Miracle Maker - Breakthrough Faith

Well we we have a great great ride ahead of us this morning because I think everybody in this room, either you or somebody you love, needs a miracle.

And a miracle is your um your best hope.

And you cannot look at the Gospel of John, the purpose of which is to reveal his glory. without looking at miracles.

Eight of them.

Seven unique to the Gospel of John.

Let's pray.

Lord, for some of us in this room, when we hear the word miracle, a supernatural intervention, we see a face.

We think of a name.

We think of a need.

We think of our mission impossible.

And Lord, we pray that you would help us in this few minutes in your word to understand better your ways, your power.

Your plan and how you want us to connect the supernatural To that thing or person we thought of when we thought of the word miracle.

We pray that you would show us how to live. more resurrectionally, with the resurrection power of Christ released in our situation.

We look forward to walking with you down the miracle road this morning.

Because we want the miracle you want us to have.

So we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So we're just a young couple in youth ministry on the south side of Chicago.

It was tough times financially.

It's always been a faith thing in ministry.

It is to this very day for us.

We had not been paid, we were six months behind in pay, and I didn't make that much anyway.

We were two years behind in having our travel expenses reimbursed.

We had all the expense forts forms in, but there was no money to pay us.

The leader in our ministry, the first guy I ever worked for, said that he He wanted it to be a principle of our ministry that we not tell people our need.

So we didn't.

But it was getting tough.

My wife worked out at the National Office of Youth for Christ out in Wheaton, and they had some leftover soup from their uh camps during the summer.

So we had a lot of chicken and stars soup.

Do they still make that?

I don't care.

I ain't having anymore.

I'll tell you, IOD'd on you.

What are we having for breakfast?

Oh good.

Okay.

Lunch?

Yeah, chicken and stars.

Good.

Well, that's good.

Well, the chicken and stars was gone.

And I was headed off to our minute my ministry day and Karen was headed out to Wheaton to the and and it was uh I was a Friday morning and uh we looked in the fridge and actually we did have a half bottle of ketchup left I said, how do you got any like good recipes, like ketchup recipes?

Anything?

No.

Well, we just said, Lord, you know our need.

Your board says your father knows what you have need of.

So we're telling you again.

And we're trusting you again.

That night when Karen got home and I got home, um There was a doorbell rang.

We're living in a second-floor apartment on south side of Chicago.

I'm picturing it right now.

Very steep stairs coming up.

And I went to the door and all of a sudden, coming up the stairs, is one lady after another with bags of groceries.

I said wha w wha I and and they said, Well, we were having a missionary c deal meeting tonight And we just suddenly decide to ditch our agenda.

It just seemed like God said, why don't you have a grocery shower for the Hutchcrafts?

Might as well be Jesus.

Carrying those groceries up the stairs.

It was one of countless, so many I can't even remember them all.

Times that a nail-pierced hand reached into our situation and did what only he could do We went to the doctor.

We were still a fairly young couple.

Our kids were young.

And this mother of three and wife of one, which is about the right ratio, um She'd been feeling pretty sick.

I had just started a my first book and uh we'd gone away to o uh ocean uh ocean city to the to the beach down there and she came back and wasn't feel she wasn't feeling too good even while we were there Went to the doctor again on a Friday, I remember, and he said, Karen, you have hepatitis.

And I want you to go home.

I just listened to everything and I want you to go home.

And uh he said, you can come back and see me on Monday and we'll talk more about it.

We went back on Monday.

He said, what are you doing here?

She said, well we we had you told us to come back on Monday.

He said, I didn't think you'd live till Monday.

I did not expect you to be here for this appointment He said, I listened to your liver and it sounded like Niagara Falls.

So full of holes it was just roaring.

He said, I didn't know how you could live.

But a nail-pierced hand reached into our situation and changed what no doctor was able to change.

And the doctor was wrong.

Because Jesus invaded our situation.

We are on the Omaha Indian Reservation.

With our team several years ago, Macy, Nebraska.

We have some friends from Nebraska here and those who live in that state know that Macy is a notorious town.

It only makes headlines.

For the violence, the crime, and the poverty.

Brad will tell you a little bit more about our most recent visit there I do know that the first time we went there, the children, we did a crowdbreaker with some marshmallows, and the children came begging at the RV that we rent for the month as a command center. and begging for anything we had.

Karen cleaned out every every uh protein bar, everything she could find to give them.

They were starving.

Afterwards, our literature table, we are able to hand out all kinds of free Bibles and Christian literature.

They asked us, they said, could we have your boxes please?

Well, we've never been asked for our boxes.

We're just ready to trash them.

That's what they sleep in at night in the park.

Because there's nowhere else to go.

Our hearts were broken for that place.

Continue to be.

Some great things have happened there in the meantime.

But it was night three and on night three that's when we give the invitation.

That's when one of our warriors gets up and gives the gospel and does what is unheard of to stand up in the middle of not a church in the middle of the basketball court in the middle of the reservation surrounded by a couple hundred native kids where everybody can see and actually publicly invite them to take a stand for Jesus Christ.

Not done.

Ain't gonna happen.

Happens.

Time after time happens.

That's breakthrough.

Well that night, as we're going through the program , I am looking out this direction from that basketball court, and some of the most ominous clouds I've ever seen are headed for that court.

And I actually went for a drive to see how bad it was and there were storm warnings and all kinds of stuff out.

I came back and I said, we are, I don't know how we're gonna get to do what we're what we're not gonna get to finish here.

It is going to be, it's a, it's, it's a big storm.

It's going to be here a while.

And we stood at that end of the court, and I asked a couple of our warriors that were not in personal conversation. and usually they all are, I said, I want us to stand against that storm in Jesus' name.

Don't close your eyes and pray.

That's going to be freaky right now.

Nobody's going to know what we're doing.

I said, you can keep your eyes open, and I want to ask you to talk to God about his storm because the Lord of the weather is the Lord of the harvest.

The storm stopped.

Just beyond the basketball court.

And stayed there for another hour or hour and a half.

Locals said that never happens We gave the invitation and there wasn't a dramatic response to come to Christ among the people at Macy, Nebraska.

And then it dumped as soon as we got everything loaded.

The storm broke.

But that night, a nail-pierced hand reached down to a basketball court in Macy, Nebraska and heard our cries. and did what only he could do, stop the storm.

We in those three situations, boy, if we started you telling your stories, good, and night we'd have to have I we couldn't afford it.

We'd be here till Christmas and beyond.

But in each of those situations, we had entered a zone called the God Alone Zone.

God alone can do this.

There is no human solution I can think of.

Welcome to the God Alone Zone.

It's a scary and exciting place to be.

What's a miracle?

You see the definition?

The dictionary says it's an extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers.

You got one you're thinking of?

That you might be ready for now?

Or someone you care about?

The Latin root of that word means to wonder at.

It's something that makes you go, wow.

The God who created some people have a problem with miracles when you get into the supernatural and go, well how could that happen?

Well that did that's just not scientific.

Excuse me, who invented the science?

The God who created the natural order has the authority and the power to transcend the natural order, natural order that he created.

If he drew the lines, he can color outside them.

And he does.

For a reason.

But remember this, the miracle is not God.

What we're looking for is the solution, the answer, the change that we need.

But for God, that is not an end.

It is a means to a greater end.

That's going to be important to understand.

A supernatural intervention For us is the story.

For him, it's the preamble.

It's the z it's the introduction to the story, because his story that he's writing with his miracles is much bigger, and we're about to see that in the first miracle Jesus ever did, thankfully. recorded singularly by the Apostle John.

Remember John's mission statement.

He said, I'm showing you all of these signs that Jesus did. all of these wonders that Jesus did so that you will believe that he is the Son of God and believing you will have life through his name.

Now it unfolds for us dramatically at the wedding in Cana.

Isn't it interesting that Jesus picks a wedding in a dusty little village you can't even find now in Israel, this little village called Cana, and and um and he's invited, he's at a wedding reception, and you know the story.

You won't read the whole story.

But you know that his mother comes to him and she just says they have no wine.

They ran out.

She doesn't ask him to do anything.

It's kind of like I just tell them what they need.

Now, I don't remember she spent 30 years with this boy.

And so she she gets him.

And I don't know what her intentions were, just announcing to Jesus, because he doesn't like, where is he going to find any?

But I think she thinks If he wants to, he can do something about this.

And you remember, he tells the servants, bring some water pots.

And they're like, I don't know why we're doing this.

Fill the water pots with water.

Great, what um I'm not sure these people are gonna want water.

That's not really what they're looking for.

But they fill the water pots with water and you know that they start to they drink the wine and the guy says, man This is usually, you know, they they um they serve the best stuff early, and then later on people don't notice that it's gone downhill.

Why are we why'd you save the the best stuff is now?

Well that's that's God that's heaven's stuff Jesus made that.

Now we go to chapter 2 verse 11.

Very important, very important to us understanding the miracle maker.

John chapter 2 verse 11, the summary statement of what happened in Cana.

We got that?

This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Canaan in Galilee.

Read The next, we're up to the comma with me out loud.

He thus revealed his glory.

What is the ultimate the miracle is a means to an end.

What is the end What?

To reveal his glory.

What is God going to do in your situation?

What will most reveal his glory?

Who decides what is the best way to reveal his glory?

Do you or does he?

Obviously, duh.

He knows that best.

So he thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

So our ultimate prayer is While telling God what we hope he will do, what we are believing he has the power to do is to say, but I want you to do, please do, what will show your glory the most.

That's his agenda.

We beheld his glory.

He wants everybody to have the experience John had, and a miracle is a stage for him to show up on and show off on.

Passion number two.

I said we're talking about six passions this weekend that are the passions that give you the glory road life you were destined for.

Last night we talked about loving Jesus for his just incomprehensible sacrifice for us.

When you do that, you get the glory that surrounds his cross.

Now we're talking about believing Jesus for his amazing miracles.

This is the second step in experiencing his glory.

Miraculous signs that you may believe And John records eight of them, the miracles, as I said, seven of which are only reported by him.

There is a loan company.

You've heard their ads And all I remember, I'm not even sure I remember what the loan company is.

This is crazy.

You remember their motto?

Or or you remember like a little lizard or something, you know, from the commercial?

Like, I'm not sure who that is, but But remember it just goes like this.

It said, engineered to amaze.

Our loans are engineered to can a loan really be engineered to amaze?

I'm not sure.

And not if you read the small print.

But Jesus' miracles are engineered to amaze.

Now, as you go through the Gospel of John, there are let's look at some of the kinds of miracles that do reveal his glory.

First of all, there are miracles of transformation.

That's what we had at Cana.

Jesus demonstrated, this wasn't about water and wine.

This was to demonstrate to us that Jesus can change what no one else can change.

He can transform things into something wonderful.

John himself is an example of that.

The writer of the gospel is a he was fr he and his brother had a nickname.

They were called, some of you know, sons of thunder.

I just see black leather I see a motorcycle, vroom, vroom, sons of thunder.

Because you just see it in their jackets, right, Roger?

John, we're good with the motorcycles here.

So I just see him in a gang.

It's like the Sons of Thunder gang, man.

He's an angry guy.

He's a passionate guy.

Because he wants called on fire.

He wants to fry Samaritans.

Because they didn't welcome them.

Jesus, let's call down fire from heaven.

That's a little abuse, so that's not the kind of miracle Jesus wants to use to reveal his glory at this time.

What does he become?

He becomes the apostle of love.

Read 1 John.

This guy becomes all tender.

He's the love guy.

Because Jesus changed his water to wine.

He does miracles of transformation.

He takes Peter, this unstable element, and makes him into a rock.

Hanging out with Jesus does that.

Can Jesus do that with a marriage?

Could he change what no one else could change?

Can he do that with a prodigal son or daughter, or grandson, or granddaughter?

Can he do that with a church?

Can he do that with a heart?

Can he change a heart?

Which is the only hope in that particular situation is if there is a heart that changes.

Ezekiel 36. 26 is one I pray on many times.

And it's God says, I will put a new heart in you.

He said, I am going to take a heart of stone.

It's hard and cold and make it into a throbbing, beating, warm heart of flesh.

Oh yeah, Jesus does miracles of transformation.

Aren't you glad he does?

What if I ask you to finish the sentence?

I have seen Jesus' power to change.

I have seen Jesus power to change.

Fill in the blank.

Five people, tell me what came to your mind.

Me, what?

Me.

Me and we might all say that.

Me.

What else?

It's a Disease.

Disease?

I've seen Jesus ch said the doctor.

I've seen Jesus change.

What's that?

Anything and everything.

Anything and everything?

I've seen Jesus' power to change what?

Hearts.

I mean, we're living testimonies to this.

Second kind of miracle that we see in the miracles that John records are miracles of healing, of course.

John chapter 4 is an example of that.

When the father comes and says, my daughter is is dying, and Jesus says to him, I want you to go, and as you're going, your daughter will be healed.

I'm sure he didn't want to leave till he was you know, till till he got word, but he left by faith, realized that the time in which they told him at home his daughter had awakened was the exact time at which Jesus said to him said to him, Your son will live.

I'm sorry, son, yes And so he and all his household believed.

Do you see what happened?

The miracle revealed his glory.

It's exactly what John said while he was writing this gospel.

I'm going to show you all these miracles. so that you will believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you will have life through his name.

They saw, they believed.

It revealed his glory.

His glory led them to belief.

Glory and belief are tied together Constantly in the Gospel of John.

John chapter 9, we won't look at it, but you know, Jesus sees a man blind from birth, and we'll talk about him another time, but again, he heals him.

So he does miracles of healing Thirdly, he does miracles of liberation.

You got to tune into this one.

I want to show you the strangest question Jesus ever asked.

It's in the Gospel of John.

Jesus did a lot through questions.

You should just, I mean I could do I could do a huge series on just questions Jesus asked.

But Look at this.

Here's a man who's been 38 years paralyzed.

And he's lying by the pool where they think sometimes an angel comes, stirs the waters.

It has healing power.

When Jesus saw him lying there, And learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him , Do you want to get well?

Duh Yeah, I really enjoy lying here.

Paralyzed.

What kind of question is this?

Do you want to get well?

So he said, Yes, Lord.

Nope.

Let's go on.

Can we go on?

Do we have more of that on PowerPoint?

Oh good.

I get to tell you the rest of the story.

He said, Jesus, nobody.

Nobody will carry me down to the water and help me.

I'm a victim.

Always been a victim.

What?

He gets the he gets the sob story.

He gets the self-pity story.

He gets the victim speech.

Do you want to get well and he doesn't even say yes?

Jesus wants to liberate this guy from what has held him back and held him down and he wants to do that for you because for every one of us There is a part of our personality, a part of our past , a part of us that holds us down Paralyzes us, limits us, holds us back, and Jesus comes to this retreat and says, seeing you have been in this condition for so long, I have a question Do you want to get well?

And the sad truth is that sometimes we are more comfortable being a victim.

At least I know how to be a victim.

At least I know how to feel sorry for myself.

At least I know how to be like this.

I don't know how to be well.

Crazy, but true.

If Jesus were to say that to you today, what would he be referring to?

Do you always want to be like this?

You want to get well?

What would he be talking about with you?

That part of you that resisted change has resisted what he wants it to be, resisted his liberating power Is it bitterness?

After all, you're entitled to that bitterness, aren't you?

You're entitled to that unforgiveness, aren't you?

After what they did?

Well, if you like slavery, if you like bondage, I guess.

You want to get well?

Is it a life of fear?

A lifetime belief that you're not worth much?

Defying the worth that God says he gave you from the moment you were conceived?

Despair, your background, your failures, Jesus does miracles of liberation.

And maybe that's the one you need to be looking for here.

He also does miracles of provision.

The miracle, that one miracle that made the hit parade in all four gospels.

You know, it's the feeding of the 5,000.

You know the story.

Um, and uh uh I have to tell you a story about the story.

I had the privilege of chairing the Billy Graham Crusade in the Meadowlands in northern New Jersey in 1991.

And two weeks later, Mr.

Graham had the largest meeting he's had in the U.

S. which was in Central Park.

There were 250,000 people in Central Park.

The first night of the crusade in New Jersey, they asked the chairman to give the offering appeal, so it's a local asking for the the giving.

So I did, and Mr.

Graham said, that was really good.

Would you do it every night?

So here I am now.

I get to be the Grim Reaper asking for the offering five nights in a row.

This is my designated, I'm the designated Beggar, um, the D B.

Well they said, We have to take an offering in Central Park.

I'm not quite sure how that's gonna work in this like giant picnic atmosphere, but they said, Would you give the offering a people?

So if you ever go to the cove and you happen to see a picture of of the Central Park meeting, if you look at this sea of people, there's a platform up at the front and I know you'll see me there.

It would take a micro, micro, microscope to even find me in there.

I'm somewhere up there.

So I'm like, how do you give an offering appeal to 250,000 New Yorkers?

Who are no you have terminal ADD.

Well, it wasn't too bad.

I got up and I just said I said uh four words.

I said, give me your lunch.

And they're like, what?

I said, give me your lunch.

He said, yeah, the little boy brought his lunch like some of you did here today.

And this big man comes over to him and his mommy had made him a fish sandwich for lunch and this big guy comes over and his shadow comes over and says, give me your lunch.

And I'm sure the little boy's going, wait, don't you have a mommy?

My mommy made lunch for me.

What's wrong with you?

He said, it's for Jesus.

Oh And so this boy takes that and puts it into the hands of the man who will put it into the hands of Jesus.

And that lunch that was barely enough for that little boy became enough to feed thousands of people.

Today Jesus comes to you and he says, will you take some of what I you've got in your hand that you brought with you and would you give it to the work of Jesus today?

I have no idea how the offering turned out.

I never did here.

I only know this.

In that offering was a ham sandwich.

Yeah, they reported to me that in the midst of the money was a ham sandwich.

Probably some Baptist taking it literally.

You know, that's the you know give me your lunch.

Okay, you want my lunch?

Here you go.

That's all he heard.

Give me your lunch.

So There's dangers in the illustration.

So anyway, but we know that day what happened.

I mean, what a tremendous miracle of provision You realize there was a lot of conversation.

You put the four Gospels together.

It's very interesting.

Philip, who's the accountant, says, uh, Lord, I did the math here, and first of all, I think we should send them away.

I mean there's one answer to this.

Send them home.

I mean listen what what is make what makes sense here?

We are gonna have a riot on our hands pretty soon if we don't get dismiss them Stop talking, Ron.

I mean, stop talking, Jesus, and let them go eat.

Go home.

He says, um you you give them something to eat.

I didn't bring a lunch.

My mommy didn't make me a lunch.

They go out there, start scrounging to see if anybody has anything.

Philip is doing earth math.

Sometimes earth math is what happens.

But sometimes it's miracle math.

Have any of you experienced miracle math at any point in your life?

Let me see your hand.

Where the earth math didn't work and then the intervening hand came with his miracle math that changes the sum of the equation.

And you know what's cool?

God is infinitely creative about how He's going to provide your life.

Well, I'm out of work.

I don't have a paycheck.

That's it.

Paycheck's the only way I get money.

Really.

That's the only way God can provide is through a through a paycheck.

I mean we we we're so unimaginative.

He's so creative.

He gets water to come out of a rock He sends bread from heaven.

He has ravens deliver.

Breakfast and dinner on time.

You heard of meals on wheels.

This is meals on wings.

Elijah's like, there's gonna be.

You know there's two miracles there?

Yeah, one miracle is that the every meal was provided right when he needed it.

The second miracle is the ravens didn't eat it.

You ever think about that?

He's got these ravenous birds delivering it for heaven's sake.

Oh, God's got so many.

We take one lunch into many, but then he did this a different way.

The children of Israel had sandals that never wore out in 40 years.

And if you have a teenager, you know you've got to get new shoes every three months Their shoes did not wear out for 40 years.

Sometimes he does the miracle of it not wearing out.

I remember when the guy came to repair our washing machine.

He said, how long have you had this thing?

Is it 20 years?

He's like, this thing should be dead.

We didn't be buried it.

How can this still be running?

And it went running for more and more years.

Sometimes God does that kind of miracle. but he does miracles of provision.

Well let's listen to some of the great heroes of the faith.

George Mueller, who started all those orphanages and so depended on God on a day-to-day basis.

He said, the living God is our sufficiency.

I have trusted him for one dollar, I have trusted him for thousands of dollars, and I have never trusted in vain.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

So that's the consistent experience of God's people over the centuries.

Miracles of provision.

There are miracles of rescue.

Look at John chapter 6.

John wants us to know the different platforms on which Jesus reveals his glory.

You know the disciples who know the Sea of Galilee.

I've been to the Sea of Galilee.

And I was standing on the shore in Capernaum.

And when I got there, I was only there for a pretty few minutes.

It was a beautiful sunny day.

Minutes later I went back there, and there on the other side of the Capernaum Lake of Galilee.

Here is this storm brewing on the other end.

I'm like, man, did that happen fast.

It's that those of you who've lived around the lake, you know how man, I mean the weather man doesn't even know it's coming.

You know, boom, there's a storm Wasn't on a weather forecast or anything.

That's what happened time and again.

And they are in a violent storm.

These professional guys who know this lake in and out have been in many storms.

They cannot get anywhere.

They had rode three or three and a half miles.

And they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water, and they were terrified.

But he said to them, It is I, the most frequently repeated command in the Bible.

Do not be afraid.

Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately, boom, the boat reached the shore. where they were heading.

And we also know about the peace be still moment during another storm.

Jesus does miracles that will rescue you at a moment when you see there is no way out of this.

There is no safe answer.

Is that right?

Just don't miss Jesus walking towards you in the storm.

They almost did.

They almost missed him.

Jesus is trying to come to you in your storm.

Don't be so focused on the storm.

You miss the man walking on the storm.

And miracles that give life.

We're going to look at John 11 in a minute about the raising of Lazarus.

If there is a hopeless situation, it's dead.

He's dead.

You know what the miracle, I think, of Lazarus tells us?

Yes, that Jesus has power over death But beyond that, that Jesus has power to breathe life into a situation where it looks like it is absolutely hopeless.

A word that does not appear in heaven's lexicon.

That is not in heaven's dictionary.

What in the world is hopeless?

I love what Jeremiah said.

Ah, sovereign Lord, you created the heavens and the earth.

There is nothing.

Too hard for you.

I read this in one of my favorite devotional books, Streams in the Desert.

Difficulty.

You got one?

You got some?

Medical, financial, family.

Difficulty is the very atmosphere of miracle.

It is a miracle.

Listen to this.

Did you ever think of the thing you're going through right now this way?

It is a miracle in its first stage.

Yeah, you can't have a miracle if you don't have a problem, right?

If it is to be a great miracle, the condition is not difficulty.

It's impossibility.

The clinging hand of God's child makes a desperate situation a delight to God.

He says, I have your heart where I want it now, because you're desperate.

Remember this.

The condition with which God can do the most Is desperation and powerlessness.

That's not in your notes.

But the condition with which God can do the most is desperation and powerlessness.

Now, I want to give you from the book of John five insights for when you need a miracle.

I ask you to think about yours, the one you need, or someone you care about needs.

Let's learn about it and let's go to one of Jesus' greatest ones.

John chapter 11.

We're going to take a little time.

We're going to settle down in this one.

Now a man named Lazarus was sick.

He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

Bethany sits just on the other side of Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, the back side of the Mount of Olives, where Jesus spent so much time.

This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who had this adoring love for Jesus, who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.

These are all significant details.

So the sisters sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love.

Notice how they put it?

It was just a little.

Possible even manipulation in that statement.

Maybe I'm reading into it.

Not Lazarus.

You know that one you love so much?

He's sick.

This is what we do when we pray.

We send word to Jesus.

Okay?

That's another way to say pray.

Send the word to Jesus.

Why?

He doesn't know about it?

Of course he does.

You're opening it up to him.

You're opening the door for him to come into it.

When he heard this, Jesus said, this sickness will not end in death.

Read the next words with me.

No, it is for what?

God's glory, so that what?

God's Son, here we go, may be glorified through it.

Here we go.

To reveal his glory.

Why is he sick?

He's sick for my glory.

This is a this is where I'm going to show up and show my glory.

He doesn't get sick.

You don't see my glory.

You don't know what you got.

Okay, let's go on.

Now, this is a little odd because seldom do you find it explicitly saying Jesus loves somebody.

We just, he does.

Why do we have to make a point of this?

Well, you'll see.

Jesus loved Martha.

He really did.

And he loved her sister.

He really did.

And Lazarus.

He really did.

Let's go on.

Yet, he's going to do something that feels distinctly unloving.

Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

What in the world?

Wait, let's go back to are you sure he loved him?

Why doesn't he get there in time Whose time?

Let's go on with the story.

So then he told them plainly This is advancing in the story a little bit.

He's talking to his disciples.

Lazarus is dead.

Let's keep going.

Well, he goes now to the scene, which is now a scene of grieving, despair.

Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him.

But Mary stayed at home.

It's interesting, isn't it?

You can read into that whatever you want.

But if we know the emotional makeup of these two ladies.

Martha is a big sister, take charge, run everything.

She's like, I'm gonna go talk to Jesus.

I'm gonna talk to him about this.

And Mary, brokenhearted.

She doesn't understand.

She's just at home shattered.

Martha said to Jesus , If you had been here, I can hear this Jewish girl.

If you had been here, my brother would not have died.

Slightly accusing perhaps.

Let's go on.

But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.

I know you can still do great.

Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.

She her theology is is okay.

Martha answered, oh I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Jesus said to her, well the resurrection's here.

I am the resurrection.

And the life.

He who believes in me will live even though he dies.

And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?

Now we're skipping some parts.

Yes, Lord, she told them, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.

Cognitively, she's got it.

Well after she said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside.

The teacher's here, Mary.

It's not so interesting.

He asked for Mary.

Mary wouldn't come to him.

She just couldn't talk to him.

I don't know what.

He says, I want to see you.

And she comes.

When Mary heard this, she got up quickly.

Jesus wants to see me.

Went to him.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet.

Did Martha do that?

No.

And therein is the difference.

She fell at his feet and said, Lord, if you had been here, she says the same thing, but the tone is so different.

It isn't what you say sometimes, it's the tone you say it in, isn't it?

Lord, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, And by the way, all these everything, all these insights into your situation, will come back and visit them.

We're all on the story.

He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

Jesus was an emotional man and wasn't afraid to show up. it.

A mile for all of us guys, by the way.

Where have you laid him, he asked?

Come and see, Lord, they replied.

You know that he we'll get to the rest shortly.

Now can I pull out of this the insights through your situation?

Number one, our need is his opportunity.

Your need is Jesus opportunity.

This is the for You're in the God alone zone now.

That's a good place to be.

It's not a place for despair.

It's a place for believing prayer.

Formula for a God moment.

Here's what the formula is.

There's a need you can't meet, and there's an outcome only Jesus can produce.

There's a need you can't meet and an outcome only he can produce.

My brother has died.

Nothing anybody could do about that but Jesus.

Write this down.

Jesus lets it become more impossible so he can be more amazing.

He lets it become more impossible so he can be more amazing.

That's why he waits.

That's why he doesn't save Lazarus' life.

All they can believe for is that Jesus could make a sick man well.

He says I can make a dead man live.

And you'll never know that If I come when you want me to, and do it the way you want me to do it, I got something bigger planned to reveal my glory.

You'll never be the same when you see what I do and how I do it.

Andrew Murray, um Said and and uh let's see if I have that here, hold on just one second.

It was just um A beautiful quote.

Yeah, he said, let impossibility be just what drives us into the arms of God. and into a new faith of what he can do.

It's a whole new way to look at your impossibility as an opportunity for Jesus to show up big time Secondly, what do we know from the raising of Lazarus?

He works on his time, not ours.

Mary and Martha, we're on a different clock.

They said this is the time.

Jesus said, no, it's not.

They thought he didn't care At least Martha.

Delayed answers can challenge our confidence in his love.

That's why John goes out of his way to say Jesus really did love them.

And later the people at the tomb will say, look how Jesus loved him, because the shortest Bible verse in the Bible.

The memory verse all of us can handle.

John 11, 35, say it with me.

Jesus wept.

Let me reinforce the fact that the tremendous model of real manhood, contrary to the American lie.

That we have to be in control of our emotions all the time and never show them.

Leaving a a wife who has no idea where things stand , children who've a lonely wife Children who don't know where they stand because of a dad who will not share his emotions.

Jesus was not afraid to weep, to be deeply troubled, to take three of his men with him and be in front of them overwhelmed in the Garden of Gethsemane.

That's real manhood.

The realest man that ever came, the God man, modeled that.

Okay, that's another day.

He worked on his time, not ours Don't doubt in the darkness.

Oh, it's an old saying, but I got to go back to it.

Don't doubt in the darkness, but God told you in the light.

He's still who he said he was, and you're still who he said you were and he still loves you like he said he did.

But impatience can blow us right past the will of God.

Probably impatience may have cost more people God's best than any single thing.

Probably impatience and disobedience.

I can't wait for God to do it.

Many of you know that my grandson Taylor, Doug and Anna's son , is our miracle kid Three months before he was born, they got word that he had a 1 in 10,000 heart condition.

He might not survive birth.

If he did, there would be many, many, many things wrong with him.

That would be evident to everybody.

Taylor was operated on at two days old.

Many of you know the story because you were here, some of you were here ten years ago and prayed with Doug and Anna on their way to Philadelphia, the children's hospital.

He was born in November.

And we had a president's retreat.

And some of the dear people here prayed over this pregnant lady and the baby she carried.

And um imagine operating on a heart the size of a nickel.

That's what happened when he was two days old.

He's had several surgeries since then.

In a couple weeks he'll be 10 years old, and he is amazing.

Taylor was in one of his many hospital visits.

He's been very patient with it all.

I still remember.

So many tests, so many needles, so many hoses.

And one day he just said, he just looked up and he said to mom and dad and the nurse, can we just be done right now?

You were probably like saying that to God.

Could we be done right now?

I mean, is this enough?

This is enough, right?

Could we be done?

He goes, you know, if if if you get impatient, we're going to have an Ishmael.

We won't be able to wait for God to bring the baby because you looked around and you said, just like Philip looked around at thousands of people with one lunch, not even one lunch at that point. and said it doesn't add up, it ain't gonna happen.

And and here, you know, you've got um the unlikelihood of of anything good happening here.

But We are going to abort God's process.

If we rush it, we will ruin it.

So Abraham and Sarah can't wait, and they've got an Ishmael, and then 13 years later, you remember what Isaac means when Isaac is born?

It means laughter.

Sarah's going, I'm gonna have the baby, God promised.

And I'm gonna name him Laughter Man.

Isaiah 64, 4.

Put it up there, Dustin.

Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God beside you who acts On behalf of who you tell me, those who wait for him Some of us, the hardest room in God's house is the waiting room.

Because we're not waiters.

We're doers.

And we can mess up what God wants to do.

Guys, it's only second down.

It may look like fourth and long.

Don't punt on second down.

Nobody pumps on second down.

It ain't over.

Listen, one of the great theologians of our time, Yogi Berra It ain't over till it's over.

Somebody tell the Yankees that.

Um not his Yankees I want you to see with me, this is a scary verse.

I find this a personally troubling verse.

Isaiah 50 Isaiah 50.

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant?

Let him who walks in the dark.

Okay, I don't know where we're going right now.

I don't know where the answer is.

Feels like you're walking in the dark on this.

Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord, and rely on his God.

I will get you through this dark time.

But some people can't wait for that.

So here's what happens.

Look at the other possibility.

But some of you can't wait for me.

So all of you who light fires and provide yourselves, I'll come up with an answer.

I can fix this.

I can do this.

God isn't doing anything.

Hello, Abraham and Sarah.

And you provide yourselves with flaming torches.

Okay, you go.

Fine.

Go walk in the light of your fires and the torches you've set ablaze.

This is what you will receive from my hand.

You will lie down in torment.

You think you gotta do this.

You can't wait for me.

Don't go figure out your own way through the dark tunnel.

You rely on the Lord your God, not some lantern you can come up with.

Erwin Lutzer, the pastor of Moody Church, says, the thing God does in you while you're waiting on him Get this?

The thing God does in you while you're waiting on him is often more important than the thing you're waiting for.

Woo!

There's a lot of truth in a few words there.

Here's a third insight into your God-alone situation.

He's working his bigger plan, not just our quick fix We want a quick fix.

That may not seem quick to you, but compared to what he wants to do, he's got a much bigger plan.

And his much bigger plan is to raise the dead, not just heal a sick man.

Let's go to John chapter 9, verses 1 to 3, and take a look at this.

Remember, he said about Lazarus, this is for the glory of God that you may believe in him.

Okay, let's go on.

And for the glory of his son.

As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth.

His disciple asked him, Rabbi, who sinned?

Obviously, we know theologically this is because of sin, right?

It was him, his parents.

Why is he born blind?

Who's sin?

Well, neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus.

But this happened, read this with me, so that the work of God might be displayed in his life at six months pregnancy when we got the news about Taylor.

My son and I prayed this over the phone.

That whatever God did, the work of God might be displayed in his life.

And that John chapter 9, verse, or John um 11 what happened, that this is not this sickness is not unto death.

This is that God may be glorified and the Son would be glorified through it.

That's what it's for, to reveal his glory.

He's working his bigger plan.

And uh look at uh and and it it says this This is for God's glory.

It is for God's glory.

You've got a blank in here.

I want you to put your word in there.

This whatever need, this crisis, this conflict, this loss, this disappointment, this perf I want you to see it in print.

I want you to write your thing in there.

This is for God's glory.

Let Jesus speak that to you about that.

This Put you in there.

Why, God?

This is for God's glory I told you when we go up to the top floor and see the view from the top of the building.

From the glory point.

It all looks different, doesn't it?

Jesus will do things we can't understand.

So he can do things we can't imagine.

They didn't get why Jesus didn't come when he called.

But Jesus will do things we can't understand.

So he can do things we can't imagine.

He's able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.

The quarter lane reservation in Idaho was a pretty rugged experience for the On Eagles Wings team this summer.

It's at that point that the devil decided that he really didn't want Anything to happen on that reservation and he would stand against his team with, let's shall we say, some demonic disturbances.

They don't take place normally in other places, but they are commonplace on the reservation.

Because the forces of darkness are deeply entrenched and feel very confident about coming out in the open.

And they did, according to Lane.

And when I asked the team how many of them had had bad and fearful dreams, while we were there, almost every hand went up.

They couldn't control what was going on when they were sleeping at night.

Oh, he was after us.

And then many of you know the story.

Brad was driving the RV back and a moose came.

Yeah, this Brad was driving.

That's the windshield.

Glass went almost all the way back through the RV.

Brad was wearing his glasses.

And when the police came and locals were to comment to us, they said, usually people die when they hear the moves.

And while there were some relatively minor injuries, by the time I got there, I got the call that there'd been, they'd hit a moose after our outreach that night on our way back to the school where we slept.

And I found my daughter-in-law Sarah walking back and forth looking at all this, just saying, God is so good.

God is so good Well, we said, why a moose in the middle of all this?

They got that thing back and running uh soon enough for us to go on to Washington State.

Is it about a week later, Brad?

You had a couple good days with the RV again?

You had a couple good days with the RB.

It's got over its boo-boo.

And we have just arrived in a city where we're headed to another reservation.

And a driver comes around and pulls in front.

Brad stopped at a stoplight and comes around and hits the very same spot.

Brad was the target, clearly, the leader of our native ministry.

And slams and jumps the media and slams into the car and runs away.

I did not like driving up to the RV and seeing EMTs and ambulance and fire people there, thank God he had spared them again.

What's interesting is When the RV that was hit by the moose was put up for repairs, they had to realign it, so they put it on a rack.

Brad and my daughter-in-law and our three grandchildren.

He said probably would go end over end in the RV had they not discovered what was wrong underneath.

But God sent a moose. to reveal something much more serious.

My God!

God says, I'm gonna do something bigger.

And when Brad got on the phone after that mechanic diagnosed the what was wrong under the RV, his first words to me were God sent the moose.

And I was like, that's a strange way to start this conversation.

God sent a moose indeed.

And God may send a moose and you wonder why that moose ran into you.

He's always got something bigger going on. than the thing you can see.

By the way, that's why we so ask you to pray for us when we are going to reservations. in enemy territory.

And I believe the prayers of people in this room have been part of saving the life of my family this summer.

Thank you.

Three kinds of miracles.

The scriptures reveal to us three kinds of miracles.

First of all, the miracles that happen right on time.

Yep, you pray it happens.

Kevin and I prayed that morning that God would provide food that night boom the ravens flew up the stairs.

Well Actually work.

Ladies from the Missionary Society, but so the ravens always came right on time, man.

Dinner, breakfast, breakfast, dinner, breakfast, dinner, bam.

You get the miracles that come right on time.

And he reveals his glory that way Secondly, there are their miracles that happen when we think it's over.

Isaac.

Lazarus.

It's over, really.

Yeah, it's over as far as all the human possibilities you can think of.

It's not it's not over yet.

I'm not done.

It's a third kind of miracles.

The miracles that never happen.

Oh boy.

Oh boy.

Do we have to talk about this?

Second Corinthians chapter twelve Three times I pleaded with the Lord.

To take this thorn in the flesh.

The Greek word is stake.

This stake in my flesh.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

I beg God.

But he said to me, we'll come to this in a minute.

Remember, we don't know what the thorn in the flesh was.

The best guess of Bible scholars is because of several references to his eyesight.

In his letters, that it may be that Paul had serious issues with his eyesight.

Can you imagine a worse burden?

For a man who is assigned by God to travel the world and preach and teach and write half the New Testament He has to dictate to what they called an emanuensis, a secretary.

He had to dictate his letters that we read today Let's say it was eye trouble.

Whatever it was.

It was a tremendous hindrance.

Why, God?

This makes no sense.

For an apostle, a traveling man of God, teaches, preaches, studies.

To have this, Lord, surely you want it, the miracle never happened.

And this is for Paul.

There are miracles that never happen.

There is a reason.

God has planned a different miracle.

Oh, there will be a miracle.

But it won't be the one you thought he should do.

He's going to do what will most reveal his glory And he decides what that is.

So, let's go back to 2 Corinthians.

Yeah, I did kind of skip forward.

I was pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, and he says, but God said, no, my, I'll, I'll, first of all, the first miracle is you're going to be able to handle this.

That's the first miracle.

In the Greek, the word that comes first is the word for emphasis.

And if you translate this into Greek, it's enough for you, my grace.

Enough.

That's the word that leads the sentence.

Enough.

It will always be enough.

So first miracle, you're going to handle things you never thought you could handle.

For my power is made perfect, not in you being strong.

He earlier had said In order to keep me from becoming conceited, God sent a messenger to me.

A thorn in the flesh, which Satan used to torment me.

Satan's like, if I can get him, if I can shake this apostles faith.

It'll be over this because it if this doesn't happen, I can use this.

And God says, no, I'm going to use it.

You aren't going to win on this.

So he says, Paul, you got a little issue with pride I had to knock you off your horse to get your attention the first time and blind you to get you to come to me.

So he says And because Paul, Paul heard, had, he learned things.

He had revelations nobody had ever seen before.

He learned, he was told things about God nobody ever heard.

It's easy to go, ain't I something?

That's how everybody looks at you, everybody goes, you are awesome, and not start believing it.

He said, in order to keep that from happening, God sent me.

He said, I see some purpose.

First of all, miracles, God 's going to give you grace to handle what you never thought you could handle Paul says I'll boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so Christ's power may rest on me.

He said I am experiencing a surge of Christ's power I could have never had if I had my thorn in the flesh taken away because this has made me so desperate So dependent on him, so crying out to him, at a level of humility and desperation I've never been before.

This has made me desperate before God.

That has opened me up to power I never felt.

It has made me what I am.

Thank God for my thorn.

I delight, I thank God for it.

I boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses.

Because now I know when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong.

And it's hard to get me weak.

But this keeps me weak every morning I wake up with it.

And I need it.

Because that's why it's his power, because there's no Paul.

It's all God.

They didn't know Paul left.

And there's where Paul's power came from.

From the miracle that never happened.

Because God was going to do a different miracle.

I've been reading Tim Keller's book on prayer, and I love one thing, one insight he had in there.

He said, God I'll answer, God will answer every prayer of yours.

One of two ways.

Either with giving you the thing you asked for, or giving you what you would have asked for.

If you knew what he knows.

Woo!

Meditate on that for a minute.

If you could see the whole picture, you'd say.

Oh no God, it's better if you don't give me.

I need the different miracle.

How many of you have seen in someone you cared about who walked with Jesus and the prayers people just prayed that they wouldn't die they wouldn't die they would get they would come back from this but that miracle didn't happen but the miracle that did happen is how they walked with Jesus through it, how they became an amazing lighthouse for him, the people, and lives were touched.

Hearts were opened that would have never opened any other way except going through this heartbreaking experience.

And the miracle did happen, but it was a different miracle.

That would touch far more lives than restoring that person.

They're ready to go to heaven.

They're fine.

But some other people weren't fine.

And God had a bigger thing going on.

Woo!

Okay.

The ultimate example?

Well, the cross.

Why is it good Friday, for heaven's sake?

It's a horrible Friday, really Not for me.

It was the goodest Friday there ever was.

I go to hell without that His intervention, here's that fourth insight, his intervention follows our obedience.

His intervention, this is an important point, what am I supposed to do?

Follows our obedience John 11, this is where we're going to get the rest of the story.

Jesus, once more, deeply moved, came to the tomb.

It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

Take away the stone, he said.

But Lord, Martha, but Lord, but Lord, but Lord.

But Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man.

By this time there's a bad odor.

He's been in here four days.

You really want to do this?

And he goes, Lazarus, come out.

He calls his name.

The dead man came out.

His hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, take off the grave clothes and let him go.

Now notice two things here.

Does Jesus need them to roll away the stone if he can raise the dead?

Come on.

He can pulverize the stone with one command.

But he's there's something he wants him to do.

He says take away the stone.

I also want you to take off the grave clothes and let him go Well, this this is really a consistent pattern throughout scripture.

In the first miracle he ever did, remember, he said to the guys, the servants at the wedding, bring the water pots, fill them with water.

There's some things that I want you to do, and then I'll do what you do what you can do, and I'm going to do what only I can do.

You can't possibly change water to wine, but you can pour some water in a pot And in chapter 4, when he heals the dying son of the man who came to him, he says, what I want you to do is I want you to head home.

I want you to head home in faith, believing that I have when you get home, he's going to be well.

In chapter 5, verse 8, when he heals the man, do you want to get well, guy?

The paralyzed guy?

He says, pick up your bed and walk.

He says there's something I want you to do.

If the guy laid there and said, well, I just want you I want my legs to start moving and if I start moving then I'll I'll I don't want to make an idiot of myself trying I can't you know how many times I wished I could pick this thing up?

He says no He says, you get up, over and over this happens.

He tells them something to do.

He tells the blind man, go to the pool and wash.

Did the pool make him well?

No.

Did pick it up the map make this guy well?

No.

Did rolling away the stone raise Lazarus from the dead?

No.

Did going out and finding a lunch feed the 5,000?

No.

But does it happen if they don't?

Supernatural intervention usually requires obedience without explanation and without hesitation In the process of obeying, Jesus moves.

So I ask you the question, is he waiting for you to obey?

I'll tell you this.

What he asks you to do in these situations is almost always counterintuitive.

I cannot promise you it makes sense.

What he asks you to do.

Because the warriors of our Eagles wings experience such relentless, hateful attack from hell all year long.

They've got so many buttons in them because of the horrible past they've had.

We feel it's necessary to have a winter break retreat.

We'll bring we bring in Most of our team comes in, takes over our headquarters, which some of you are going to see our miracle in the Ozarks, and when you go, you're only going to know why it's our miracle.

And just later on here in just a short time But they'll take over that place and we've just got to pour into them.

It's so necessary for their spiritual thriving and surviving It was a year like some other years, there was no money for it.

Most of the money is just bringing them together because they're from all over the continent.

And Brad says, are we going to be able to do the winter break retreat?

And I said, I'm looking at the finances and I'm looking at a at a pretty staggering still year-end need.

We do this right after Christmas.

And I can see no human way that's going to be met.

We're in the God alone zone.

I don't even know anything to do about it, besides we're so totally involved in this retreat.

God said, you go ahead and do this.

I want this done.

Seemed like a time to not spend rather than to spend, but we did it.

We of course had booked the flights well in advance to save money.

I just finished teaching a session there, and I went in the dining room and as the team was coming in for lunch.

I see my phone light up.

I hadn't checked my phone.

I was obviously not doing phone calls.

And it was a call from out of the area, and I took the call and her brother simply said Ron I'm busy you're busy I have a simple question how much do you need I hadn't contacted him.

God did.

I told him the amount remaining of the need for the year.

He said you'll have it next week Actually, you'll have it in a couple days.

It was only in the process of obeying, though, and doing what made no sense to go ahead and spend that on this team being together. that God showed up.

Often he waits for an act of obedience, and it may be what's holding up the miracle is an obedience that may not even seem to have anything to do with the need.

But there's something he wants you to obey him on.

He says, you act, I will act.

Yeah, we know what I love.

John chapter 2, verse 5.

The lady who knows Jesus best at this point.

She spent 30 years raising this boy.

Listen to what she says to the guys.

She says to Jesus, they have no wine.

She turns to the servants, not having any idea what's about to happen, she just says Do whatever he tells you.

Just do what the boy says.

I've learned after 30 years.

If Jesus says it, you do it.

Do whatever he tells you to do.

No more and no less.

Great advice, Mary.

And last of all, the last insight, the deciding factor is his power, not our possibilities.

Forget the odds, forget the percentages That's not what's going to decide this.

The deciding factor is his power, not the possibilities you can see Well, Jesus could heal Lazarus.

Jesus can raise the dead Lazarus.

Well Jesus, we got lunch for one.

No, lunch for 5,000.

You see lunch for one.

I see lunch for 5,000.

Oh, by the way, when we're done, would you guys pick up the leftovers?

There'll be one basket for each disciple, so you're going to be eating the leftovers from what you thought could never happen next week.

See, Jesus doesn't always do miracles, by the way.

The manna stopped when they got to the promised land.

They could eat, they could just farm and eat off their crops.

But when a miracle is needed, he'll do it.

Can you just help me get down into the pool, Jesus?

No.

I'm going to have you walk away from here.

You see your possibilities?

There's the predictable outcome and there's the providential outcome.

There's the predictable outcome.

And the providential outcome.

I have shaved with an electric shaver, but uh years ago I was doing the old-fashioned way with the shaving cream and the razor.

This is one of the reasons why I stopped.

One morning I was shaving, I was in mid-shave, and all of a sudden all the lights went out.

Now, I managed to finish shaving because I know where my face is generally speaking.

But it's no fun shaving in the dark.

I think I can find yes without bleeding to death.

Well, what had happened was uh the the area, the whole area had a had a whole neighborhood was out because I mean there weren't we're not gonna toast anything, no English muffin this morning, uh you know, they're not gonna be a hairdryer this morning.

There's not gonna be I won't have a a lamp to read my Bible by.

No well the power is out.

The problem was That this gray thing that hangs on the pole down the street had been hit by lightning.

A transformer.

So it was out.

So now I remember being in a hurricane one time and after the hurricane and our our guys will remember this, after that hurricane Some of the lines were down and I saw those lines down on the ground snaking around with you know electricity just shooting out of them That was kind of scary.

So I know there's millions of volts in the wires right above me.

And I need them to give me the power that I need to do what I need to do that morning.

But the transformer does this amazing thing of taking all that voltage, which I would die if it came in like that.

And the house would blow up, but it transforms it so that it comes down to my little toaster oven, my lights in the bathroom, my electricity.

The transformer that takes the voltage of heaven and brings it down to the power you need for your moment, your situation is called faith.

And without the transformer, the power is there, the need is there, but the transformer is broken.

Because you are not believing in a miracle, Jesus.

You're believing in the possibilities you can see.

Not only is our Jesus the one who heals the sick and Does miraculous provision.

He's the miracle maker who has conquered what every other human has been conquered by.

He has conquered death.

And many of you know this, that When you lose a loved one who belongs to Jesus, yes, there is grief.

Aren't you glad?

1 Thessalonians doesn't say we sorrow not.

It says we sorrow not as those who have no hope.

Yes, we grieve.

I'd have a problem with the Bible if it said we don't grieve.

Yes, we do.

But it says that if you know Christ because of the ultimate impossibility that Jesus has conquered, that there's something on the other side of the scale, yes, the grief is over here, but without Jesus' resurrection, the scale goes.

But over here is hope.

Not I wish I wish hope, but I know because he lives, I will live.

He promised that.

And they will live And so there's hope on the other side.

And so the grief doesn't win because the hope weighs more than the grief.

So for a Christian, all death can do to our relationship with that person we have lost is we haven't lost them.

Death is only an interruption now.

I have to share with you just the end of a phenomenal poem.

If you can ever Google a poem called Death Meets His Master, I suggest you get it.

And uh I can't begin to do it justice, but I'll summarize.

It's a conversation between Father Time and King Death.

And Father Time is asking King Death. why he is staying in front of this one tomb, this one grave.

And he says, because this one person , he says, nobody, when I cut them down, they stay cut down.

King Death says, I always win.

And this man says three days and he's not good, I'm not gonna win.

He said, that ain't gonna happen.

He says, this one's something special.

He challenged me, they say.

Said he's rest there just three days.

Then stir and walk away.

Well, Father Time comes back at the end of three days.

He says, now Father Time was quite surprised when he came back to see death a quivering on the ground.

In frightful agony.

His eyes were set, his throat was marked, his clothes in disarray.

It wasn't difficult to see that death had had its day.

I love the ending on this thing And let me just read you the last few lines.

He said, um, I wish I could read it all to you.

What happened, Death?

asked Father Time.

What makes you look so bad?

I've never seen you shake this way.

Or seems so scared and sad.

And basically, King Death describes when the stone was rolled away and Jesus walked out.

Time and death met once again off yonder by the gate.

It's good to see you, said old Time.

I've wondered about your fate.

Get this now.

Here we go.

Death says, I'm just a lonely servant now.

There's little time to roam.

I just push open this old gate.

And help the saints go home.

That's all death can do now.

Is help the saints go home.

Because Jesus beat the ultimate impossibility.

Sorry, King Death, you're quivering on the ground.

This is the miracle maker.

If he can raise the dead man.

He can raise a dead marriage.

He can bring life to a dead relationship.

He can change things that no one else could change.

He has conquered death, the other battles. are so small compared to what he has already won.

But you know how he's going to decide what he's going to do?

He wants you to see your impossible as a platform to see his glory with your own eyes, whatever kind of miracle he does.

If you will understand that the miracle he will do is not just to meet your need.

It is to reveal his glory.

His jaw-dropping, breathtaking glory And thus he revealed his glory from his first miracle to the one you need right now