The One Who You Love is Sick

Well, hey, everybody. This is a much chiller

greeting. Welcome to Pursuing Jesus. Hello, everyone.

It is good to have you with us on episode 22.

22? 22. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling

22. Everything will be all right, as long as

I'm standing next to you. Well, you have definitely

felt 22 sooner than I have felt 22. I just had

that revelation of like, okay, wait, hold on.

I think Ben turned 22 and he had a theme song

available for him for turning 22. He did. Now,

I was still in my Taylor Swift is for girls era.

Yeah. And seeing that I am not a girl, I did

not celebrate that way. Although Madison did

sing it to me the day I turned 22. Which it makes

sense. Because she is a. Girl. Yeah. So I only

have one Taylor Swift experience. Okay. So this

would have been early college. Okay. When she

had had just her debut album out. So she was

small. When she was still country. Yes, because

me and Tiffany went to a Rascal Flats concert.

Ooh. I'm admitting that. It is on the internet.

People now know I have been to a Rascal Flats

concert. Dude, I'm envious. I love those guys.

So we went to the concert. Taylor Swift was the

opening act. No way. Yep. That was back when

she played fiddle. And she put on... a much better

show than Rascal Flatts. I mean, blew them out

of the water with just her and like a few band

members on stage, but her stage performance was

amazing. Well, good for her. It makes sense where

she has ended up where she is with the big concert

she has because the girl can do it. I mean, you

knew she was trouble when she walked in. I did.

I did. I understood that song reference. I'm

desperately searching for more Taylor Swift.

You've been constantly doing it. But even though

I don't have the 22 connection, you know what

year I was born? 17. Why did you start with 17?

1984. Dude, 1984. Yeah. So there's been a lot

of references to 1984 in pop culture. Well, yeah,

because of the book. Have you read that? I'm

actually a big fan of 1984. I have read the book.

You've got that one, and the whole point of 1984

is world domination will come through global

spying and people being suppressed, but you also

have Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I have

not read that. He was a contemporary of Orwell.

And his argument was not that the world would

come under global control by mass policing. It

was actually that people would please themselves

to death. The whole thing is that the society

keeps them sedated, medicated, entertained at

all times, in every sense of the word. Well,

that's not happening at all. Give it a read with

all the free time. It is borderline prophetic.

It's one of those things. I definitely do not

read enough fiction. I mean, literally, in the

past, In the past, I don't know, let's say 10

years. Yeah. 1984 is one of the very few fiction

books I have read. besides the harry potter series

three times yeah for a second i thought you meant

you had read 1984 three times and i've read the

harry potter series three times in the past 10

years uh i need to i need to put harry potter

down i just enjoy it's a great good versus evil

story yeah but i need i need to pick up some

other fiction man i really do well so the the

the water is wide on that one and so like you

get fiction that you read for entertainment Right.

Yeah. Um, but you also end up with fiction that

you read for like, like it's got a deeper meaning.

Like, like recently I read a book called Jaber

Crow and it's just about this dude who grows

up in this fictional town in Kentucky. Um, book

take the book starts in like 1898, just a little

after you were born. Um, and, uh, and he, it

walks him through the sixties. So it's this weird

first person perspective of, um, like watching

the world go from a very agrarian, non -industrialized,

not connected place to like, like he lives through

the world wars. He lives through Vietnam. He

lives through the space race. And like, it's

just this dude watching the world go by and it's,

it's long winded and a slow burn and contemplative.

And it taught me the value of time. Interesting.

So now that is interesting. So I don't know if

this is a specific category. I'm not a, I'm not

a bookworm. Sure, we'll go with that. A bookworm,

a bibliophile. There you go. There's a big word.

Why use big word when small word do jobs? Yeah,

yeah, yeah. Anyways, but I did read. So there

was a nonfiction book I read, but it was written

in a fiction style. It was a leadership book.

Yeah. And it was a leadership book that was written

using storytelling as the ability. to give the

leadership principles. That's a compelling medium.

And it was incredible. Yeah. It was so good.

I don't know, like I said, I don't know if that's

its own genre or what it is. And I'm terrible

at remembering book names, author names, or even

quotes. And so I can't tell you what the book

was. It's because you're so focused on the Bible.

See, you know my heart. Yeah, exactly. That is

the reason that is on the internet right now.

Yes, correct. Oh, man. Well, I do feel the need

to explain a little bit of what we're doing today.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Do it. So Memorial fam, this

is pursuing Jesus from the crib. On location.

On location. So Sean and I are currently sitting

in his living room. You know what? This is such

a different feeling. I am chilling on my couch.

Yeah. Surrounded by my dogs. That's not literally.

my, my puppies. Am I not one of your dogs, bro?

You are one of my dogs, but my actual pets as

well. Okay. And then, you know, my son is across

from us just chilling on his phone and we did

offer him a mic. We tried to get him on the mic,

but I understand. I understand. He does. Right.

But this is kind of fun, man. This is kind of

fun just chilling in the house. Obviously, it's

a very comfortable scenario for us to just talk

about random stuff. That's what we've opened

with for a lot of time so far. It's okay. We've

got about the same amount of time as we usually

do. Okay. Um, but just with the kind of the,

the different environment and, uh, the, the sort

of the chiller pace. I mean, like you and I are

talking about this off mic, just sort of wanting

to today's zero in on one major test. Cause there

was in this, for those of you that have been

doing the pursuing Jesus book and you're up to

date with us this week, there was a massive story

that took up four days. Correct. And so we decided

like, let's just zoom in on not a particular

day. but on the story that took up four days

of the week. Yes. And there's so much to draw

from like the John 11 narrative of like Jesus

and Lazarus. Yeah. Because it really is in three

acts, right? So you get the, we'll call it the,

oh man. So you get the prequels. The first movement

here we have is Jesus hears about the death of

Lazarus. He's talking to the disciples about

it, right? And then. You have the Jesus comes

into town discourse, and he has this conversation

with Martha. And then, of course, you have the

ending where you see Jesus actually raise Lazarus.

And so you really do have three unique movements

of this that I think are worth us touching on.

Yeah. So, Sean, how about this? What do you say?

Maybe we say we read through verse 16. We park

it there for a little bit. Yeah, and just kind

of let's talk about that, and we'll go over that

for a little bit, and then we'll just go from

there and see how much time we have. We'll go

by movement. Miles, does that sound good to you?

Okay, he's giving us a nod. Miles gave us a head

nod, so I think we're good. Excellent. Good.

Now a man was sick, Lazarus, from Bethany, the

village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was

the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and

wiped his feet with her hair, and it was her

brother Lazarus who was sick. So the sisters

sent a message to him, Lord, the one you love

is sick. When Jesus heard it, he said, this sickness

will not end in death, but it is for the glory

of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified

through it. Now Jesus loved Martha. her sister

and Lazarus. So, when he heard that he was sick,

he stayed two more days in the place where he

was. Then after that, he said to the disciples,

let's go to Judea again. Rabbi, the disciples

told him, just now the Jews tried to stone you

and you're going there again? Aren't there 12

hours in a day? Jesus answered, if anyone walks

during the day, he doesn't stumble because he

sees the light of the world. But if anyone walks

during the night, he does stumble, because the

light is not in him. He said this, and then he

told them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,

but I am on my way to wake him up. Then the disciples

said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he

will get well. Jesus, however, was speaking about

his death, but they thought he was speaking about

natural sleep. So Jesus then told them plainly,

Lazarus has died. I'm glad that for you that

I wasn't there so that you may believe, but let's

go to him. Then Thomas called the twin, said

to his fellow disciples, let's go to so that

we may die with him. There's a lot there, like

a lot, a lot there, even in verse. So context

is important, right? And then they touch on that,

that Jesus just like. majorly irritated. Yes.

A ton of that. He kicked the anthill. Yeah. And

then he left and then he left and they, and they

did pick up stones to stone him because he repeatedly

made claims to be equal with the father or literally

just God himself. He, he claimed that before

Abraham was born, he had always existed. Um,

and so, so brief side note, like, like if anybody

ever tells you and your discussions that, you

know, that Jesus never claimed to be God. If

they take kind of the moral teacher route, like,

like John eight through nine is a great place

to take them of just like, you know, guys, I

appreciate that, but that's not true. And it's

actually, that is that, that is an argument that

is taught to people to try to refute Judaism,

to try to refute Christianity is to try to get,

is try to manipulate and say that Jesus never

claimed to be God. Right. And so that's one of

those things that this is why apologetics is

so important. This is why knowing our Bible is

so important, so that you can know where to go

to defend your faith. No, absolutely. Absolutely.

So in the text, though, so keep that in your

mind, because I think that's important as we

move on. Man, even in verse two, you see that

these folks have a previous history with... Jesus.

There's a relationship that has been built here.

And there are two seeds of that, right? You see

one, that Mary was the lady who anointed the

Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her

hair. And so Mary has a real understanding of

her position before God. Oh my gosh, yes. And

that's where her request, hey, he whom you love

is ill, comes from. And so for us, we can learn

from her example of, When you're in a difficult

position, like when, when things are not looking

pretty, remind yourself of how the Lord has worked

in your life up until that point, because the

relationship that he builds with you is not for

nothing. Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's, that

would be like, that would be like if, if I got

a flat tire before and you came and helped me

change a tire, although like disclaimer, I know

how to change a tire. I took the auto maintenance

merit badge and boy Scouts like, like I'm set.

That's the thing. It's a thing. If you help me

change a tire before, I can call on you because

I know that you know how to do it. Yeah. And

you've shown me that you're willing to help me.

Yeah. And so Mary, who is sitting in the right

place before Jesus, knows that she's completely

dependent on him, says, Lord, Lord. Not rabbi.

No. But Lord. And whether this is... I don't

have the Greek in front of me, and so I don't

know whether this is dominus, like what they

would say is a term of respect, or Adonai, which

means Lord God. But either way, this is a term

of submission. He whom you love is ill. But look

how Jesus responds to this. When Jesus heard

it, he said, this illness does not lead to death.

It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of

God may be glorified through it. The thing that

stood out to me as I was reading verse four is

when Jesus makes a promise, he keeps it right.

Like you see that in this text, you see that,

that this illness does not lead to death, but

we often fill in our own interpretation of what

his promises mean. Like, like I think in my own

life, I assume that God will take the most direct

route. What do you mean by that? What I mean

by it is this. Psalm 122. He will keep you from

all evils. Or Psalm 91. You need not fear the

terror that stalks in the night, nor the arrow

that flies by day. A thousand may fall at your

side, but you will only see the recompense of

the wicked. My brain first reading says, Ben's

not going to get sick. It says he will keep you

from the deadly pestilence, right? Interesting.

Because that is the closest, nearest explanation

that I can get. Right. Right? But we do get sick.

Yes, we do. Our bodies are frail. Sometimes the

pestilence that stalks in the night does strike

us. Yeah. Sometimes the arrow by day does hit

us. Yes, it does. But the Lord's promise that

he will keep us from these things. is a lot closer

to, I feel like, and I mean, check me if I'm

wrong here. The Lord's promise in this is a lot

closer to, I will prevent this or I will carry

you through it. And in the end, I will make all

things new. No, I agree. I think you have your

finger on the pulse of that one correct for what

you're saying there. I absolutely agree. You

know, if I could take a moment and look at this

passage and kind of, The thing that overwhelms

me is looking at this part of it is just that

relationship that you were talking about earlier.

Yeah. When we look at verse three and it talks

about Lord, as you said, we looked at Lord, the

one you love is sick. And then later on. in verse

5, now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.

And so, to see the emotions playing out in this

story, I think we talked about this in the podcast

last week, that there's many times that we don't

get to see a lot of those personalities or emotions.

We get to see them in some passages, but this

is one of those special ones, that because John

uses some particular language, it's a lot easier

to feel what's going on in this passage. And

I think that's on purpose because I mean, we're

talking about death here, you know, but what

I love about this is that when, obviously it

says her brother Lazarus was sick. I don't think

that this was a common cold, right? This was

a serious sickness. I mean, obviously it led

to his death, but whatever was going on in the

moment, they knew. This is not good. Correct.

They knew this is not good, and they trusted

Jesus so much. I mean, already at this point

in this relationship, they knew who he was. Yes.

They knew he had the power, the character, and

the love to do something. And you see Martha

say that explicitly in Act 2. And so now it ends

up being different than what they think. Precisely.

Right? But the trust that they have with Jesus

because they have a relationship with him. Yeah.

That's incredible. And that's where it starts.

I think that some people wonder, like they look

at this very beginning part and it's like, man,

I wish I had a relationship with Jesus like that.

It's obtainable. Absolutely. Relationships take

work. Relationships take trust. And even this,

the story that's pointed out, Mary humbled herself,

put herself on the ground, and wiped Jesus' feet

with her hair. I mean, talk about a total position

of humility. And of course, you respond to Jesus

in ways like that. Jesus is going to respond

back. And not even in a reciprocal way. No. It's

not like you're gaining Jesus' favor more because

you're more submissive. As you further submit

to him, you are better able to receive that relationship

with Jesus. Exactly. Exactly. Thank you for clarifying

that. Because what you see here, we are seeing

the heart of what Mary wants. Yeah. And she just

wants to be near Jesus. And think about whenever

something in your life like this, like her brother's

dying, her brother who she has an incredible

relationship with, this person that she's close

with is dying. Who do you want to be around during

those moments but the people that you're most

intimate with, the people that you have a close

relationship? And for her, one of those people

is Jesus. That's incredible. You know, one of

the other things that stood out to me is at the

very end of this act, here is verse 14, when

the disciples are still like... what do you mean

he's asleep? You know, uh, which by the way,

like, I feel like that's me so many times. Like

I'm like, I see something in scripture or the

Holy spirit speaks to me and tells me to do something.

I'm like, I miss it. But what do you mean? Yeah.

What do you, what do you, what do you mean? What

do you mean? You know? And so, but like, like

praise God that he communicates to us directly.

Like, just like Jesus does here, just like he

does with us when we miss it. It's not like he's

waiting on us to miss it. Like he's like, he

goes and Jesus told them plainly Lazarus has

died. And for your sake, I am glad I was not

there, that you may believe, but let us go to

him. That's crazy. I am glad. Jesus sees the

ultimate good. Yes. In circumstances, even when

we can't see it. Yeah. I mean, like I would never,

I mean, like as Christians, we're put into places

where when people are grieving, they ask us questions.

Yeah, they do. Doesn't matter whether we're pastors,

doesn't matter whether we're Sunday school teachers

or deacons or whatever. Yeah. If you bear the

name of Jesus, they're going to ask you these

things. And I couldn't say, I'm glad this happened.

You know? Right. But Jesus, knowing the full

set of circumstances, knowing what was to come,

I am glad that I was not there so that you may

believe. Yeah. He sees the situation, and we're

going to see that Jesus gets emotional over the

situation and the relationships and all of this,

but he knows there is a purpose, and there is

a purpose behind what is about to happen, what

has happened, and he knows that is the greater

good. And we can trust him with that. And that's

a good example for us, that when we have no idea

why, we find ourselves asking why questions.

Those aren't too big for him. You'll even see

Jesus get asked some why questions by Martha

and by Mary, and he doesn't dodge them. He doesn't

sidestep them. He doesn't rebuke them. He answers

with more of his character, more of his presence,

and with more hope. Let's go to Act 2, man. I

feel like this is a natural place for it. Moving

on. Jesus and his disciples come back into Judea,

and Martha catches wind that Jesus is coming.

And so she meets him on the road. Mary can't

handle it. Which, there you go. You have two

different forms of grief. Yes. And both are okay.

And they are. And that's why I wanted to bring

this up is that people respond to grief differently.

Yes. Some people run to others and they need,

they desire that immediate support. Other ones,

they take time to process. And Jesus validates

both experiences. Yes, he does. Ah, I love it.

So Martha shows up and says, Lord, there it is

again, that Lord, that submission. If you had

been here, my brother would not have died. But

even now I know that whatever you ask from God,

God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother

will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that

he will rise again in the resurrection on the

last day. And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection

and the life. Whoever believes in me, though

he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives

and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe

this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that

you are the Christ, the son of God who is coming

into the world. You know what? I want a statement.

You know what I love about Martha here? What's

that? She is straight up with Jesus about her

wrestling in belief. Yeah. Because think of it.

Look at this. First, she says, if you were here,

he wouldn't have died. Then she says, but you

still might be able to do something about it.

Talk about faith right there with that statement.

But then she says on the last day, not right

now. And then do you think, I wonder if that

is like there, she's showing faith, but there's

still that little bit of doubt, like just in

case, like just in case, like, I don't know.

I think it's exactly what it is. Yeah. I mean,

I mean, she's, she's to not get herself disappointed.

Maybe dude, we all do that. Yeah. The second

that you learn disappointment. in a human context,

you can't help but apply it to God. Yeah. The

second that things don't go your way and you,

and that particular shade of blue comes over

you, you can't help but apply it to God. And

so Jesus answers her imperfect faith. Yeah. Valid,

but imperfect. I like that. Yeah. With a promise.

Martha, you're beating around this resurrection

bush, but I, I am the resurrection and the life.

You know, it is so, gosh, I mean, as you're talking

about this and we're looking at Martha, I mean,

how awesome is it to know we don't have to have

perfect faith. Jesus is going to respond to us

in our imperfect faith. Seriously. With love,

with reassurance of his promise of who he is.

It's like we don't have to have it all together

to come to Jesus. No. We come to him as we are,

and he accepts us as we are and loves us and

then guides us to where he wants us to be. Yes.

And he delights to have it so. Like the book

of Zephaniah, like major deep cut of the Bible.

I was like, there's a drop. The book of Zephaniah,

there's a gentleman in my life who I respect

very, very much who loves to remind me of, I

think it's Zephaniah 3, where it says that the

Lord will rejoice over you with singing. With

singing. And the notion there is not that once

you've gotten it all figured out, he's like,

oh, thank goodness. It's more of an idea of when

the father sees you coming, he celebrates. It

shows that joy. It shows that joy. Yeah. I love

the twofold promise here. The Bible likes to

do this, where Jesus will offer a promise that

is immediately applicable to the people that

he's talking to, or the apostles will say something

specifically to the people he's writing an epistle

to, but it's got a bigger ramification for us.

So Jesus says, whoever believes in me, though

he shall die, yet he shall live. Spoiler alert,

though Lazarus died, because he believed in Jesus,

though he died, yet he shall live. And everyone

who believes in me shall never die. That shifts

to, we have eternal security that we will not

eternally perish. That second death that the

book of Revelation talks about. But he also ends

it with, I guess you could say, a challenge.

Do you believe this? He makes these statements,

but then he puts it on them. Once again, we come

with imperfect faith, but then he's guiding.

Yeah. I mean, that's the, and that's the rhythm

of worship too. Like, like this is, this is a

bit of an aside, but I think it's, it's pertinent

to what we're talking about. Please continue

worship pastor. Listen, man, the rhythm of worship

is revelation and response. You see this in scripture

all the time. God reveals himself to his people.

whether that be physically manifesting or he

gives them a truth about them. And then that

revelation compels them to respond. And we get

to choose how we respond, whether we respond

in worship, whether we respond in rejection of

him. Like it's like that passage in Isaiah, behold,

my people have committed two evils. They have

forsaken their God. That's the revelation. And

they have hewn out for themselves broken cisterns

that cannot hold any water. Revelation and response.

Well, Jesus is the living water. Amen. But here,

I am the resurrection and the life. I am revealing

myself to you. Do you believe this? I love it.

Reveal and respond. Yeah. But we see more of

Jesus' heart kind of in the conclusion of Act

2 here. Yes. When Jesus comes to Mary. Because

now we've got the different grieving process.

The different grieving process. He responds to

Martha with one way, and now we see how he's

going to respond to Mary. Yes. Now, I love how

Martha, encouraged by her conversation with Jesus,

goes and gets Mary. And I think that there's

a lesson in that for us as believers. I think

it's 2 Corinthians that says, we are comforted

so that we can comfort others. So we have a responsibility

to when we are given comfort, when the Lord speaks

to us, when the Lord shows us a path forward

to carry that to other people, because he may

have comforted you so that you can go and show

his same love to that other person so that you

can be Jesus to them. And so Martha goes and

gets Mary. This is verse 32 now. When Mary came

to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his

feet. saying, Lord, if you had been here, my

brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her

weeping and the Jews had come to her also weeping,

he was deeply moved. And all that he asks is,

where have you laid him? She says, Lord, come

and see. And Jesus wept. Here's the thing that

stood out to me about this section of text. Yeah.

You talked about Martha and Mary grieving differently

and needing different things. Yeah. Martha needed

answers. And we see from like the Mary Martha

story where she's like more logistical focused

about hosting and all that stuff. Yep. It makes

sense. She needs answers. You want to know what

Mary needed? Mary needed to see Jesus weep. Yeah.

Mary needed to didn't like Jesus knew exactly

what they both needed. Mary didn't need answers.

Mary didn't need an explanation. She falls on

her face before him and she presents the problem

and all he does is cry with her. Yeah. We have

a savior who weeps for us. It's like the book

of Isaiah. I feel like I've talked about Isaiah

a lot today. It's just where I'm sitting these

days. Like surely he has borne our sorrows. He's

acquainted with grief. Like Jesus knows exactly

what it's like to suffer perfectly well, what

it's like for us to suffer. And so how could

he not cry? I picture him thinking, of the day

that he created the world, the day that he knit

Mary and Martha and Lazarus together in their

mother's womb. And I pictured the design that

he had for the Garden of Eden, free from sin,

free from death, free from suffering, paradise.

And I can see him weeping not only for the pain

of loss, but for the, this is not what I intended

for you. Because he can see it all. And he can

see the redeemed potential, the pre -Eden potential

for how all this could have gone. And it's so

different. And I feel like it's important for

us to mention this. We have a savior that weeps

with us. We got a lot of reason to weep in our

country, in our nation. Even individual life

circumstance can just drive us to our knees,

dude. But as we grieve. The Psalms promise that

he keeps all of our tears in a bottle. Yeah.

As we lose, he promises that not a sparrow falls

without him taking notice. As we feel like we

are broken and broken and broken, he promises

a bruised reed I will not break. That is the

Savior that we see in this text. So I was rereading

this this morning. Yeah. And specifically this

part of the story, I was... Reading it over,

I was sitting right over there at my kitchen

table. I had my coffee cup, and I got to verse

32. It says, as soon as Mary came to where Jesus

was and saw him, she fell at his feet and told

him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't

have died. And I'm picturing the situation, and

once again, there's so much emotion in what's

going on. I don't know exactly what she's going

through. I have not experienced this kind of

death, but I'm understanding a little bit of

the emotion that's going on here with what's

going on and how she could have brought herself

and then fallen at the feet of Jesus. And then

I read when Jesus saw her crying, the Jews who

were... who had come with her, he was deeply

moved in his spirit and troubled. Where have

you put him? He asked. I mean, I love that. His

response, he's right there. Jesus sees her crying.

He sees the emotion. He's deeply moved. And right

there, there's action that Jesus wants to take.

Where have you put him? Lord, they told him,

come and see. And then there's the famous short

verse, Jesus wept. I read that this morning.

And I was overwhelmed with how much Jesus loves

me. I'm reading this and thinking of how much

Jesus truly loves his creation. Seriously. Like

we don't worship a distant God that is just in

the cosmos watching us. Be like, oh, you screwed

up again. You screwed up again. You dumb, dumb

human. You screwed up again. How dare you screw

up again? Like, no. I worship a savior. I believe

in a God that meets me where I am, grieves when

I grieve. loves when I love, rejoices when I

rejoice, and he is there to guide me in my imperfection.

And I'll be honest, I'm man enough. I started

to cry at my table by myself this morning thinking

about how much Jesus loved me. I became overwhelmed

with his love. What I love about this text is

that not only does Jesus empathize, like truly

empathize. feel those emotions with Martha and

Mary, he takes the next step. It's not like,

oh, I'm just going to sit with you in this. This

is where he takes his promise and fulfills it,

right? Deeply moved again, Jesus comes to the

tomb. It was a cave and a stone was against it.

And Jesus goes, take away the stone. Now here

we see Martha wrestle again, right? because Martha

believes that Jesus can do anything. She's wrestling

with his Messiah hood, but she's like, it's going

to stink in there. She's still responding as

Martha does. We have the same type of thing we

saw earlier. She's still giving these little,

these little words. Yeah. And honestly, man,

same here. Yeah. Even in some of the moments

where I've watched God work the most up until

the very moment that he has done that great deliverance.

I've struggled the belief. 100%. And even going

back to what we were talking about earlier with

Martha, there's been times in my life that God

has given me confirmation multiple times that

this is what he wants, but I'm still like, but

what if? But that's that imperfect faith. It

is. And you know what? Rather than him sitting

up there and going, really don't trust me. He

again and again allows these things to happen

to grow our faith. Absolutely. So we can continue

to point back to see what he's done, see what

he's done. And what he's done shows us who he

is. And so Jesus goes, did I not tell you that

if you believe you would see the glory of God,

Hey, watch this. Watch. Yeah. You know how I

said, I am the resurrection and the life. And

he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.

Can you imagine the heavy silence? Dude, after

those three words are mentioned, I'm just like,

everybody's looking at each other, looking at

Jesus, looking at the black hole of the tomb.

Like, oh my gosh, this is about to happen. It's

almost cinematic. And maybe not even, oh my gosh,

this is about to happen. But like he said, what?

Yeah. You know, and you slowly see this silhouette

fill the hole in the cave. And this man wrapped

in bandages walks out. But how does Jesus respond?

Unbind him and let him go. Get those grave clothes

off. When we have been brought from death to

life, there is evidence of the grave, but there's

a promise of a future life. It is so interesting

as humans. We still want to hold on to grave

clothes, don't we? Of course we do. You know,

and that is that thing that even though we see

how amazing Jesus is, and it's going back to

that imperfect faith again, it's like, man, we

hold on to the stinking, rotting grave clothes

that we just need to let go of. But there's something

about that old life that is hard to let go at

times. But yet, even in those moments, Jesus

still says, come to me. Yes, absolutely. And

as Jesus calls us to throw down those grave clothes,

he is calling us deeper into himself. The process

of moving closer to Jesus in relationship is

synonymous with casting off sin and engaging

in righteousness. Because if you do it without

him, that's legalism. If you try to remove...

your grave clothes on your own without involving

him in the process. And I think that's a common

response. Of course. Continue. And he's the one

who says what comes off first. Go deeper. Think

about this. So you and I will spend the rest

of our lives battling sin. Yes, we will. And

battling unbelief and battling all manner of.

Even just thought processes that don't honor

Jesus, right? Yeah, absolutely. Scripture says

that he is the author and the perfecter of our

faith. Yes. He wrote this thing. Yes. He's the

one who's driving the boat. He's the one who's

put the gas in the engine. Yes. And so we have

to be in relationship with him and he will point

out the areas that he wants you to start with.

Yeah. What I know about him is that he will also

point out the areas that we don't see. Yeah,

because those are definitely the dangerous areas

in our lives. Absolutely. That we can feel like

we have reached the goal. We're there. I've done

it. I have overcome these things. And that's

when Jesus can humble us and continue to guide

us on that path. Well, it's like, so I'll close

with this because I feel like this is a really

good quote to share. C .S. Lewis has a book called

Mere Christianity. And in it, he compares our

sanctification process, the process of us becoming

more like Jesus, to us being a house. When we

start the Christian life, we assume that Jesus

is going to keep the house the same. He's going

to change out the paint. He might throw down

some carpet over the hardwoods, but we expect

to stay the same. generally speaking, house,

same floor plan. He's just going to change a

little bit. We get really uncomfortable when

he begins to tear out a wall, when he begins

to build another wing, when he puts a staircase

there, why would you put a staircase there? And

we find that he's not here to renovate the house.

He's here to build a new one. And I feel like

that's important to note as we look at Jesus

helping us take off our grave clothes. Now that's

Drex in the background barking. This is at the

crib edition. Sean, anything else you want to

add to this text before we sign off here? Not

really, man. We've had some great conversations.

I think there's been a theme of looking at our

imperfect faith, and it's been really good to

really get deep into a passage, a passage that

has some serious things going on to it. But once

again, like we try to do so often on this podcast.

How does it affect us? What has this got to do

with our lives and our relationship with Jesus?

And I think we've done a great job of that today.

I think so, too. I'm excited to continue to dig

into pursuing Jesus. And to conclude, I'd like

to introduce our celebrity guest today. This

is Marvel, the Pomeranian. Let's see if Marvel

will talk. Marvel has a specific theological

music for us. This has been Pursuing Jesus. We'll

catch you guys next week. All right, guys, this

is Sean. I will see you guys later. Pursuing

Jesus is a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church

in Norwood, North Carolina. To learn more about

our church, please visit memorial4norwood .com.