER_04: It's it's a it's a it's a universal human feeling, but it didn't really catch Jesus by surprise because he knew the timetable that they were working.
SPEAKER_04: In fact, he purposely, as we read in the scriptures, he purposely waited for a window of time to close because he wanted to show them that what he was bringing was outside of man's timetable altogether.
SPEAKER_04: So this is really interesting in this passage.
SPEAKER_04: See, Martha in her grief, she starts dwelling in the past.
SPEAKER_04: If you would have been here, she's still existing two weeks before where she was right now.
SPEAKER_04: If you would have been here.
SPEAKER_04: So she says, I know that he will rise again on the last day.
SPEAKER_04: So she starts in the past, Jesus tries to anchor her in the present, she switches to the future.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I know he'll go on the last day.
SPEAKER_04: But then Jesus brings her back to the present and he says this to her.
SPEAKER_04: He says, Martha, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_04: Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
SPEAKER_04: And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
SPEAKER_04: Do you believe this?
SPEAKER_04: So she's toggling back and forth.
SPEAKER_04: She doesn't know where exactly to live.
SPEAKER_04: And you know, and I would argue a lot of us don't know exactly where to live either.
SPEAKER_04: We think about what we needed God to do in our past.
SPEAKER_04: We think about, okay, I know that maybe in the future God will do something, but God, where are you now?
SPEAKER_04: And this is where Jesus shows up and says, Listen, the miracle that you're asking for does not exist in a moment in time.
SPEAKER_04: The miracle is embodied in me.
SPEAKER_04: I am what you're looking for, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_04: Martha was so focused on what didn't happen, she couldn't live in the present moment trusting Jesus was still good.
SPEAKER_04: She didn't have an imagination for hope because she was thinking through the lens of a missed opportunity.
SPEAKER_04: And here's here's one of the big ideas for this morning that we have to settle into.
SPEAKER_04: God's timing is always for God's glory.
SPEAKER_04: God's timing is always for God's glory, and what glorifies God is always what's good for us.
SPEAKER_04: And that matters to us because even in this room, you might be up against something very real right now in your life.
SPEAKER_04: You might be looking in windows of time.
SPEAKER_04: And you might it might even feel like it's too late for God to break into your current circumstances.
SPEAKER_04: But the good news of the gospel and the good news of what Jesus is revealing here is that Jesus lives outside of our quote windows of time.
SPEAKER_04: Resurrection and life is not just an event or a moment in time.
SPEAKER_04: Resurrection is a person who changes the possibilities for his glory and for our good.
SPEAKER_04: Resurrection is a person, and that person is not just in the past and not just in the future.
SPEAKER_04: That person is here and he can change everything.
SPEAKER_04: So Jesus offered himself to both Martha and Mary.
SPEAKER_04: And two words in particular, he uses, I am the resurrection and the life, not just the resurrection, not just the life.
SPEAKER_04: I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_04: These are kind of two different categories that Jesus came to announce within himself.
SPEAKER_04: And I would argue that these two things, another way to see this, I am I am your healing, resurrection being healing, and I am your life, or I am your salvation.
SPEAKER_04: I am your healing and I am your salvation.
SPEAKER_04: And these are very important that we understand both healing and salvation, and Jesus coming into our lives as both healing and salvation.
SPEAKER_04: See, Healing is a signpost of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_04: But salvation is the ultimate promise of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_04: Healing, when we receive healing, when we receive resurrection, it is a foretaste and foreshadowing of what God is doing.
SPEAKER_04: But salvation, salvation, the total healing of body, soul, and spirit, the total healing of all of creation is the ultimate storyline that God is inviting us to see that this is what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_04: And the reason why that distinction matters for us today is because oftentimes we get tripped up and feel abandoned when we make healing the ultimate goal.
SPEAKER_04: But healing isn't the ultimate goal, it's a sign of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_04: Salvation is the ultimate goal.
SPEAKER_04: And when I say salvation, I'm not just talking about being vacuumed up from earth and going to heaven at one point in time.
SPEAKER_04: I'm not just talking about where you're going when you die.
SPEAKER_04: Salvation does include the forgiveness of sins, but let's be clear, it's more than that.
SPEAKER_04: In the scriptures, life and salvation have more to do with wholeness.
SPEAKER_04: And again, body and soul and spirit and the storyline of God making all things new and making everything right.
SPEAKER_04: And so, yes, Jesus came to bring healing, and he told us to pray for the sick that they may be well, so that we can have a foretaste of the kingdom of God, because it's a glimpse and it gives us a sneak preview of the life that we're headed to.
SPEAKER_04: But healing is the foreshadow to come.
SPEAKER_04: Total salvation through Christ is the substance of what's to come.
SPEAKER_04: And why is this important?
SPEAKER_04: Because we do believe in miracles, we believe in healing, but we don't always get the healing when we want it or how we want it.
SPEAKER_04: In this story, Jesus is about to raise Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_04: And again, I'm sorry to steal the punch as this is your first time you've ever read this.
SPEAKER_04: But his promise didn't depend on him raising Lazarus from the head.
SPEAKER_04: The hope that Jesus offers is that the moment you believe in him, though your body may die, you will live and you are alive.
SPEAKER_04: And if you you're alive, you will never die.
SPEAKER_04: So in the meantime, we see resurrection and life showing up differently in our life.
SPEAKER_04: Let me just share with you two stories of our within our community.
SPEAKER_04: So a few weeks ago, we received a text message that someone in our church was in in bad shape with heart problems.
SPEAKER_04: John had recently become aware of an unbelievable autoimmune disease, I believe, a very rare condition affecting his heart.
SPEAKER_04: And for several weeks him and his wife Diane were in the hospital just trying to understand what was happening.
SPEAKER_04: The doctor's performing tests, he was required to wear a pump that pumped medicine straight into his heart.
SPEAKER_04: And uh and it was serious, and we were all just kind of paying attention to what was going on with John.
SPEAKER_04: Um and we were praying for him, but then one day the doctor came back to them and said, Hey, listen, we're realizing that this medicine that we have you on is actually not only not helping you, it's actually damaging your heart.
SPEAKER_04: So we have to take you off this medicine and we have to start you on a new plan.
SPEAKER_04: But the only way to do this is if we clear this medicine out of your system and you have to kind of make it 24 hours, make it through the night without anything helping your heart.
SPEAKER_04: And they told John, it it there's a s there's a high possibility that tonight your heart could stop and this is gonna be the last night you live.
SPEAKER_04: And so we got uh we got that text, um, several of us in the leadership and several of us in the community.
SPEAKER_04: We were we we came we came to learn that our brother John was in a moment of need.
SPEAKER_04: And uh and so some of us were able to actually go down and be with them in the hospital just for a night and to go pray with them.
SPEAKER_04: And and and together we were joining, we we laid hands on them, we joined with other believers who were praying for them.
SPEAKER_04: We combined our faith with John's faith, and there's very few people who match the faith of John Freeman, I'll tell you that much.
SPEAKER_04: So not that he needed a lot of our prayers, but we were there to pray for him.
SPEAKER_04: And the good news is this he made it through the night.
SPEAKER_04: Not only did he make it through the night, but John, you're here, right?
SPEAKER_04: John, John Freeman.
SPEAKER_04: John Freeman, you're here.
SPEAKER_04: You are here.
SPEAKER_04: And we celebrate with you.
SPEAKER_04: We celebrate the life of God in you.
SPEAKER_04: We celebrate, you know, we don't know where the the the combination of faith and prayer and holding a spirit.
SPEAKER_04: We don't know what was happening between the natural and the supernatural.
SPEAKER_04: All I know is that you are here and we love you, and we're thankful to God for hearing our prayers that you're here.
SPEAKER_04: At the same time, um, a few years ago there was somebody else in the community, uh, Debbie LaBoeuf, a long-term member of this church.
SPEAKER_04: She led our intercessory prayer teams for years.
SPEAKER_04: She was a woman of great faith and would occasionally get on my case for going soft on certain sermon topics and not being hard enough on you guys.
SPEAKER_04: And she was a prayer.
SPEAKER_04: I mean, she she prayed.
SPEAKER_04: She held.
SPEAKER_04: I I just I just got she's one of those people, you know that God listens to her.
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if he listens to me all the time.
SPEAKER_04: He listens to Debbie though.
SPEAKER_04: And about 10 years ago, she started to learn that her kidneys were failing.
SPEAKER_04: And uh and and and in order she had to sign up for a trans plant list in order to get a new kidney.
SPEAKER_04: And uh and she had to lose 100 pounds to do that and this whole thing, and so uh it just took a long time.
SPEAKER_04: So for nearly 10 years, she was going in for regular treatments of dialysis, and every time she'd do that, it would just wreak havoc on her body and life would drain out of her body.
SPEAKER_04: And uh and so she um it was during 2020 we were praying for her, and uh, and obviously we weren't meeting at this point in time, so she was very isolated at this point in time.
SPEAKER_04: But during 2020, after 10 years of waiting, she became aware that a kid they found a kidney for her, and they're ready to give her this transplant.
SPEAKER_04: So they schedule her for surgery, they do the transplant, and uh and her the surgery goes well, and she's uh in rehab, they're trying to get this kidney to wake up.
SPEAKER_04: She's in rehab just a couple weeks after getting this miracle kidney that she'd been waiting 10 years for, and she's in rehab and she gets COVID, and then within a few days, because she gets harder breathing um and she goes into cardiac arrest.
SPEAKER_04: And in a moment like that, Debbie passed on, Debbie passed away.
SPEAKER_04: And it was excruciating.
SPEAKER_04: It was excruciating for us, it was excruciating for her family.
SPEAKER_04: Um and it was uh confusing things.
SPEAKER_04: Like, God, how do you how does someone like Debbie who gives her life to intercession, who gives her life to prayer, who who would show up day after day, even when her body is ravaged through dialysis, and can you just show up with great faith?
SPEAKER_04: Why is it that you show up for some people and you don't show up for others?
SPEAKER_04: Which is a really complicated question.
SPEAKER_04: But I would argue on when we start comparing stories, when we start looking at when did God show up and when did he not, I would argue that today Debbie is more alive than she ever was on earth.
SPEAKER_04: She is more alive today than she ever was on earth.
SPEAKER_04: Why?
SPEAKER_04: Because Jesus was her resurrection and her life.
SPEAKER_04: And I'll tell you right now, John, we celebrate that he's I'd rather have you here than not here, John.
SPEAKER_04: But listen, I do know this.
SPEAKER_04: You're recovered and you're with us, but your hope is not in your body.
SPEAKER_04: Your hope is in the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_04: And though you live, your life is not your own, your life is hidden in Christ.
SPEAKER_04: So healing is simply a signpost of the eternal life that is available to us in Christ.
SPEAKER_04: Resurrection doesn't mean everybody gets what they want in the moment, but here's how Frederick Biekner says it resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing.
SPEAKER_04: Resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing.
SPEAKER_04: So in the meantime, we pray for healing, we pray for resurrection because Jesus told us to.
SPEAKER_04: We don't need any other reason.
SPEAKER_04: He told us to.
SPEAKER_04: Pray for the sick that they may be well.
SPEAKER_04: Pray for the dead to raise the dead, pray for the inbreaking of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_04: Why?
SPEAKER_04: Because he wants us to catch a vision for what he is doing for all of time.
SPEAKER_04: So, in the meantime, we suffer the effects of sin, and sin is not just a spiritual problem, it's an embodied problem.
SPEAKER_04: It gets into everything, it affects everything, including our actual bodies, which is why Jesus didn't come over a Zoom call.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus didn't come virtually, he didn't just come spiritually, he died in bodily form.
SPEAKER_04: He went to the cross and suffered in his body, and he resurrected in bodily form.
SPEAKER_04: So he can make all things new in bodily form, and there's coming a day where he will recreate the heavens and the earth to everything that he intended, and he's getting his start now.
SPEAKER_04: Why?
SPEAKER_04: Because he is the resurrection and he is the life.
SPEAKER_04: So the invitation of the scripture is to enter into the resurrection of life.
SPEAKER_04: It's it's not about making sense of everything, it's about believing in the one, it's about beholding Jesus for who he is and then considering ourselves dead.
SPEAKER_04: Even if you're alive, consider yourself dead.
SPEAKER_04: That's how you enter into resurrection.
SPEAKER_04: You can't resurrect something that's alive.
SPEAKER_04: You can't live a resurrected life unless you're dead.
SPEAKER_04: So just start now.
SPEAKER_04: You're dead.
SPEAKER_04: Woo! Galatians 2.20.
SPEAKER_04: I have been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_04: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me in the life I now live in the flesh.
SPEAKER_04: I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself for me.
SPEAKER_04: Romans 6, 5 through 6, for if we have been united with him in death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
SPEAKER_04: We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin may be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
SPEAKER_04: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_04: Romans 6 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus knows that sickness and sin and death were not a part of God's plan, which gives him the capacity to be with Mary and Martha and actually be moved, to be deeply moved, and the scriptures say troubled and sorrowful and be moved to tears, even though he knew what he was about to do.
SPEAKER_04: He entered into that moment with them because he knew this was never part of the plan that sin would get so deep that it would start taking lives in this kind of way.
SPEAKER_04: But because he is our great high priest, he's able to sympathize with us in every human emotion.
SPEAKER_04: And so he entered into this moment.
SPEAKER_04: But he entered in not to just save the day, he entered in to bring to bear the substance of his life to anybody who would look him in the face and say, I believe you for who you say you are.
SPEAKER_04: So John 11, 38.
SPEAKER_04: Let's read this together.
SPEAKER_04: Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb.
SPEAKER_04: It was a cave and a stone lay against it.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus said, Take away the stone.
SPEAKER_04: Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor.
SPEAKER_04: For he has been dead four days.
SPEAKER_04: I will add that in the King James Version, it doesn't say odor, it says that the tomb stinketh.
SPEAKER_04: I kid you not.
SPEAKER_04: That's my Easter gift to you guys today.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus, if you roll away the tomb, he stinketh.
SPEAKER_04: God, I don't know if I want you to get too close.
SPEAKER_04: I I too close to my situation.
SPEAKER_04: I stinketh a little bit.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus isn't concerned.
SPEAKER_04: He's alright with it.
SPEAKER_04: Your stinkethness.
SPEAKER_04: In verse 40, Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?
SPEAKER_04: So they took away the stone, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
SPEAKER_04: I knew that you always hear me.
SPEAKER_04: But I said this on the account of the people standing around it.
SPEAKER_04: They must believe that you sent me.
SPEAKER_04: And when he said this, he said these things, he cried out with a lousy loud voice, Lazarus! Come out.
SPEAKER_04: The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with cloth.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus said to them, Unbind him and let him go.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Lazarus, friends, was a foreshadowing of what would happen months later of Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus did not escape death.
SPEAKER_04: He did not escape suffering.
SPEAKER_04: He did not escape his darkest hour.
SPEAKER_04: He didn't find a way.
SPEAKER_04: He didn't play a trump card and get around it.
SPEAKER_04: He didn't call down angels from heaven to rescue him from that.
SPEAKER_04: He went to the cross.
SPEAKER_04: He was nailed to a cross to let death do its worst to him.
SPEAKER_04: So that he could show once and for all that death does not have the final word.
SPEAKER_04: So Jesus said, Do your worst to me.
SPEAKER_04: It's okay.
SPEAKER_04: Because I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_04: I'm making a way.
SPEAKER_04: So this morning, as we as we turn our attention to Jesus, I do want to pray across the room.
SPEAKER_04: If you're here today, and uh and maybe you're in a season where you need to know Jesus as the resurrection life.
SPEAKER_04: You've known him as a lot of different things in your life.
SPEAKER_04: You need to know him in a new way as the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_04: And the platitudes, the bumper sticker Christianity.
SPEAKER_04: It doesn't do it for you anymore.
SPEAKER_04: The coffee mug Christianity of just the go-to Bible verses.
SPEAKER_04: You need something real and substantive in your life.
SPEAKER_04: I want to pray for you today, just across the room.
SPEAKER_04: If we could close our eyes here today.
SPEAKER_04: And I want to pray a prayer.
SPEAKER_04: We all can pray.
SPEAKER_04: And I want to invite you to join me in praying, whether this is the hundredth time you've prayed this or this is the first time you've prayed this.
SPEAKER_04: We're going to pray together to invite Jesus to place our faith in the person and the work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: And then in a moment, we're going to come and receive communion together before we leave here today.
SPEAKER_04: So cross, close your eyes across the room.
SPEAKER_04: And together, would you repeat after me?
SPEAKER_04: Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: And I need your life.
SPEAKER_04: I can't always make sense of the details of my life.
SPEAKER_04: But I know that you are here.
SPEAKER_04: And you're present with me.
SPEAKER_04: You're not just in my past.
SPEAKER_04: You're not just in my future.
SPEAKER_04: But you're here with me.
SPEAKER_04: And today, God, I put my faith in you.
SPEAKER_04: Open my eyes to see you.
SPEAKER_04: Open my ears to hear you.
SPEAKER_04: Open my heart to follow you.
SPEAKER_04: We love you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: And maybe across the room, that's the first time you've prayed that prayer.
SPEAKER_04: If after the service, if that's the case, come and find me.
SPEAKER_04: Come and find one of our leaders.
SPEAKER_04: We'd love to talk to you.
SPEAKER_04: For the rest of us, the confession of faith and our need for Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: This is what carries us forward.
SPEAKER_04: And that's what we're going to do again today.
SPEAKER_04: I'm going to ask the elders to come forward, and we're going to have four lines across the front of the room with communion elements.
SPEAKER_04: I'm going to invite you guys to come up and receive the body and the blood of Jesus and just take it back to your chair.
SPEAKER_04: And then we're going to pray one more time together, and then we will be closing up our time.
SPEAKER_04: So, uh, Kevin, Graham, if you guys want to come up, and if you guys want to uh form four lines, come and receive communion and come back to the chairs and we'll receive that together.
SPEAKER_03: Morning stars.
SPEAKER_03: Morning Sunset.
SPEAKER_03: The Savior of the Lord was falling.
SPEAKER_03: The body of us.
SPEAKER_03: The way the value of final breath is the winds.
SPEAKER_03: The Son of Christ is dark.
SPEAKER_03: War on death is raised.
SPEAKER_03: The path.
SPEAKER_04: Said, This is my body which is for you.
SPEAKER_04: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_04: In the same way he also took the cup after supper, saying, This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_04: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_04: For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
SPEAKER_04: So I just want to invite you this morning to open up the bread, and together let's receive the body of Jesus broken for us.
SPEAKER_04: And I do feel led to pray for healing this morning.
SPEAKER_04: I just want to invite you to stand with me across the room.
SPEAKER_04: See, your body has about your body is a complex network of systems.
SPEAKER_04: You have about ten different systems in your body.
SPEAKER_04: I pray over the bodies in this room and the different systems.
SPEAKER_04: The skeletal system, the muscular system, the nervous system, the endocrine system, the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system, the respiratory system, digestive system, urinary system, and reproductive system.
SPEAKER_04: As they come to life in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
SPEAKER_04: Come to life.
SPEAKER_04: Every system of the bodies here today.
SPEAKER_04: We thank you that we are yours, our bodies are yours, God, and we receive your healing life, Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: And we thank you, Father, to renew us from the inside out as we worship you and as we praise you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Let's sing together.
SPEAKER_02: Now death wins your steam.
SPEAKER_02: We stink hallelujah.
unknown: We stink highly.
SPEAKER_04: Blessings to you guys today.
SPEAKER_04: Listen, before we head out, some of you, if you want a word of prayer before you head out those doors and eat deviled eggs to your heart's content, you need to get the devil out of you first.
SPEAKER_04: And listen, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_04: We want to be with you.
SPEAKER_04: And listen, we're gonna have some of our elders' ministry team up front.
SPEAKER_04: If you want prayer today, seriously, I mean it.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus is present, he's not somewhere else, he is with us here today by his body and his blood.
SPEAKER_04: And uh and and I want to bless the rest of us as we go.
SPEAKER_04: So may the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you, may He be gracious to you and give you rest.
SPEAKER_04: Happy Easter, everybody.
SPEAKER_04: Have a fantastic day.