PART II: What I’ve Learned In A Low Place 

Posted on May 17, 2024 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 05.12.24

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Psalm 40:1-3 KJV
1 I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.

I.         INTRODUCTION 

  1. Life is the best teacher. Some of us have gone through so much, we have enough credit hours to say that we have a degree in adversity. As you experience life, your perspective changes. You don’t see circumstances the way you used to.
  2. For every season we go through, there is a lesson. Low seasons can stretch you like nothing else. It puts a demand on your faith.
  3. Today David chronicles the pit as a horrible pit. The pit is translated from the word, Sheol, the same word where we get the words Hades or Hell. In essence, referring to the horrible pit, David is saying he is in a living hell.
  4. Our pit doesn’t have to be just physical. It can be spiritual, financial, emotional, and even mental. The pit reminds us that we will experience low places in our lives.
  5. Just because you’re in a low place, doesn’t mean you have to stay low. When your perspective changes, you can still see God working in these low seasons.
  6. When you read the Psalms, you have to realize that they are songs. They were songs that were about what was being experienced at that time. David pins this Psalm today, out of an experience that he had gone through.
  7. David picked this particular experience to write about, but David had a lot of experiences he could have pulled from. Remember David defeated Goliath the giant? David experienced betrayal from his own son too. He even experienced jealousy from Saul who turned on him. David also receives moral favor from God, over his indiscretions with Bathsheba. David saw that God was a forgiving God.
  8. David had a lot of reasons to pin this Psalm. Know that God will bring you out of your low place. The scripture today starts out by saying David waited patiently on the Lord.

II.         I’M SPIRITUALLY PATIENT 

  • David is saying that even his wait needs to learn to wait.  Psalm 27:14 NKJV says 14 Wait[a] on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!, Job 14:14 NKJV says 14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, Till my change comes.
  • When you wait, you have to wait right, you can’t wait with anxiety.
  • David said he waited patiently on the Lord. In other words, David was saying he trusted God in his low place. While we are waiting, we must continue to serve. David served while he was waiting on God.

A.  Sometimes You Have To Serve While Struggling 

  1. The waiter in a restaurant has developed the capacity to serve you. No matter how busy he or she is, they continue to serve you. Likewise, we are going to have to serve God in the midst of all that we are going through.
  2. Can you continue doing what God asked you to do, while he is delays you? You have to still be what God called you to be, despite what you might be going through.
  3. We serve the Lord with gladness and come before His presence with thanksgiving!

B.  Your Cry Has Not Gone Unnoticed 

  1. David says while waiting patiently, he also cried out to God and God heard him. Know that your cry has not gone unnoticed.
  2. When a child cries in a public place, somebody will probably say, “Someone ought to go check on the baby” or “Will somebody do something to make that baby stop crying?”. You start out being concerned about the baby, but later it turns to being annoyed.  
  3. If it is your child, there’s a whole different response. You have the ability to interpret gibberish. You know the cry of your child over any other baby. By the cry of her child, a mother knows exactly what her baby wants.
    1. How’s does she interrupt the cry? It is because of their connection. Just like this, God interprets our cries. Romans 8:26 NKJV says 26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession [a]for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. When we don’t know what to pray, the Holy Spirit makes intercessions for us.
  4. Know that God hears you. God not only hears you, but He also has a plan for you!

III.         HE SAVED ME FROM THE PIT 

  • We don’t appreciate salvation until getting into a situation where we can’t save ourselves.

A.  The Enemy Designed Your Pit To Be Permanent 

  1. The enemy wants you to be imprisoned by your pit. No matter how deep your pit is, God makes plans for your deliverance.
  2. You must see the hand of God in the midst of your situation.
  3. What is miry clay mentioned in the scripture? It is slippery clay. Every time David tried to come out, he slipped right back into his situation. We often are just like David. We’re almost out of our situation and something comes, and you slip right back into it.

B.  Only God Could Get You Out Of This 

  1. Sometimes your pit is just a setup to show you that you can’t do it on your own. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.
  2. When God shows up, he shows up to bring you out of it. God came to see about you!
  3. God is bringing you out of your situation even while you are reading this. If God brought Daniel out of Lion’s den, God can bring you out!  If God can deliver the 3 Hebrew boys out of the fiery furnace, He can bring you out!! We thank God not after we come out. We thank God even when we can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
  4. God doesn’t just bring you out. He established David’s going. That means God cares how you look when you come out.
  5. When you’ve been in a situation, it is hard to trust a new place. It’s like being in a bad relationship and you go into a new one, looking for something horrible to happen.

IV.         HE STABLALIZED MY PATH 

  • God is about to put you in a stable place.

A.  I’m Standing On A Solid Foundation 

  1. God is intentional by placing you somewhere solid. God is going to stabilize you. The rock is a foundation of your faith.
  2. The Word is a lamp unto my feet a light unto my path. It is a solid foundation. God is stabilizing everything in your life.
  3. After you come out stable:

B.  I’m Only Going Where He’s Leading 

  • God established David’s going. The real metric of your maturity is you don’t want to go places that don’t have value.
  1. Don’t Move In Your Feelings, Move By Faith – You can’t trust your feelings. You have to move by faith, not your feelings.
    1. Your feelings are subject to change.
  2. Don’t Let Your Friends Have More Influence Than Your Father – Your friend circle can lead you down the wrong path.
    1. Have you ever had the courage to go solo and be all by yourself?
  3. Don’t Let The Temporary Fun Cause You To Forfeit Your Future – It might be fun on the front end, but it might be fatal for your future.
    1. We are not going anywhere unless God leads us there!

V.         MY SONG IS PUBLIC 

  • He put a new song in his mouth. Songs in the Bible wasn’t just music. Songs in the Bible were stories about a moment. A song should always remind us of a moment.
  • In Exodus 14, the Children of Israel were delivered from Egypt. In Exodus 15, they sang a song of their deliverance.
  • When you hear your song, the words will take you back. When you hear your song, you want people to know this is your jam.
  • If the song is not just a song, it is an experience.

A.  He Gave Me Another Reason To Bless Him 

  1. God gives you a pit, so that you can get a new song and a brand-new praise!!
  2. The Pit gives:
  3. New Insight – My perspective is different.
    1. New Intimacy – I see God different.
    1. New Intensity – My praise is different.
  4. The intensity of your praise is counterbalanced by your pit. If your cry was intense in the pit, then your praise needs to be just as intense, when you come out!
  5. Story: Bishop was at his Daughter’s Field Day event. He noticed that people started chanting, “We can’t hear you”. The reason for this was to get the crowd engaged and as a result, give the team more motivation to win.
    1. We can learn from this action. Our praise will encourage someone and motivate them to keep on trying, even though things may seem hard.

B.  Your Praise Has Power To Persuade 

  1. The pit is not always about you. It sometimes is about who you are attached to. It teaches them that they don’t have to be depressed about what they are going through.
  2. Paul and Silas praised God at midnight. When they sang praises to God, everyone’s chains came off, not just theirs. This praise is for everyone!
  3. One thing we have learned, if we praise God while we are in the pit, God will come and see about us!!
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PART I: God Is Up To Something In You And Through You 

Posted on May 13, 2024 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 05/05/2024 

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III 

Philippians 2:13 KJV
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

I.          INTRODUCTION

  1. We should all be aware that God is at work in our lives. Before he formed you in your Mother’s womb, he knew you. God is actively involved in your arrival.
  2. Nothing just happens. When you look at your life and the events in your life, you think it is just for the moment, but know that they are tied to something much bigger. We must see ourselves on a journey and the events as something to get us to a place He has set for us.
  3. Eventually when you get there, you will realize that God was at work in your life the whole time. No matter the pain, you must know that God is at work on your behalf.
  4. In the scripture, Paul writes to the church of Philippi. He is concerned that they must become what God wants them to become.
  5. Paul reminds them that God will supply all of their needs and God will take care of them, just as the church had taken care of Paul. As a result, we find assurances of God’s help in the book of Philippians. For example, we see scriptures like, “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me”.
  6. Although God will supply our needs, we must work out our own salvation. God is at work for us. We have a human responsibility, however, to do what we can do and then God will do by grace, what we can’t do.
  7. God has started and completed something. He is now waiting on you to start it or catch up to what he has already started and completed for us. God sees further down the road than we can see. He already knows how the story ends.
  8. God is at work through us.

II.          THE POWER OF DIVINE PERSPECTIVE

  • You can’t look at your situation through human lenses. Don’t attribute all of your difficult seasons to being that of the devil. Everything bad is not of the devil. Sometimes God will allow things to better us.
  • God allows diverse moments because:
    • Sharpens Your Discernment – You can see clearer now, because of the situation God allowed.
    • For Your Spiritual Development – Look how you’ve grown. You wouldn’t be reading this now, if you hadn’t gone through what you’ve gone through in the past.
    • To Situate You For Destiny – God has taken you out of places and put you into other places. God was situating you. Some see opposition, when you see opportunity.

A.    He’s Working In All Of It 

  1. God is at work through all of it. The rain comes and no one likes the rain, but they like how good the yard looks afterwards. Your lawn looks good, because of the rain. There are benefits in the things that seem inconvenient to you.
    1. Job saw God in the midst of all that he was going through. Despite all that Job went through, in the midst of it, he could tell that God was up to something. This is why he said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him”. James says in James 1:2-4 NKJV, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
  2. God has not abandoned you. He is walking with you through it!

B.  He’s Working In You 

  1. All of us are becoming. We never arrive, but we are always striving to become. You are always growing and learning from all that you go through. Stop being hard on yourself because you are becoming!
  2. Sanctification – This is a process where we gradually become holy. It’s not an instantaneous thing like some people think.  
  3. Types of sanctification:
    1. Positional Sanctification – We are set apart by faith. We are declared holy by Him. We can’t work or serve ourselves in holiness.
    1. Progressive Sanctification – This is an ongoing process where we gradually become more like Christ. It is transformation by the Holy Spirit.
    1. Ultimate Sanctification – This is when you die and go to heaven, and you are made completely Holy. As long as you are in flesh, you have to work out your salvation. For example: Your car is dirty. Puddles and weather has caused your car to be dirty, so you go to a  car wash to get it washed. When you go to get the car washed, this represents Position Sanctification. The act of getting your car washed is representative of Progressive Sanctification. You are in the process of getting clean.
  4. Now you have to determine what kind of wash you want. This is determined by the level of investment that you are willing to make.
  • What kind of wash do you want for example? You may pick a basic wash, because you are cheap. The basic wash only covers the outside. The problem with this is, you look good on the outside, but the inside still looks terrible. Some people want the basic sanctification. This means they are holy looking on the outside, but on the inside, they are still nasty.
  • Look at how patient and resilient you have become. One of the scriptures says, maybe it was good that I was afflicted. Philippians 1:6 says6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; – God will always make certain he gets out of us what he needs for His plan.

III.          THE PLAN TO DEVELOP PROVIDENTIALLY

  • We weren’t designed to be static. When you are progressive, you have to be moving.
  • Actions tell me where you are on the spectrum of spirituality, not your age. There are those that have been in church all their lives, but they still act like infants.
    • On your job, people make you mad and if you haven’t been saved long, we expect that you might act out, but after 15 yrs of being saved, we don’t expect you to act the same over such situations. When you’ve matured spiritually, we expect you to act a little better and be able to better withstand things that challenge you spiritually.
  • Jesus took 12 men to develop. They became the Twelve Disciples. Any relationship needs a development journey.

A.    Don’t Fight The Process 

  1. We naturally fight the things that are difficult for us. Stop trying to just take the easy path. Take the path that will develop you.
  2. It is in the “no” responses from God, that He develops us the most.

B.  It’s Not About Where You Are, But Where You Are Going 

  1. It’s never about your right now, it’s always about where God is taking you. The size of your trial is always an indication of your blessing coming your way. God is setting you up for greater up the road.

IV.          THE PROCESS DISCLOSES PURPOSE

  • Purpose is only revealed in the process.

A.  There Is No Revelation Without A Situation 

  1. Everyone wants a revelation. Revelation never comes without a situation. For instance, the scripture says, “In the year that King Isaiah died… (this is situation), I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled the temple (this is revelation). Paul was struck off his horse on Damascus Road (this is situation), then the Lord asked, “why are you persecuting me” and his name was changed from Saul to Paul (this is revelation).

B.    There Is A Season When It Will All Make Sense 

  1. We will understand it better by and by as the song says. Genesis 50:20 NKJV says 20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. – God meant it for my good.
    1. Remain Righteous – Don’t allow what happens to you to change you. You’ve got to be who you’ve always been.
    1. Remain Resilient – Don’t let people run you away from your purpose.
    1. Remain Resolute – Stay focused on your assignment.

V.          THE PRAISE WHEN DESTINY IS PROMISED

  • Praise happens when I know destiny is promised. God is doing this for His good pleasure. God knows what its going to look like down the road. If God allowed it, its going to bless you.

A.  If God Allowed It, It’s Going To Bless You 

  1. Whatever happens, if He allowed it, it will eventually bless you.

B.    It Was All For His Glory 

  1. You have to tap into those things and not be bitter, but instead be better.
  2. Every situation gave us a revelation. Everything we go through doesn’t feel good, but it’s necessary.
  3. Even though your route has changed, your destination is the same.
    1. Bishop tells the story of getting on a plane, trying to get back home in time to attend his daughter’s Birthday Party. There was a report of severe turbulence, so the Pilot told everyone that he would have to take another route back to Nashville. Even though they had to go out of the way, the plane ended up in Nashville on time, even though they still had to fight some turbulence on the alternate route.
    1. Know that if God changes your route, you still have a guaranteed destination. God is always up to something in and through you, even if you might not see it right now!!
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PART II: Why We Act Like This 

Posted on April 19, 2024 by growintheword

 

Synopsis of Sermon 04.14.24

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

Luke 19: 37-40 KJV
37 And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; 38 Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. 39 And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. 40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. First, we must explain to you that today’s sermon is an Apology Sermon. It is not so much apologizing for something that was done wrong, but rather explain why we as believers, do some of the things that we do.
  3. There is something different about children of God. It is not by accident that you see demonstrative acts of praise. When you see people praise God the way they do, you think something may be wrong with you.
  4. When you experience the goodness of God, it initiates acts of praise. The way people act is often under scrutiny by They don’t know all that God has done in your life. When you know what you know, it just shows up!
  5. Our praise is not an emotional residue. It is reflective based on what God has done in our lives. We praise God in a way that makes others think we have lost our mind! There is a reason we act like we act.
  6. Today’s lesson takes place in Jericho. There were many things occurring there. There was a lot of wheeling and dealing going on, especially among Tax Collectors.
  7. The citizens were under Roman rule. When Tax Collectors showed up to collect taxes, they would often take more than they were supposed to. They kept a little something for themselves. In essence, they were actually robbing people.
  8. As a result, the people hated the Tax Collectors. Jesus actually engages Zacchaeus, the Chief Tax Collector, when culture says that He shouldn’t. Culture says that we as believers, were not supposed to keep company with sinners.
  9. As a result with Jesus’ meeting with Zacchaeus, he later repents, and Jesus let him know that there was a place for him at the table and in the Kingdom of God.
  10. When Jesus first came to town, the crowd was shouting Hosanna! Hosanna means, “Lord save, we pray”. When Jesus comes into town the Pharisees are upset. They were angry because the people said He was King and that he claimed to be the son of God. Also, on top of all of this, they had to put up with this extra noise, with them all shouting!
  11. The Pharisees asked Jesus to tell his disciples to shut up. Jesus tells the Pharisees that if they would shut up, the very rocks would cry out.
  12. There is a reason we praise God.

 

  1. WE REMEMBER WHAT HE HAS DONE
  • When you mature, you see God working in everything, both good and bad. God doesn’t always give us just the things that make us feel good.
  • You have to give God glory both when He says “no” and when he says “yes”.
  • Why are we praising God?

 

  1. He Made Ways
  2. There were blockages and barriers in their way, but the crowd says that they have seen God make ways out of no way. They were witnesses to his many miracles.
    1. When you have seen God make ways out of no way, its hard to keep you praise to yourself.

 

  1. Give Him Glory For What He Is Going To Do
  2. It’s one thing to praise Him for what he’s done but praising Him on what He is going to do next, is a whole other thing. We don’t have to wait until he does a thing, to give Him praise!

C.   Phases of Praise:

  1. There are 3 phases of Praise.
    1. Process Praise – I learn to praise God in the thing, not after I come out!
    2. Post Praise – You come out of a thing and have the sense to know who brought you through it!
    3. Prophetic Praise – On faith, you praise God on what you know that He can do. You know the battle is already won!

III.               THE RESPONSE OF HIS DISCIPLES

  • The Pharisees said tell the disciples to be quiet.

A.    Disciples Know Who He Is

  1. Being a Disciple is different than being a Member.
  2. 5 characteristics of a disciple
  3. They are Followers of Jesus no matter what– Matthew 15:24 KJV says 24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
  4. They Love God and others– Matthew 22:37 KJV says 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
  5. They Bear fruit – John 15:5 NKJV 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
  6. They Obey Jesus’ teaching. –John 14:21 NKJV says 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and [a]manifest Myself to him.”
  7. They are Disciples that make disciples– Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV 19 Go [a]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [b]Amen.
  8. People identify you, because you act like you know who God is! When things don’t work out the way you plan for them to, you will still say he is Jehovah Jireh, my provider!

B.    We’ve Seen Too Much To Be Silent

  1. When you come into relationship with God:
  2. Teaching– I start getting information.
  3. Testimony – God will not let you be privy to what he teaches you, without testing you on it.
  4. Truth– This is where revelation happens. Now I understand why God had me go through what I went through. God was trying to show me the truth about me and the people around me, and it showed me who He was!
  5. I’ve seen some things – You can’t see what you see and be silent about it!

IV.               THERE IS A REMNANT THAT’S DEFIANT

  • There is always a remnant of people that are silent or noisy on purpose.

A.    Our Noise Is A Nuisance To Some

  1. Praise can be disruptive. Some people think you praise God too much.
  2. Noise is the language of the If noise is the language, then it has to be directed. It’s not like nouns and verbs. It is a conglomeration of expression. You can’t quantify it. When you say how good God has been, you can’t find the words to articulate it.
  3. Liberated is to be separated from something. David said I waited patiently on the Lord… he put a new song in my mouth. God gave him a sound that didn’t make sense to other people.

B.    Religion Tries To Censor Your Praise

  1. The disciples represent relationship. The Pharisees represent religion.
  2. Pharisees had a certain way of responding to God. By this new way didn’t make sense to them.
  3. The silk-stocking church. The silk-stocking church was a dignified church. They were the type that didn’t want the stranger on the street to come in. They didn’t want you to make too much noise during the worship experience.
    1. When people became more educated, they thought you had to act a certain way, hence “act like you got some sense”. They felt like the services should be dignified and not noisy.
    2. Generation X disrupted the silk-stocking church. We got degrees and came in praising God. We made God a promise in the financial aid line that if he would see us through, we would praise Him wherever we would go!

V.               THE ROCKS WILL IF YOU DON’T

A.    Everything He Created Gives Him Praise

  1. Look at the birds. It doesn’t matter what happens, the birds still sing. Yet, we as Gods’ finest creation just sits back all reserved as if God hasn’t done anything for us.
  2. We are a Royal priesthood, a chosen generation. You were created to give God glory, no matter how bad your situation is! Let every that has breath praise the Lord!

B.    Don’t Let A Rock Cry Out For You 

  1. We refuse to let someone mute our praise!
  2. We have 5 reasons to praise Him:
  3. The Lords been good to us!
  4. The Lords been good to us!
  5. The Lords been good to us!
  6. The Lords been good to us!
  7. The Lords been good to us!
  8. We have a church full of people that were delivered from Breast Cancer, had Kidney Transplants, sustained after a loss of employment, and many other things. They bear witness of God’s goodness and his ability to make a way out of no way. There is no way to hold back this type of Praise! God has been too good to us and this would be why we act like we act!

 

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Part I: They Are Hating. But I’m Here 

Posted on April 12, 2024 by growintheword

Synopsis of Sermon 04.07.24

Delivered by Bishop Joseph W. Walker, III

John 12: 9-11 NKJV
9 Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. 10 But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, 11 because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.

    I.          INTRODUCTION

  1. You will discover that everyone is not excited about what you are doing in your life. It can be disheartening for some people.
  2. Some people have seen you bounce back from attacks, and we have learned that where there are celebrators, there are also haters. Some people don’t want to see you survive. They feel in some way that your presence minimizes who they are. This is a true form of a hater.
  3. There is a biblical backdrop for haters. One of the first haters is found in 1 Samuel 18:6-9 NIV where it says, 6 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. 7 As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” 8 Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” 9 And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David. – Here we discover Saul was a hater towards David. He was angry about the song proclaiming his 1000 vs David’s 10,000. Some people don’t mind you being blessed as long as they control the blessing.
  4. Understand, haters will do what they do. The question is what are you going to do? Realize that it is not about you. You can’t own the emotional intelligence of others. You have to come to a place where no matter the plots, nothing is going to prevent God’s purposes from coming to past in your life.
    1. Keep on living, keep on loving, keep on doing what God has called you do. Do like Celie did in the movie “Color Purple” and say, “I may be all of this and all of that, but thank God I’m here”.
  5. John’s gospel is not part of the synoptic gospels. John approaches his gospel by focusing on the Divinity of Jesus. He starts out by saying, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God. John links the name of God. God’s name was not Jehovah Jireh. This was just an expressive name of who God is. God reveals his name as “I am”. He reminds us that He is who He says He was.
  6. When you read John’s gospel you see where Jesus turned the water into wine, along with other miracles. One of Jesus’ most memorable miracles was when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
    1. They summoned Jesus saying Lazarus was sick, but Jesus delayed his arrival purposefully. When Jesus finally arrived, Lazarus had died. Mary and Martha were angry about this, explaining to Jesus that if He had been there, their brother Lazarus wouldn’t have died.
    1. Jesus asked them to show Him where they laid Lazarus. Mary and Martha tried to assure Jesus that it was too late.
    1. Jesus calls Lazarus’ name and he comes out of the tomb with his burial clothes still on!
  7. John’s gospel shows the religious leaders have a problem with Jesus. When they are against Jesus, they were trying to kill him.
  8. The religious leaders didn’t just come for Jesus, they came for Lazarus also. They knew they could kill Jesus, but they also knew that if they left Lazarus alive, the Jews were going to believe that Jesus was who He said He was. In other words, Lazarus was evidence. Many attacks you receive is because you are evidence of what God can do!

   II.               IT IS NO SECRET YOU’VE BEEN RESURRECTED

  • Everyone knew Lazarus was raised from the dead. Recognize that you are evidence!

A.    There was a season they buried you and thought it was over.

  1. How did Lazarus end up in the tomb?
    1. Through Sickness – Regardless of his sickness, he was a friend of Jesus. Jesus calls us friend, regardless of our sickness.
    1. God’s sovereignty – God will allow things to get worse on purpose, so when he moves, nothing will get the glory but Him.  
    1. Grace that’s saved – When the devil said it was over, God said not so.

B.    God made sure your comeback was public.

  1. The funeral crowd will always be bigger than your crowd was when you were alive. The ones that buried you will be surprised. Jesus will turn the Pall Barriers in Armor Barriers.
  2. If you bury me in public, you have to be present at my resurrection publicly.

III.               SOME PEOPLE WILL SHOW UP TO SEE IF IT’S REAL

  • Religious Leaders came to see Jesus, but they also came to see Lazarus.

A.    You’ve got celebrators as well as spectators.

  1. Sometimes you just got to celebrate the people that are authentically there for you.
  2. Spectators are the ones that will not comment or clap. They’re just hanging around spectating.

B.    Your haters want to verify your miracle because it doesn’t make sense.

  1. Miracles are beyond logic. It doesn’t make sense. It’s when you look at something and realize that God has already performed miracles in your life the whole time.
  2. Your life doesn’t make sense, because it is beyond human comprehension. Many don’t know that they are sitting next to a miracle right now!

IV.               THE ENEMY IS SCARED OF WHAT YOU REPRESENT

  • Lazarus’ presence is intimidating. The enemy is afraid, because just you showing up destroys what they said about you and God.

A.    You represent the power of God.

  1. We represent the power of God. Every time someone sees you, they can’t deny the power of God.

B.    You represent what’s possible.

  1. They wanted to stop Lazarus, to keep people from believing in Jesus. It is possible to have a breakdown and still end up with a breakthrough. God uses you to show us that anything is possible.

  V.               KEEP SHOWING UP REGARDLESS

  • Lazarus is not bothered by the presence of the chief priest. There comes a moment where you show up and just don’t care what people say!
  • When you look at people and see them being emotional about what they are going through, talk to them about some of the stuff you’ve had to endure. They tried to get Lazarus to be quiet about his miracle. They did not want him to be a witness for Jesus’ miracles.

A.     When you show up, show up with Jesus.

  1. You might think I’m by myself, but I’m not by myself.
  2. I’ve got:
    1. His presence – God is always with me.
    1. His protection – I’m surrounded by his protection.
    1. His promise – God won’t bring you back from dead, just to let haters kill you again.

B.    After all I’ve been through, I’m still here.

  1. I give God glory that I was buried, and now I’m back. My breath is a privilege. They’re hating, but I’m still here!
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