Latest / #Faith4TodayPodcast / Episode 39 - #Faith4TodayPodcast - John 11 Explained | I Am the Resurrection and the Life

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Episode 39 - #Faith4TodayPodcast - John 11 Explained | I Am the Resurrection and the Life · #Faith4TodayPodcast

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That's real life with Jesus, not escaping pain, but being formed
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through it by his power and his promise.
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So the question becomes, do we let fear, excuses, or the stench
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of disappointment keep us from life with Him when we step into
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resurrection hope, allowing ourselves to be formed in
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Community Trust that the one who calls the dead back to life can
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also bring life to us right now in real life?
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for Today podcast. My name's Matthew, I'm your host
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and I'm so thrilled that you're here today.
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Listen, we're we are episode 39 and we're looking at John
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Chapter 11 from a message that was entitled in real life.
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And man, it was a great, great message.
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And here in the Faith for Today podcast, what we do is we recap
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a Sunday message. We get into some bonus content,
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share a little bit more than what I shared in the message,
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and then respond to some questions and all of it with the
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goal of helping you have faith for today, to go beyond
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inspiration to integrating truth into your life each and every
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day so that you have loyalty on Thursday, not just on a Sunday.
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We want to have more than a Sunday morning kind of a faith
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this week, man, We are John 11, like I said.
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And in this we see one of the most powerful moments in all of
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Scripture. Jesus raised Lazarus from the
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dead. Now this is the fifth I am
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statement in John's gospel where Jesus declares I am the
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resurrection and the life. And it's also the 7th sign John
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records pointing us again to who Jesus really is.
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He's not just one or the other. He's both the resurrection and
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the life. What's striking here is that the
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glory of God is shown to be even greater than the weight of
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sickness or the finality of death.
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But the story is also about relationships.
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Jesus with his disciples, Jesus with Lazarus, the sisters, even
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the crowd watching nearby. Everyone had opinions,
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questions, and doubts. Yet none of that stopped Jesus
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from fulfilling His purpose. In fact, the fruit of His
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actions was meant to dismantle misunderstanding and call people
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to a deeper faith and allegiance to Him and to Yahweh.
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And that's where this ties back to all of us today.
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Our growth in Christ happens most deeply in community, real,
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rich spiritual friendships where we can be known and vulnerable
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and formed over time. And then there's the
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resurrection hope that we see in the text.
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The Old Testament pointed forward to it, Jesus taught
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about it, and the New Testament confirms it all.
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Because Jesus rose first, we will rise too.
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That's the truth that anchors us in real life.
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And when grief and fear and loss feel overwhelming, we can still
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have hope. Jesus didn't dismiss the tears
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of Mary and Martha. He entered their sorrow, He
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wept, and then he called Lazarus out of the grave.
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That's real life with Jesus, not escaping pain, but being formed
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through it by his power and His promise.
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So the question becomes, do we let fear, excuses, or the stench
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of disappointment keep us from life with Him?
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Or will we step into resurrection hope, allowing
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ourselves to be formed in community and trust that the one
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who calls the dead back to life can also bring life to us right
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now in real life? All right, let's get into a
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little bonus content now. The the beauty of this tech.
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There's some really, really rich truths to hold on to that point
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us to some deeper realities and some some even mystery kind of
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exposing some things in in our own in our own hearts.
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One of the things about Lazarus being raised from the dead and
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similar to Jesus's resurrection and the promise that he gives to
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the believer of resurrection is, is that this resurrection is a
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physical, embodied resurrection. It's not just spiritual life.
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It's not just ongoing communion with God.
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The life of ourselves, like our bodies, our physical bodies will
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be raised from the dead. It whether it starts in dust and
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ends in dust or there are bones there that that get, you know,
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put back together and and and flush comes together and like
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all of the like things, it doesn't.
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I don't know that it necessarily matters near as much as as
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reminding ourselves that our physical world is something God
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created and he will renew. He will make right, he will
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remove the the evil parts of it and bring about wholeness in all
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of it. And so there there has a
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tendency in our in our day and age to separate out physical or
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material and spiritual like what's called dualism.
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And I don't believe that's a biblical worldview or a biblical
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framework. In fact, God created our
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physical bodies as a gift to us to steward.
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And so when we are raised from the dead, when Jesus returns,
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that those physical bodies are still what he's given us.
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I think your eyes are going to be the color of your eyes.
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Your hair is going to be the color of your hair.
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Your, your shape is going to be your shape.
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It's all of the the broken toxic impact of sin will be removed,
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but it's a physical bodied resurrection.
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Like like right here in the text when when Lazarus is raised from
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the dead, like he's physical, he's up walking around, he's
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hosting meals after this. We'll see actually kind of in
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the next chapter, there's a there's a real recognition of a
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physical reality. Jesus when he was raised from
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the dead, he was physical. In fact, again we we would say
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it this way, while while Lazarus was raised from the dead, Jesus
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was the first to experience resurrection, there is a
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distinction there. Lazarus was resuscitated, Jesus
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was resurrected. Why is that important?
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Well, because Lazarus did come back to life but did not put on
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what Corinthians says is incorruptible.
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He didn't put on a a new body, Jesus did.
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Jesus was raised and his body was different, right?
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In fact, we, we see towards the end of the Gospels that Jesus
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like he still ate, he still drank, he could be physically
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touched. So it was a physical reality to
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him. But he also, there was a, a
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supernatural component where he could be here in a moment and
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gone the next where he would just kind of like appear, walk
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through walls, it would seem like.
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And so the, the, the bending of material world of our material
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world seems to be different in that way, but it is still
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nonetheless a physical thing. Jesus was walking after he was
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raised from the dead, after he was experienced resurrection.
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He was walking on the road to Emmaus.
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He ate with them, talked with them.
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He could hear and listen and be even recognized at times.
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And so our physical bodies are going to be raised to life.
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That's what the promise of the Scripture is.
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In fact, in First Corinth 15, we read that that not everybody's
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going to fall asleep, but we all be be raised or changed in in
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the twinkling eye in the moment when Christ returns, then then
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the dead end Christ will be raised that there's a physical
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bodied resurrection that comes. And I think it's important to
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note that the the, the, the new heavens and the new earth that
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revelation points to where everything is made new and Jesus
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has returned. It is a physical world,
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tangible, touchable, scientific even in that way like it is.
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It will be a full kind of a new Eden, if you will.
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And so I think it's important to remind ourselves of that because
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otherwise we will devalue physical realities and we create
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unnecessary divides between physical and spiritual.
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No, they're very much interlocked and linked together.
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The physical world is a part of our world.
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It's a part of God's created world that that has been
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impacted by sinfulness and the brokenness and the things that
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are contrary to God's intent and design.
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However, God will redeem, renew and recreate all of those things
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in in our world. In in Philippians, Paul writes
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and he says that don't you know that your citizenship is in
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heaven? I've been reading a book called
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Love Thy Body by Nancy Pearcy, and it's a brilliant work, kind
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of helping us understand a deeper theology around our
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physical bodies and the importance of life.
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And she addresses this issue of dualism, that is an incorrect
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thinking and teaching that is prevalent in our Western mind.
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It's crept into how we think about things.
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In other words, that's why so many of us like have in
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Christendom an escapist mentality.
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But like I just can't wait for Jesus return.
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So we get out of here. I hate to break it to you.
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We don't get out of here. We get a new here, a redeemed
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here like this is it like so take care of your body, take
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care of the earth. Let's start making things new
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here and now and not distorting them and treating them like
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they're throwaways. They're they're not.
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That's part of our stewardship. And when Paul writes to the
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Philippians, Nancy Pearcy points out in her book that we are
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citizens of heaven. Most Christians interpret that
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to me, that we should look forward to leaving earth and
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going to heaven, which is our true home.
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But that is not what the passage meant to the 1st century
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readers. The city of Philippi in Greece
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was a Roman colony where many had the privilege of Roman
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citizenship. The citizens of a colony were
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not supposed to aspire to go back to Rome.
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Their job was to secure a conquered country by permeating
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the local culture with Roman culture.
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So by telling Christians that they are citizens of heaven,
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then Paul was telling them to permeate the world with a
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heavenly culture. We're not called to get out of
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this place. We're called to bring heaven
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into this place, to do the works of God here on earth so that the
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Kingdom of God would come here as it is in heaven, not so that
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everyone would leave here and go to heaven.
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I think that's why CS Lewis calls Christianity a quote UN
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quote fighting religion. He means that disciples of Jesus
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are not meant to passively allow evil to flourish on earth while
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looking forward to escaping someday to a higher realm.
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Now, I want to be really careful because that word fighting seems
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to be prevalent in our culture today.
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At the time of this recording, we are less than a week away
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from someone being assassinated in the public space, someone who
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was very outspoken for his perspective on truth and
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scripture and I do believe was a sincere follower of Jesus and
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spoke out and held public dialogue and discourse.
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But at the end of the day, I think it's important for us to
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know when it comes to fighting religion, we're not fighting
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people. We're fighting in a spiritual
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battle. We're we're fighting for
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holiness. We're fighting in in a way that
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says I'm not going to let the way of the culture be my way.
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I'm going to live the way of Christ.
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And so our way of protest is to recognize that there are
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spiritual practices that become a spiritual act of protest
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against the evil, against cultural demands that are toxic
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and lead away from the ways of Jesus.
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And so it doesn't mean that we actually take up physical arms
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to dismantle, destroy, or even harm other people.
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What he's saying is that we live in such a way that it is counter
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to the world around us. That points people to a better
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way of relating to one another. That's the goal.
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That's the subversive way of the people of God.
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And we are called just like Paul says.
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Hey, listen, remember, you are citizens of heaven, not citizens
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of Rome. So don't live dictated in a way
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that is permeating Roman culture, live in a way that is
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permeating a Christian culture. So I think it's important for us
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to examine our hearts, examine our lives, examine our
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priorities and to say, am I living based on a cultural
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mindset or am I living based on the Kingdom of God and what he
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is ruling? Reign does as King Jesus in my
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heart. What does this have to do with
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resurrection? Well, here, here, here's what I
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would say is that the doctrine of rexuration, resurrection
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means that the physical world still matters.
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It matters to God and it should matter to God's people.
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Augustine explains that they will be spiritual not because
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they cease to be bodies, but because they will be sustained
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by a quickening spirit. So Augustine is talking about
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where Agustin is talking about how how our physical bodies is
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experienced a physical resurrection.
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So we want to take care of our physical bodies because it's not
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that we get a new body in the sense of a different version or
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a a different looking body. It's that we get a body that is
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now quickened and sustained not by sinful world, but by a
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spiritually renewed and enriched space.
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I think that it's important to know that we will be changed
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when it comes to the resurrection.
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You need to know we will be physically changed.
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New bodies, but perhaps not what you expected.
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I think a lot of times we talk about the new bodies like, oh,
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I'm going to be skinnier and I'm going to be able to jump really
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high or I'm going to not have a receding hairline or, or
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whatever it is that you think that that would mean.
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I think it's important to know that while the Bible doesn't
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talk at extensive length about the new bodies, we do get a kind
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of a picture to kind of help us understand some of what that
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looks like. Again, Jesus is the the, the,
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the best one to look at, right? Why Jesus still ate, He still
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could talk. He was still recognizable.
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He still had scars that were healed, He still looked like
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Jesus, still was him. His physical appearance still
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his physical radiance is there but empowered, sustained and
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transformed. In Corinthians it says that we
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take off corruption and we put on incorruption.
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The the term spiritual body is often misunderstood to mean
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something ghostly and intangible.
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But the adjective when it talks about spiritual body does not
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tell us what the body is made of, rather what powers it.
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And when we say it's incorruptible body that we put
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on, I think Paul is talking about the body not being tainted
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by sinfulness, being powered by a spiritual redemptive reality.
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And no sin can corrupt it again because sin and Satan will have
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been removed and vanquished for good.
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We will have fully over calm and conquered sin where it no longer
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has sway, power or influence in our lives.
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So in that way it is incorruptible and it is eternal
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in the sense that it is ongoing, long lasting, never ending.
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It's perpetual in its existence. And so all of that is really
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good news that that is there. It's a beautiful, beautiful
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thing. And in the story of Lazarus,
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Jesus says something really interesting in in the in the in
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John, he says Lazarus come out and here comes the body of
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Lazarus out spirit body united together.
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Here he is and he's wrapped up in the grave clothes.
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And Jesus says, unwrap him and let him go.
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And I love that I didn't have time to really preach on that
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phrase. But what is what is happening is
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a picture of resurrection life. It's a picture and a foretaste
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that real freedom is coming for you and me on a spiritual sense,
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here and now. We are unwrapped from the power
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of sin that is just has its control and dominion on us.
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No, Paul says, thanks be to God who has given us the victory
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through our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, sin that has
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wrapped its entanglement and death traps all over us through
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the life giving Spirit of God. When we have been baptized and
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raised in Christ in those waters, we are being unwrapped
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from the sin, from the bondage, from the things that have bound
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us in life. That the life of the believer is
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a life of freedom. Why?
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Because when the sun sets you free, you are free in deed.
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What are the things in your life that you need to have Jesus
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unwrap you in that you've been bound up in, but He's going to
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unwrap in you? Perspectives.
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Political idolatry? Greed.
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Materialism. What?
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What do you need to have unwrapped?
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Addictions. Sinful practices?
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Judgmentalism. What are the things that God
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wants to unwrap The grave clothes of death and sin that
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have you bound. Jesus unwraps and sets you free
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by his hear me by his word, by his command.
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Ephesians says that we are washed in the water of His word.
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There's something that happens of freedom when his word gets
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into our hearts and our and our lives.
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The second kind of bonus thought I wanted to talk about is
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Martha's real genuine living belief that she had like when in
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in John 15, when let me, let me turn there.
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John 15. Excuse me, John 11.
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I was sitting there in First Corinthians 15, but John 11,
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when Jesus says, Hey, your brother's going to rise again
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and, and Martha's like, well, I know he's going to rise again in
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the resurrection at the last days.
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But then verse 25, Jesus says I'm the resurrection of the
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life. Everyone who lives and believes
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in him will never die. Do you believe this about me,
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about the Son of God and about the Messiah?
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And she says, yes, Lord, I believe you are the Messiah, the
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Son of God who comes into the world.
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And so much so that she she goes and sends for Mary get Mary to
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come out here. Why?
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Because she believes Jesus is about to do something that she
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had only hoped he would do. Her action of going to get
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married to come and encounter Jesus was it was an action of
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hey, come and be in agreement with me.
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Watch what Jesus is about to do. And and Mary and Martha went
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with Jesus to the tomb. Again, acts of faith, steps of
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loyal trust in Jesus. And so their belief wasn't just
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intellectual thoughts about Jesus.
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Like here in a moment, a Crucible moment, Martha makes a
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profession and a vocal confession of an embodied
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reality of trust in the person of Jesus.
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That is belief, not just idealism, but real embodied
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trust in the person of Jesus. And I love her real belief.
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Her response to Jesus is Lord, I do believe you are the Messiah,
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the Son of God. Like was an intentional and
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accurate statement of faith in the person of Jesus.
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I read 1 commentary on it that says this.
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That faith that falls short of such an exalted concept of
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Christ is inadequate. In other words, if if our faith
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in Jesus, if our belief in Jesus, if our loyal allegiance
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and embodied trust in the person of Jesus doesn't exalt such a
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concept of Christ, exalt such a concept that he is Lord, he is
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Messiah, he is Son of God that came into the world.
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If our confession of our faith doesn't rise to that, it's
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inadequate. In other words, if you just
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think Jesus was a good teacher, your faith in Jesus is
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inadequate. If if you believe that Jesus
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came and lived, but he never resurrected, your faith in Jesus
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is is is an inadequate. It's not a saving faith.
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If you think your faith in Jesus is that he's just your ticket
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out of hell, I would say that your faith in Jesus is is
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inadequate. It's it's not.
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It's not meeting the the confession.
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If if your confession of faith isn't that Jesus is Lord of
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every area of your life, I would say friend, then perhaps your
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faith, your the self vivid nature of your faith is
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inadequate. It's recognizing that he is
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Lord, he is Messiah. In fact, when Peter stands up on
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the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 and he preaches his
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message, he says you need to believe that Jesus the Christ is
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both Lord and Messiah. In other words, that he's the
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ruling reigning one who deserves our allegiance and he is
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Messiah, the one who came to deliver us.
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In other words, you need to know that He is saving and He is
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king, which means he's the one that gets your allegiance.
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That's what you did for a king. You gave them your allegiance.
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Your life following in pursuit of Jesus as Lord in anything
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less than that He says is inadequate.
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Well, what about the thief on the cross?
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What about it? I think he made a real
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profession. I, I think the thief on the
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cross was absolutely someone whose heart was rendered in
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affection and allegiance to Jesus, even though he had no way
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of, of, of doing any embodied action.
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His, his vocal profession and his, his real conviction to who
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the person of Jesus was on that cross was real.
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It was a revelation of Jesus. And, and I think John includes
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this interaction because again, the whole point of the Gospel of
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John is that we might believe that we would come to accept, to
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believe and give our loyal allegiance to Jesus as saving
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King, the one who is the Son of God who came into this this
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world. And so all of the things that
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that John wrote about in the person of Jesus are done in such
24:28
a way to point us to an active way of living out our belief in
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Jesus as Lord and Messiah. I thought it was interesting
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that Mary and Martha both in a real belief, in real life, even
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in the midst of real grief, still repeated the same things
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to Jesus, still put their trust in Jesus.
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They were honest about their emotions.
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They, they were confessing of the things that they, they, they
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were experiencing and feeling and, and they were 100% trusting
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in the person and the power of Jesus, the Messiah.
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And, and I think it's important to note that their belief in
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Jesus was shaped not just by their personal interaction with
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Jesus, but by each other's interaction with Jesus.
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Think about it. Their relationship with with
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each other, I think shaped their ability to trust Jesus in that
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moment too. Not just their own personable
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interactions and encounters with Jesus, but they were sharing in
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that with with each other. Which just simply means that our
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relationships really do shape our view of God in so many ways.
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Your circle of friends and intimate relationships matters a
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ton. Which means that if you're
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having trouble with real belief in Jesus, then you need to take
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a real close look at your circle of friends that you allow to
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influence your heart. Not because they're bad and evil
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and you need to excommunicate them.
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I'm just saying you are being influenced by the people in your
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life and your circle. It really does.
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It really does matters. Martha had real belief in Jesus
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the Lord and the Messiah that he came into this world.
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Was she certain of everything? No, I'm sure she still had
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uncertainty, but she had belief in Jesus.
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She trusted, she was loyal to Him, and she went to Him.
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In the moments when life's pressure ran out, what do you do
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personally? What do you do when life's
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pressure gets the best of you? When life's pressure is
26:51
overwhelming, When you are squeezed by the pressure of
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life, what's on the inside of you?
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What you really believe will come out do really well this
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again. At the time of this recording,
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there's many people who are having many responses to the
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activity in our nation at the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
27:17
Your response reveals what you believe the most.
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Your actions reveal what you hold to be most value.
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I think Martha in this moment had a real belief that was
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shaped by Scripture that says resurrection is possible, and it
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was shaped by a confidence in the person of Jesus that he is
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Lord, a Messiah on whatever he said or did, God would do.
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I love that. I love that, that confidence in
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Jesus that says Jesus, whatever you ask of the Father, he's
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going to do. So would you ask do this?
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She has some boldness to ask big prayer, ask big requests of
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Jesus. I think sometimes our prayers
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are too small because our belief in God is too small.
28:05
I'm, I'm not saying that God does whatever we tell him to do
28:08
or whatever we want him to do. I I'm just simply saying that
28:13
that often times our prayers are too small because our
28:16
perspective of God is too, is too small.
28:20
Our perspective on the world is too, too small.
28:23
We rely too much on our own knowledge of good and evil
28:27
rather than living as people who eat regularly from the tree of
28:32
life that we are invited into to eating.
28:34
We keep eating from our own knowledge of good and evil, our
28:37
own intellect. And we we elevate our mental
28:41
ascent above everything else. And I am all I, I, I please,
28:45
please hear me. I am not saying the Christian
28:47
faith is a blind faith. I think that's shallow and and
28:50
to be honest, stupid. It's not a blind faith.
28:53
There's evidence there are things that we anchor to.
28:56
There are there are things of Scripture is a thinker's a
29:00
thinker's book, right? Like you don't need to turn your
29:03
brain off when you go to the Scripture and just shut up and
29:05
believe it. The Bible said it, Therefore
29:07
it's true. Like I believe in the Bible.
29:08
The Bible is true. I believe it is inspired.
29:10
I believe it is there for us and, and helpful for our lives,
29:15
but, but we don't shut our brains off when we come to the
29:17
Bible and we just like become mute and that way.
29:20
I don't think that at all. I think there's reason and
29:23
rational and logic and insights and truths and, and just rich,
29:26
rich things of scripture that I think are absolutely right.
29:29
I, I don't think that we need to blindly do those things.
29:33
That's, that's not what it is at all.
29:34
My, I think our eyes are wide open to the reality of our
29:37
world. We're, we're, we're eyes wide
29:39
open to the truth of what's happening in our, in our midst.
29:42
I'm not trying to pretend like everything is OK.
29:45
The opposite is true because I recognize and see that the world
29:50
is not OK. My response is something that
29:54
I've predetermined to make my response.
29:57
In other words, it in here Jesus.
30:00
He was undeterred by the disciples fear.
30:04
He was undeterred by the the pressures of the crowd and the
30:10
opinions of other people that were misguided at him that they
30:16
were he was UN he was he was undeterred by even the the
30:20
hurdles that Martha is like, Lord, it's going to stink.
30:23
How about how about we not open this?
30:25
Can't we do this a different way?
30:27
Listen, Jesus was undeterred. He continued to live on purpose
30:31
and out a purpose because he had pre decided some priorities in
30:36
his mind. In other words, I think if we're
30:40
going to be people who have belief really shaped by God, and
30:43
that we're going to respond well when crises happen in our world,
30:48
when things feel feel, when everything in our world feels so
30:55
full of pressure or so senseless, I think the sensible
30:59
thing to do is live by your priorities, your principles, and
31:05
your practices. Let me say it this way.
31:09
You need to predetermine your priorities.
31:13
You need to predetermine your values.
31:17
You need to predetermine your practices of your life.
31:24
Why? Because if you don't, you will
31:27
allow the pressure of the moment to cause you to live and react
31:33
or be be be reactive rather than to be measured in your response.
31:39
I think Jesus modeled this so well.
31:41
He lived with value systems. He lived with mindsets.
31:46
He lived with predetermined priorities and practices, so
31:51
that pressure did not change who he was or how he responded.
31:56
And I think that's such a valuable thing.
31:58
As a church, we have we have some mindsets that we say
32:01
matter. These are our values, values
32:04
like that we are rooted in scripture and orthodoxy that we
32:08
are for people, that we, we love people deeply because God loves
32:12
people deeply. So we're going to make room for
32:14
people and help point people to Jesus so that they encounter
32:19
him. We are for people as a church.
32:21
We are together. We are unified.
32:23
We we refuse to be divisive or, or allow that chaos to rule and
32:28
reign. No, no, we want to dwell
32:30
together in unity. We want to be joyful and
32:33
generous in the things that we do.
32:34
We are together in the things that we, we do as a church that
32:38
we are focused. I mean, we, we don't do lots of
32:42
extra things, but we are focused and measured in the things that
32:45
we do. We, we major on a few things so
32:49
that we can have maximum impact in those things that we believe
32:53
God is inviting us into, which means that we constantly are
32:56
saying no to other things that are good, that are great, that
32:59
are, that are, that are cool, that are whatever.
33:02
So that we can stay focused on the priority of what we're
33:05
called to do. And and then finally, our our
33:08
fifth as a church is that we're advancing and we're not staying
33:11
stuck. We're not going back, but we are
33:13
advancing on the mission that God has for us, becoming the
33:17
radiant people of God, living out of faith that brings it to
33:22
life in real life, in real time. What are your values?
33:27
What are the things that matter to you?
33:30
What are the things that you are unwilling to let go of?
33:34
What are the things that you are willing to lose relationships
33:39
over? Those are your values.
33:42
You're already living out your your values.
33:45
I'm just asking, are your values and your priorities in alignment
33:51
and submission to Jesus as Lord? That's my question.
33:54
Are the priorities that you're living by, are they really
33:57
shaped by Jesus or are they shaped by you?
33:59
Are they shaped by your what you think is best?
34:02
Are they shaped by culture? What what, what are your values?
34:05
You're already living them out that they're already a part of
34:08
your life. Like there are certain things
34:10
lately for me, one priority I have is just sitting with the
34:14
Lord and getting up early and cold plunging.
34:16
It's just part of a rhythm that I have in my life.
34:20
And this morning I woke up, I, I got to sleep in a little bit
34:23
this morning. It was a long, long day of
34:26
ministry, Had two services. I was up at like 515 yesterday
34:31
morning cold plunging, getting ready for the day.
34:35
Had two services, a lot of great ministry and and times with
34:40
people, a lot of pouring out. Followed by a two hour elder
34:43
meeting. Went home for an hour came back
34:46
LED a class for for 2 1/2 hours or an hour and a half.
34:50
I was here for about two 2 1/2 hours got home.
34:53
It wasn't until like 7:30. I left my house that morning at
34:57
like 7:15 7/20. So it was a a full 12 hour day
35:01
of of just giving, giving, giving, mentally being engaged,
35:05
spiritually being engaged. But this, this morning, I got up
35:08
and repeated my practices. Why?
35:10
Because I have predetermined not to be emotional or responsive to
35:17
what I'm feeling in a moment. But I'm going to be measured and
35:20
lived by principles, by priorities, by values, and by my
35:25
practices to help move me in a direction that allows #1 Jesus
35:30
to be Lord and allows my affection and my attention to be
35:35
given to Him above all else. I'm living out those priorities.
35:41
My question to you is, are your values are your priorities?
35:45
Do you know what they are? Do they align with Jesus as King
35:49
and Lord? And the most important in your
35:52
life? What are the things that are non
35:53
negotiable in your life? Because when pressure comes,
35:57
those are the you will live according to your predetermined
36:01
priorities. And so you've got to
36:04
predetermine some priorities, and they need to be aligned with
36:06
Jesus as Lord and King, where he gets your affection and your
36:10
attention more than anything else.
36:11
They're not shaped by culture. They're not shaped by a
36:14
political agenda. They're not shaped by the nation
36:18
that you live. They are shaped by Jesus and the
36:20
Kingdom of God. Those priorities matter.
36:23
And how we respond in moments of pressure reveals what we believe
36:27
the most. Here's the third thing that I'll
36:30
say, and, and this will be a little condensed is I love real
36:35
life experience in Jesus. We talked about in real life
36:38
like, like resurrection comes in real life relationships in real
36:41
life matter. We talked about in the message
36:43
how resurrection is in real life and that Jesus is something is
36:47
someone that we experience in real life.
36:50
And, and I think that we don't have to hide real life
36:54
experiences from Jesus, but rather we can go to Jesus in the
36:59
midst of whatever we're encountering in real life and
37:02
know that he has experienced the same thing that we we have.
37:08
Even our deepest feelings, our most human experience, we can
37:12
take to Jesus and he can relate to it.
37:14
Why? Because he had the same human
37:17
experiences that we have. Again, he lost good friends.
37:22
We see in John 11 Jesus weeps. Now a lot of people may have
37:28
misinterpreted his weeping, may have misinterpreted his movement
37:32
two different times. It says Jesus was was deeply
37:35
troubled and moved in his spirit.
37:38
Now the words deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
37:42
The meaning of that word or those words or that phrase is
37:46
translated deeply moved, implying anger and indignation,
37:51
perhaps even outrage. That was something.
37:55
Jesus. Why did he weep?
37:56
Because he was outraged. There was some indignation and
38:00
some anger he was experiencing. It wasn't just that he was sad.
38:05
It was deeply troubling sorrow that got him moved to to tears.
38:11
It wasn't just a psychological empathy.
38:17
No, no, Jesus had sympathy and he had compassion.
38:21
I think those are the biblical words we need to anchor too, not
38:23
empathy. Maybe for another day, another
38:26
podcast. The question is, what was Jesus
38:29
so moved by? What was it that was moving
38:31
Jesus to feel that anger, indignation and outrage where he
38:35
was so deeply troubled in his spirit and soul?
38:39
Well, some commentators say this.
38:41
It says, was this caused by the sympathy of Jesus for the
38:44
sisters? The force of the verb seems to
38:47
be too strong for just sympathy. Was it because of the unreality
38:52
of the Jewish expression of grief where all of these people
38:55
were coming and just crying because that's what you do?
38:58
I think a lot of outrage on social media isn't because
39:02
people are actually moved or have a a real connection.
39:05
They're just joining in with the cultural frenzy.
39:09
They're just kind of swept up in the wave of cultural emotion.
39:13
And I think that was kind of happening.
39:14
All these these people are, they're grieving.
39:16
They're not really sorrowful. They didn't know Lazarus.
39:18
They didn't really care for Mary and Martha.
39:20
It's just kind of what you do. They're kind of responding with
39:23
like good vibes to you. Oh, sending good wishes.
39:27
It's not really you're stopping and praying.
39:29
You're just like saying you're praying or like, like that was
39:33
something that was kind of disturbed.
39:34
Is that what Jesus was disturbed by, by the Jewish expression of,
39:38
of the grief? This is at least a possibility,
39:42
since any show of hypocrisy may well have aroused Jesus's anger.
39:47
The commentary goes on to say this.
39:49
It may well be that something of the pathos of human suffering
39:53
was actually bearing on Jesus, as he knew that his own cup of
39:57
suffering was coming close. Is it possible that Jesus was
40:01
experiencing such anguish of his soul?
40:05
Because people were missing the point and he knew people were
40:09
going to respond and misunderstand him.
40:13
When he goes to the cross and dies, they're going to
40:16
misinterpret, they're going to bail, they're going to walk
40:18
away. They're going to have all sorts
40:20
of reasoning saying, well, if he was really the Son of God, he
40:23
could have saved himself, which they did say, just like they
40:26
said, well, if he was really the Son of God and he can open blind
40:28
eyes, surely he could have kept Lazarus from even dying.
40:31
Like the cynicism, maybe Jesus was experiencing that because he
40:36
knew his own cup of suffering was coming, the troubling of his
40:39
spirit proceeded from within. Perhaps it was his knowledge of
40:44
the strength of unbelief of some of the people who were around
40:48
who would oppose him. Even after witnessing Lazarus
40:51
being raised from the dead, they're still going to be
40:54
obstinate in their unbelief. You know, there are some people
40:57
whose hearts are so hard, it doesn't matter what they see,
41:00
experience or witness. Their unbelief is settled deep
41:05
into their heart already. They are so blind to the truth
41:09
of who Jesus is. Their hearts are so hardened
41:13
towards God. Perhaps that's what Jesus was
41:16
grieved by. Heart, hearts misunderstanding,
41:21
the hypocrisy that shows up. Jesus was grieved by that.
41:26
He was outraged. It was deep, deep sorrow.
41:30
And you can see verse 36 and 37 people respond to Jesus weeping.
41:36
They misinterpret why he was weeping.
41:38
They didn't really know. They assumed that they knew.
41:41
And then all of a sudden it says Jesus was deeply moved again and
41:43
said, all right, I'm just going to go, go on.
41:47
I'm going to go to the tomb. I'm not going to be deterred.
41:49
But Lord, it's going to smell. Here's the excuse of why you
41:52
shouldn't do this, Lord, here's why I can't trust you.
41:55
Here's why you shouldn't do this.
41:56
And Jesus, like, I'm going to do it anyways.
41:59
And sometimes, sometimes I think we have to have that same
42:06
commitment to following through that regardless of the excuses
42:10
that we have, we'll always have an excuse, always have an excuse
42:13
not to live by our priorities, always have an excuse not to
42:16
follow God, always have an excuse to not trust in God.
42:20
I think we need to to be so committed to communion with
42:23
Jesus that we don't let anything get in the way of living real
42:27
life with him. And, and I think one of the
42:31
reason Jesus took time before he went to be with Lazarus wasn't
42:38
just because he needed to raise. He wanted to do this sign of
42:42
raising Lazarus from the dead to point out the reality that he
42:45
has the power over death, which he does and he does and he
42:48
showed them. I also think part of it was
42:51
Jesus being patient enough, being slow enough, slow to react
42:56
and respond even when Lazarus died to take his time.
43:02
I mean, he was already dead one day.
43:03
He could have just shown up on that day.
43:04
All right, he's dead, let's bring him back now.
43:06
But that's not what he did. He waited four days, not 3, not
43:09
2, not one, but four. I think the reason Jesus waited
43:14
so long was because he knew how to walk in communion with God
43:21
and to trust God and to live in that way and, and, and he
43:26
himself was preparing his heart and soul for the very encounters
43:32
he would have. Jesus was living in real life.
43:35
And as he lived in real life, he had a real communion with the
43:39
Father too. And that's what he models for
43:41
us. And that's what we can step into
43:44
real rich communion with Jesus in real life today.
43:50
All right, let's get into a few questions and I'll share some
43:53
responses today. I just just remember after every
43:57
message, if you would like to submit a question to be answered
44:02
on that week's podcast, you can go right to our central hub.
44:07
And there's a spot in our sermon notes for that day where you can
44:10
click a link. It says, hey, ask a question and
44:13
you can submit a question. And if we don't get to it on the
44:15
podcast, we'll answer it directly.
44:17
But by and large, we're usually able to get to all of the
44:19
questions, questions here on on the podcast.
44:23
So if you, if you'd like to submit a question or as you're
44:26
sitting there in, in the message and, and a question comes to
44:29
mind, just go to the notes section there and, and, and find
44:33
that link to submit a question. And we'd love to, to be able to,
44:37
to answer your questions as as well.
44:40
Here's the first one today. If Jesus really is the
44:44
resurrection and the life, what does that mean for me when I'm
44:47
surrounded by so much loss and uncertainty in the world right
44:51
now? So first, I think it means that
44:55
we have hope even in the face of death, right?
44:58
If Jesus is the resurrection in the life and he is and he
45:02
through through our allegiance to him and belief that he is
45:06
Lord and Messiah and we're living under his Lordship, then
45:10
we know that the promise is resurrection life.
45:14
He's given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment and a foretaste
45:17
of that to come, which means he's going to quicken us in that
45:20
that same way. So we have hope even in the face
45:24
of death. We know that for believers,
45:28
Scripture says to be absent from the body is to be present with
45:32
the Lord in paradise. In other words, the place where
45:36
God is, the heavens, if you will, is where the Lord dwells,
45:42
where the Saints have gone. Those who have died before us
45:45
with faith in Jesus are present with him there and it's a a
45:53
disembodied experience. It's a spirit formed experience,
45:57
not a physical experience. The the the physical and the
46:01
spiritual are separated there, and so to be absent from the
46:06
body means that we are spiritually present with the
46:11
Lord where he is and in paradise in the beauty of it all.
46:15
We know that our spirit being our spirits, if we die before
46:21
Jesus returns, we'll be reunited in our body, resurrected at the
46:27
return of King Jesus. That's what Scripture teaches
46:31
us. And I think the confidence of
46:34
resurrection gives us courage to stand up for righteousness here
46:40
and now. I I think that's a big part of
46:43
of what it means. And I think each of us need to
46:47
be able to answer the question, am I willing to die for Jesus?
46:56
I think it's a valuable question.
46:58
Is your loyalty to King Jesus worth whatever it is you feel
47:04
like you need to give up? You know, we live in a land with
47:09
a ton of freedom and, and sometimes those freedoms are,
47:13
are threatened by other people's use of or abuse of their
47:18
freedom. And, and I think we need to take
47:22
inventory of our loyalty to Jesus and say what pressure that
47:26
the world would put on me, culture, a nation, a ruler, a
47:31
dictator, a president, a king, What, what, what, what, what
47:36
outward force, policy, procedure, cultural thing would
47:42
would cause me to not walk in loyalty to Jesus.
47:47
I think it's a valuable question.
47:50
I think it's one that we've got to check our hearts on.
47:53
I think that, yeah, there's a lot of loss, there's a lot of
47:56
uncertainty in the world. And I think the anchor for our
48:00
soul is the promise of resurrection, the promise that
48:04
God is with us, the promise that God cares for us, that we don't
48:08
need to fear that harm, knowing God will be with us.
48:13
And while I love life on this earth, I love the Lord more.
48:21
And I think that's an important perspective to hold in the midst
48:27
of being surrounded by so much loss and uncertainty.
48:31
And I, I think that while I want on the glory and the Kingdom of
48:37
God to be seen and visible and manifest on the earth, I don't
48:42
want to love the earth, the world, the comforts of our, our
48:46
land more. And I love God.
48:50
We are citizens of heaven, meaning we're to cultivate
48:54
heaven in the community and the colony that we live now, the
48:58
culture we live now. And so I think it's important to
49:03
know, but how do we have that? I think it just means that we
49:07
know that even in the face of death and uncertainty that there
49:11
is a certainty of our hold. Like I really do believe Jesus
49:17
is who he said he is. And I really do believe he was
49:19
raised from the dead. And I really do believe that
49:21
we're going to experience that in the life of the world.
49:24
That is is to come. Next question, how do I hold on
49:29
to hope when the news cycle feels like 1 long funeral
49:32
procession? Great question.
49:35
I I would agree it does sometimes feel like the news
49:38
cycle is like 1 long funeral procession or just like dose of
49:43
depression. I think part of it is we fix our
49:47
eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.
49:50
In other words, I'm looking to Jesus more than I'm looking to
49:53
culture or the news or the things of our world.
49:57
I go to Jesus often. I sit and I commune with him.
50:01
I just let his presence be known to me in that moment.
50:04
I, I often will repeat a prayer that I learned from John
50:08
Eldridge. It's a prayer as simple as this.
50:11
Jesus, I give everyone and everything to you right now.
50:15
What are the things I'm holding on to?
50:16
I'll name them and I'll give them to Jesus.
50:19
The relationships that are troubling me, I name them and I
50:22
give them to Jesus. I will use that prayer
50:25
throughout my day and I just refuse to let anything within
50:33
me, anything that I'm experiencing, anything that I'm
50:37
observing, anything that's troubling me, I refuse to let
50:41
any of that go unsaid to God. I won't always share with people
50:46
my frustrations, but I will always trying to be better at
50:51
sharing those with the Lord. He's the safe tower we run to
50:54
and find salvation. He's the rock of our salvation.
50:58
No other person is the rock for us.
51:01
It's just Jesus. And so I really do believe that
51:04
in going to him, releasing those things, giving them to him,
51:07
naming them out loud, whether it be a situation, an emotion, a a
51:15
perspective, a troubling, just an overwhelming sense, I can
51:20
name that to God and give that to Jesus.
51:23
I can release it to him. I can bring that to him.
51:26
And in so doing, we, we, we know he hears us in that way.
51:30
And so we fix our eyes on Jesus. What are the promises of God?
51:34
What does he say? Get to know those things.
51:37
I think one of the reasons we read the Scripture in Hebrews on
51:41
Sunday that says let's leave the elementary teachings of our
51:45
faith and graduate into maturity.
51:48
I think if if you're finding yourself having a hard time with
51:53
hope, you need to get into the Word and study the reality of
51:58
God and who he is and his promises and understand it more
52:01
so that your hope grows through the word of God.
52:05
That the the word of God creates the image of hope in our minds
52:09
and our imagination so that we grow with that rather than
52:13
feeding ourselves the the sick cycle of the news cycle.
52:18
Like like what you meditate on you all becoming.
52:22
So behold, something different. Think of something different.
52:26
And so I think meditating on the truth of who God is, the
52:29
scriptures, understanding the scriptures, getting a hold of
52:33
those things. That really is what builds
52:34
builds your hope, your fidelity and your your your framework
52:38
even. And so renewing your mind, going
52:40
to Jesus often being with him really, really important.
52:44
And I would say if you're having trouble kind of bouncing back,
52:48
I'm actually going to, I refer you to to three resources all by
52:52
by John Eldridge. He's an author, he's a
52:55
psychologist, he's a follower of Jesus.
52:58
And I'm just really appreciated his work over the years.
53:03
But he wrote two books, one called Resilient and the other
53:07
called an Experiencing Jesus, really.
53:10
And he has an app that's free called the Pause App.
53:15
And there are a guided spiritual kind of prayers that you can
53:21
walk through that help you deepen and enrich communion with
53:24
God and get into the depths of your heart and soul and get out
53:28
of the shallow areas, but really get to the root of where you are
53:32
and develop rich union and communion with Jesus.
53:36
And so 2, those two books, Resilient and the book
53:41
Experiencing Jesus really along with his free app, those have
53:44
been really helpful in my life, just helping me get out of the
53:48
cycle of feeling like it's one long funeral possession and
53:52
being sad and disheartened. It's really helped me engage
53:56
with the Lord in a rich, rich way.
53:58
And so it's been helpful to me. Maybe it would be helpful to
54:01
some of you as well. The here's the next question.
54:05
How do I let myself be known when vulnerability feels risky
54:10
and cancel culture is so real, real, real honest question here.
54:16
I think so. I'm growing in my ability to be
54:22
appropriately vulnerable with the appropriate people.
54:27
One thing that I I do believe as a professor, I always am an
54:31
honest in representing myself. I just don't always give all of
54:36
myself to everyone. I think there's wisdom in that.
54:40
There should be wisdom in that for you.
54:41
Why? Because there are circles of
54:43
relationship. Like we talked about on Sunday,
54:46
we all need rich spiritual friendship and that spiritual
54:50
friendship that really is life giving that forms and shapes us
54:53
are are committed to depth, vulnerability and to a vow of
54:59
transformation to to grow together and learn.
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I think those things are are necessary.
55:05
The first time you have coffee with somebody, you're you're
55:08
probably not going to be vulnerable.
55:10
You can be honest. You can even be transparent and
55:12
some be authentic, but you don't need to necessarily be
55:16
vulnerable. Why?
55:17
Because relationships are trusted as far as they've been
55:21
tested. And that testing doesn't mean
55:22
that you're doing things intentionally just to like, mess
55:25
with them. No, it just means that there's
55:27
been enough time that, you know, all right, I've sat in this
55:31
chair long enough, I know it's going to hold me up.
55:35
I've been to this person and walked with them enough to know
55:40
they can hold the weight of what it is that I want to share.
55:44
Relationships are trusted as far as they've been tested.
55:47
So time is needed for that that testing for for me in my life,
55:52
those that I am most vulnerable with.
55:54
It starts with small prayers like hey, could would you pray
55:57
with me about this? And they would pray not
56:00
necessarily ask a lot of questions.
56:02
And then then they didn't go gossip about it.
56:04
They didn't go share that with seven other people.
56:07
No, they just held it and they prayed about it.
56:09
That's one way you begin other ways that modeling, right?
56:13
Like I want to model responses that I would want someone to
56:16
give me. So when somebody is telling me
56:19
about something that's troubling in their day, I'm going to
56:21
respond in a caring way that I would want them to respond to
56:26
me. So I'm modeling those things.
56:28
And in the course of our relationship, I'm going to
56:32
continue to be curious, not convicting or condemning.
56:35
In other words, I want to understand them, understand
56:38
more, because that's what I want them to do to me.
56:40
I want them to understand me, not misunderstand me.
56:45
So how do we be vulnerable #1 You're never going to get over
56:49
the fact that it's a risk. Relationships are risky, but
56:52
relationships are worth it. Remember, Jesus took the risk.
56:57
He loved you before you loved him.
57:00
Jesus went first in risking love knowing that you had the power
57:05
to reject him. That's why relationships matter.
57:08
Because relationships that are rich and deep know that they
57:12
have already walked through the fact that you could reject me,
57:15
but you choose not to. You could distance yourself from
57:18
me, but you don't. That's why a relationships
57:22
becomes rich. And yeah, cancel culture is
57:23
real. Yes, there are things that
57:25
people can say and do or whatever, but at the end of the
57:27
day, the community of faith is more important.
57:32
The community with the followers of Jesus is essential.
57:36
And so I want to move in that. And so when you focus
57:40
relationships like that more on Christ than on cultural
57:44
similarities, you have a good starting point.
57:48
I am not really vulnerable with people who don't have some
57:53
maturity or some rich relationship with Christ on
57:56
their own in their own life, because I want the relationship
58:00
to be based on Christ, not cultural similarities, not
58:04
hobbies, not stage of life. Because there's a lot of people
58:09
in my stage of life that I wouldn't trust to be vulnerable
58:12
with. There's a lot of people that
58:13
have the same hobbies as me that I'm not going to really allow
58:17
the weight of who I am to be bared by them.
58:20
I don't know that they could support that just because we
58:22
have the same hobby or just because we're in the same stage
58:25
of life or just because we go to the same same church.
58:28
There's some real rich relationships in Christ that I
58:31
want them to have and then I want to have.
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And that becomes the focus in my relationships, not any other
58:38
other thing. And I think you have to be maybe
58:42
someone who's seen some care for them before you're vulnerable.
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So care before you unveil. Here's what I mean.
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Do you care for each other in just normal practical ways?
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It has there been a sense of real, genuine care given to you
59:01
and that you've given to them. You need to see that level of
59:04
care before you unveil the vulnerabilities of your life.
59:08
That's that's part of the the trusting and testing process.
59:12
And at the end of the day, just know no other human will heal my
59:17
wounds, only Jesus can. So I'm working on being healthy
59:21
because I want the communion with Jesus to be rich and real.
59:25
So I want the Lord to keep healing me, keep unwinding the
59:29
things that have me bound. I keep looking for Jesus to heal
59:31
me. And know that while
59:33
relationships are a blessing and a benefit to the healing
59:36
process, ultimately it's Jesus who heals me.
59:39
It's Jesus who tends to me. It's Jesus who forgives me.
59:42
It's Jesus who upholds me. He's Jesus who sustains me.
59:45
And so I'm not going to substitute a human relationship
59:49
for a relationship with Jesus. I, I, I need both.
59:54
And I'm going to make sure I'm sourcing in the right way in
59:58
those things. And so it's always going to be a
1:00:00
bit risky. Give it some time, but lean
1:00:02
into, you have to be intentional with building those
1:00:04
relationships. They're not going to happen by
1:00:06
osmosis and they're not going to happen just because you want
1:00:09
them to. They happen because you work on
1:00:11
those kinds of relationships. What do I do with my anger,
1:00:18
sorrow, or disappointment when even Jesus himself wept?
1:00:22
Does that mean grief has a place in my faith?
1:00:26
100% it means that it we do. I've heard people say that
1:00:33
Jesus, there's a scripture in Isaiah that says Jesus took our
1:00:37
griefs and bore our sorrows on the cross and heard people say
1:00:40
that because Jesus took our grief and bore our sorrows, then
1:00:43
we don't need to grieve anymore. I think that's a misapplication
1:00:48
of that because Jesus himself said blessed are those who
1:00:53
mourn, for they will be comforted.
1:00:55
In other words, to experience the comfort of the Holy Spirit
1:00:59
you have to 1st mourn. The reason God gave us a book of
1:01:02
lamentations and the reason the majority of the Psalms that you
1:01:06
read in the Old Testament are lamenting, grieving Psalms is
1:01:11
because the proper place to grieve is with the Lord.
1:01:16
He's the one that gave us that. And so we can grieve, we can
1:01:20
weep, we can mourn, we can. God can handle the full bearing
1:01:25
of our emotional experience, our human experience.
1:01:29
They don't have to be sugar coated.
1:01:31
They don't have to be anything. In fact, I've been thinking
1:01:34
about this. I've probably said it before,
1:01:35
but I don't. The only place we see venting in
1:01:40
Scripture is in the Psalms when David vents to the Lord.
1:01:45
We don't really see another person venting to another person
1:01:48
and it be healthy because I don't think another human being
1:01:53
can handle the unfiltered weight of our opinions, thoughts,
1:01:57
feelings without it negatively impacting them.
1:02:01
And it's in some way like it's just too much for someone to
1:02:07
really know us and to to do that.
1:02:10
And I think we need, we need to be honest.
1:02:12
We can be a transparent, there are some relationships that can
1:02:16
handle more of that kind of weight, but they can't handle
1:02:19
all of it all the time, but God can.
1:02:23
Emotions are something that God has given to us.
1:02:27
Emotions are like instruments in your dashboard of your car.
1:02:31
They are indicating to you something that is going on in
1:02:35
the reality, under the hood, in your inner world.
1:02:38
And so emotional things point to things we are believing.
1:02:44
Not everything we believe is true, but we must be honest
1:02:50
about that. When you are feeling the sorrow,
1:02:53
the disappointment, the emotion, whatever that is, it's OK to go
1:02:57
to God. Name the emotion God.
1:02:59
I am feeling incredibly infuriated right now.
1:03:04
Would you help me understand why?
1:03:06
What's underneath my ache? Is it because I feel scared?
1:03:11
And So what I really need is a sense of safety right now?
1:03:14
Is that why I'm angry? Am I angry because there's an
1:03:17
injustice going on? And, and what really is, is that
1:03:20
I, I'm afraid that people aren't experiencing care and love.
1:03:24
There are other people out there who are, who are being hurt.
1:03:27
And, and there's a sense of, of, of wanting to protect and bring
1:03:30
security into the world. And I, I feel unsecure in this
1:03:34
world. Maybe is that why I'm feeling
1:03:36
the way I'm feeling? I think we can name the emotion
1:03:39
to God and then ask what's motivating or underneath the
1:03:43
emotion to explore it, to sit with it, to examine it.
1:03:47
Grief and lament are an invitation to be loved in the
1:03:51
presence of God in that moment. I'll say it again.
1:03:55
Grief and and lamenting are invitations to be loved by the
1:04:01
presence of God in that moment. They give us a perspective that
1:04:05
we wouldn't otherwise have of God.
1:04:08
We get to see God in a moment like that where we would maybe
1:04:12
not see Him before we get a glimpse of His goodness.
1:04:15
What was it Job did? Job was being honest with God,
1:04:21
started talking to God instead of his friends, and when he
1:04:24
started talking to God instead of his friends about the trouble
1:04:28
that he was in, what happens? God responded.
1:04:31
God didn't answer his questions or his demands, but God did
1:04:34
respond. And how did God respond?
1:04:37
He responded with his loving presence.
1:04:40
If you're talking to everyone but God, you're talking to all
1:04:44
the wrong people. I'm not saying it's wrong to
1:04:46
process with people. That's what I'm saying.
1:04:48
I'm not saying it's wrong to, to be in therapy and pay somebody
1:04:51
to help you process your, your inner world.
1:04:54
I think that's perfectly good. That's great.
1:04:55
I, I believe in that wholeheartedly.
1:04:57
What I'm saying is that if you're willing to talk to
1:05:00
everyone but God, you're you're not talking to the creator who
1:05:05
can help you understand what's really happening inside of you
1:05:10
because he knows, he sees, he understands, he he knows fully
1:05:14
well every thought and its motivation.
1:05:16
He knows it all. So you need to sit with him.
1:05:20
You need to take it to the Lord. He's the one who can do so.
1:05:23
He's the one who can heal you. He's the one that can restore
1:05:26
you and love you back to it. And so when Job stopped talking
1:05:29
to his friends, inventing and and he started taking it to God,
1:05:34
God responded. And God responded with his
1:05:36
loving presence and nearness. And that reset Job's heart in a
1:05:43
right place and brought healing to him.
1:05:45
And Jesus does it in the garden. Jesus does it throughout his
1:05:48
life, getting away with the Lord.
1:05:49
And Jesus taught us to do the same thing.
1:05:52
It's the final question. How can I keep from letting
1:05:55
grief or fear harden me instead of forming in me #1 remember,
1:05:59
blaming never helps foster relationships.
1:06:02
So when you start blaming, you actually are distancing yourself
1:06:06
in a relationship, not bringing healing or reconciliation in a
1:06:09
relationship. So when you start blaming
1:06:12
everything and everyone and other things, you're, you're not
1:06:15
really drawing near to the Lord or getting close to those ways.
1:06:18
You're just kind of fostering more, more disgruntledness.
1:06:22
And so I think #1 it's good to name the grief, name the pain,
1:06:27
name the damage and the evil that has been done.
1:06:31
Don't sugarcoat it. Don't use generalities.
1:06:34
Name it. Name the evil, name, names, Name
1:06:37
the grief, name the pain, name the frustration, name it.
1:06:41
And remember, God is listening, and he is the one who always
1:06:47
understands. God will never misunderstand
1:06:51
what you say. God will never misinterpret what
1:06:54
you say. God will never malign you for
1:06:59
what you say. He is an understanding God.
1:07:03
He hears you. He is not afraid of your
1:07:07
emotions. He is not afraid of your pain.
1:07:08
He's not afraid of your baggage. In fact, He responds in a loving
1:07:12
way that will wash you, clean you, restore you, refresh you,
1:07:18
be with you. He is closer than close.
1:07:23
He is nearer than near. He is the God who sees and the
1:07:26
God who understands. And I am so very thankful.
1:07:31
Over the last 3-4 years I have gotten to to see that glimpse
1:07:36
where I've, I've realized that God, He hears not only my my
1:07:40
aches, my prayers, my complaints, my frustrations.
1:07:43
He, He wants me to name the pain and name the evil and name the
1:07:46
sorrow, and He understands. He never misunderstands me.
1:07:51
He always draws near and comes with me when I invite Him to
1:07:55
come close. So invite the Lord to come
1:07:57
close. Share what's on your heart, talk
1:07:59
to Him and allow that to be. I think prayer is such an
1:08:03
unburdening of our soul, and it allows us to be blessed by the
1:08:08
presence of His peace and by his very, very loving presence in
1:08:13
and near us. Hey, that's it for this episode
1:08:17
of the Faith for Today podcast, episode 39.
1:08:20
I hope this has helped you experience Jesus in real life.
1:08:25
He is the resurrection and He is life for you and for me.
1:08:29
Hey, until next time, just no friends.
1:08:30
You're loved. I'll see you next week.