Knowing Jesus Better - Leaders' Talks

You're listening to this edition of the road.

Anytime the guy shows you what he's doing, that's really, really big.

That says, You're my friend.

He spoke in parables.

He did not speak in parables to be clearer.

He spoke in parables so that his friends could get it.

He was speaking in code.

And if you understand that code, that's an incredible privilege.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message.

Hi guys, it is my personal privilege and distinct honor to introduce our speaker tonight, Bobby Sanders.

And he's going to be given the word tonight.

Bobby has been in the ministry for 20 years in various roles.

He's uh had a uh started his career in the music industry, been in Nashville, spent many years at Compassion as a director and um partnering with Compassion in their mission.

And now Bobby is the senior pastor at Chapel Hills Church.

And uh we're designed to hear.

He's my friend, he's my brother, and thanks for being with us, man.

Wow.

You just need to come by every week, just get a little encouragement.

It's great.

Um well, Ryan is my friend.

A lot of times people say that because they're introducing you, and you know, what else do you say?

Ryan actually is my friend.

Um we did a um we have this little jar that we sit on the dinner table every night, and we we pull it out.

It has little questions in it.

And you you pull one question out, and you have that question kind of controls family dinner that night.

And so uh the question a couple nights ago was name one person that you've become friends with this year.

And uh my wife said, I already know who that is, and it was Ryan, because Ryan certainly has become a really good friend to me this year.

And so when you guys first started occupying Chapel Hills Church, it was like, oh, that's those guys, and this is us, and we're glad to have you.

But that's changing over time.

It's changing a lot, and uh now it's almost at a place where I'll see Ryan come or I'll see Steve come in, and I'll want to go talk to him.

But I'm thinking, man, I probably should let them work.

So I'm just gonna I'm gonna leave them alone, and then I think who needs work?

I'm gonna go talk to them.

And uh so I'll go and then and we'll spend time together.

We get to know each other better and better and better.

And it's not unusual for Ryan or myself to send a text to one another throughout the week and say, hey, are you have you had lunch?

And if we haven't had lunch, we'll we'll go grab lunch together.

It's it's become a friendship, and with every lunch, we get to know each other better.

I mean, I literally know Ryan better this month than I did last month, and vice versa.

We know each other better with every passing lunch.

And tonight we're gonna talk about getting to know Jesus better.

And when we pose that question or we pose that challenge to get to know Jesus better, it's not saying that you are spiritually behind because there's something about him that you don't know.

Listen, there's things about my wife that I either don't know or I have forgotten.

In fact, this morning we spent the morning going over personal assessments that we filled out in 2013.

What was that report?

A Berkman report.

And so we went back over our Berkman reports.

Just, I needed to remember some of the things that make her tick.

Like, for instance, she has to have variety, she can't be in routine day in and day out.

And she has to have a group of people that she pours into.

It can't just be like this isolation.

And then we realize that my wife is a stay-at-home mom.

And I'm like, man, we really need to get to know you better.

So getting to know someone better does not mean that somehow you're like far away from them.

You can learn them more and more and more and more.

And so we're gonna do that tonight.

Open your Bibles up to John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

And before we start in verse 1, I'm just gonna dive in and pray for us, if you don't mind.

So, Father, we pray for uh your time, your word, your spirit, your anointing, as you guide us through this book.

I pray that we come away feeling like we know you better than we knew you before.

Father, I pray that your spirit just work as a guide right through this scripture.

That you would do work in people's lives that I can't see, that I couldn't plan for, that I couldn't prepare for in the middle of a message.

I have no way of knowing it, but you know what's going on in their life.

And I pray that you take this word and you meet them right where they are.

And Father, I pray that you do a miraculous work in my mind so that I don't forget things that I've prepared.

And Father, I pray that you keep me from saying anything that would harm or embarrass the kingdom tonight.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So if we go to John chapter 11, we're gonna look at Jesus is on the way.

John 11 · chapter mention

He's getting ready to raise Lazarus from the dead.

And he's just now getting the news that Lazarus is sick.

And so we're not gonna actually get to where he actually raises him from the dead.

We're gonna get to the news and how he handles the news and what we can learn from that, what we can learn from Jesus in this process.

So let's start in verse one.

Now a man named Lazarus was sick.

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

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

Now listen, this is not a part of the sermon.

This is like a bonus.

You get a bonus here.

You know what's crazy about this piece of scripture right here?

It hasn't happened yet.

If you look at this, this story is not told until chapter 12.

It's pretty crazy that the life you're living may not be captured by all of culture yet and written.

You may be doing things right now that you think are insignificant, just like Mary and Martha may have thought that was insignificant.

Didn't know.

Just one chapter later, it's gonna be recorded in Scripture.

So be faithful.

Be faithful to worship the Lord.

You don't know what God's gonna do with that.

You don't know how God's gonna use that.

But this was so well known throughout culture that they were telling the story, and then John said, you know what, I'm gonna write it down.

I'm gonna get credit for that.

So that's what happened.

Anyway, in verse 3, this is the first thing I think, the first verse that we could use to get to know Jesus better.

So the sisters sent word to Jesus.

Lord, the one who you love is sick.

Lord, the one who you love is sick.

Jesus knew what that meant.

He knew exactly.

Okay, you're coming.

I know who your brother is.

I know that you're Lazarus' brother and sister, and you're saying the one you love is sick.

Well, I thought he loved everybody.

I did.

I thought he loved everybody.

I thought Jesus just loved everybody just the same.

He just is.

Can I have that right quick?

So look, I wanted to pull up a visual illustration of how we treat Jesus.

It looks a lot like this.

This to us is really how we handle our relationship with Jesus.

He's beautiful, he's imaginary, and he's untouchable.

And we worship him, but somehow he's like in a different world.

And do you see this right here?

How we're getting things stirred up and it's making it even more magical?

We call that prayer.

But not good prayer, not prayer that moves mountains, prayer that just makes him more magical.

That somehow we feel like by praying we can just kind of shake up the little world, and here's Jesus, and no, no.

And it's a tragedy that we look at Jesus and we don't stop to say, He's human.

He is so human that people could say, you know, the one you love.

Lazarus?

Yeah, he's sick.

And we don't allow Jesus, even though we in our heads know that he's human.

We don't allow him to be human.

Let me give you the other side of that.

You know how people call you and say, hey, do you want to go do coffee?

And you're like, oh, I'm really busy this year.

You know what I'm talking about.

I think Jesus has those same emotions with certain people.

I think Jesus would look at certain people and be like, hey, hey, hey, hey, let's go over here.

For a minute, for a minute.

Because that guy gets on my nerves.

He gets on my nerves.

And if that's offensive to you to think that there were people in his culture that kind of got on his nerves, I would invite you to get to know Jesus better.

He is human in every way.

In every way, Jesus was human, so human that the ones he loved brought an actual name to his mind.

Because he didn't say, I don't know who you're talking about.

Well, I love everybody.

He said, Oh, I know exactly who you're talking about.

And so there is this human aspect with Jesus, and why it is so important that we don't put Jesus in a globe, in a snow globe, is because he's not realistic to you.

I mean, I just saw a slide about D groups.

And look, if you're not in a D group and you're able to connect to a D group, you should.

One of Christ's last conversations he ever had was go and make disciples.

Now I just talked with a friend.

He's 38 years old.

He went into surgery yesterday.

And they literally cut him completely open because he has cancer.

And they are trying desperately to save his life.

Do you think my words were with him on the phone yesterday were wasted?

Do you think we talked about basketball?

You really think we talked about basketball?

No, we did not talk about that.

We talked about how important Emily and the kids were to him.

We talked about the legacy that he's already left behind.

We talked about ministry that needed to be happening in Colorado.

So hurry up, get the surgery, quit laying around, and get out here and let's get some work done.

You know, we talked in that way.

Because he is my deep friend.

And Jesus wants to be your deep friend.

When you're going through these D groups, and it's day one of the D group, and your leader's sitting here and he's talking, and you're not sure if he's being completely vulnerable with you.

Do you bear all?

You do not.

If you think he's holding back, what do you do?

You hold back.

I had a meeting yesterday with a guy, and he was talking about leadership.

And he said, Here's a level one, and those are people that just work.

They're just grinders.

And then here's a level ten.

And these guys are visionaries, and they don't do anything except for have vision.

They don't do any work.

They have 10 projects at home that are not getting done.

And they're visionaries.

And he said, Do you know what those do you know what that's like?

And I'm like, inside I'm thinking I'm I'm you might as well put a mirror up right now.

I know exactly who you're talking about.

That's me.

But I'm like, huh, yeah, I think I know some people like that, you know, and you know, and he said, Well, I'm that.

And I was like, Oh, I'm that too.

Oh, I don't, I didn't know we were able to have an open conversation.

I'm that too.

And then we talked for an hour because we realized we connected.

And he was being real with me, so real that it opened up the door for me to actually get to know him.

I want to talk to you a little bit about the friendship that Jesus wants you to have.

What does the Bible say about Jesus your friend?

Go to John chapter 15, verse 13.

John 15:13

Look, I'm gonna fly through this scripture tonight.

And so I'll wait till I hear all the pages finished and then I'll stop.

Greater love has no one than this to lay his life down for one of his friends.

Greater love has no one than this to lay his life down for one of his friends.

You know what?

We still hear this, don't we?

It's still this.

When we read that verse, it's still this.

Oh yeah, Jesus loved us enough to die for us.

He's not saying that.

He's saying, do you understand the depth of friendship that you have?

This is not just about telling you John 3.16 in another way.

I'm telling you, I'm your friend to the nth degree.

So since I died for you, and greater love has no one than this, that they would lay their life down for their friend, let's now unpack all the other things that you have in a friend.

Somebody go, or let's all go to Romans chapter 5, verse 8.

Romans 5:8

Romans chapter 5, verse 8 reminds us that, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

That lets you know that he's more understanding of you than you think.

Is God holy?

Yes, he's holy.

He's completely and beautifully and wonderfully holy.

But somehow, some way, God has the ability to say, I do take you right like you are.

And if while you were a sinner, I loved you enough to die for you, don't you think that I still love you while you're trying to conquer sin?

What is it about believers that we believe Jesus loved us so much that he would die for us, but he cannot understand the sin that we're trying to overcome, but it is whipping us.

We somehow feel like we have to not show that to God as if he can't see it.

He's saying in this scripture, look, I loved you enough to die for you while you were a drunken mess.

So, yes, I can deal with the fact that you're struggling right now.

And we're gonna walk through that, and I'm gonna disciple you through that process, but get rid of the guilt and the shame and the thought that somehow now that you're a believer, you have to have arrived.

It's okay.

So look at John chapter 15, verse 16.

John 15:16

This is probably my favorite.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you might go and bear fruit.

Fruit that will last.

And so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you.

I chose you.

I chose you.

And I chose you that you might bear fruit.

I picked you as my friend.

I sent you that letter that said, Will you be my friend?

Check yes or no.

I need a friend.

I did that.

So I made the choice.

You didn't make the choice.

You ever wonder if you're somebody's friend?

Like, man, they're my friend, but am I their friend?

I don't know if I'm their friend.

Because I keep calling them, asking if they want coffee, and they say, Man, I'm really busy this year.

Well, Jesus initiated the relationship.

He's the one that did that.

So you didn't reach out to him and say, Will you be my friend?

He reached out to you to say, Will you be my friend?

I want to look for a second at the doorway to that friendship.

How does the friendship grow?

Go to James chapter 2, verse 23.

James 2:23

See, I can hear the pages flipping, but I can't hear the iPad flipping.

Like I can't hear it.

And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God.

And it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was God's friend.

If you're my friend, believe me.

You want to grow deeper in friendship?

Believe me more.

When I tell you I'll be there, believe me.

I'll be there.

If you don't ever believe me, when I'm telling you I will provide, I will be this, I will do that.

What are you?

Am I a liar to you?

Or do you do you trust me as a friend?

I'm telling you I'll do these things in your life.

I'm telling you I want to be this in your life.

I'm telling you I want you to be this in my life.

Just believe me when I tell you that.

Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he became God's friend because of it.

The more you believe him, the closer you grow to him.

You say, Well, how do you know that?

Well, go to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6.

Hebrews 11:6

You want to please God?

Just believe him.

Without faith, it's impossible to please God.

Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Just believe him.

And the more you believe God, the more he's going to prove you, prove himself to you.

You know, if God says step here and then you step here and it's solid, you're like, wow.

I now trust you more.

So where else do you want me to step?

You know, as you're going through things, if you're truly a faith walker, I dare you to tell the general public the next step that you think you're going to take.

I think the last time I was here, I talked about Jesus, uh Peter, walking on water.

And if you can just fathom, he's going to step out of the boat.

And like John is like, dude, do it.

I dare you to do it.

You know, that's what John is like, or James, or someone's like, he keeps doing this stuff.

But I promise you, when he got back in the boat, he was like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

All the way home.

Just got a big old smile.

Hey, y'all remember that time we were out?

Yes, we all remember that time.

Because he was able to see something that no one in the history of the world has ever been able to see.

Because he believed it.

And so him and Jesus shared a story that nobody in history will ever share again.

Can you imagine if you shared a story that when you told it and you knew it was true, you knew it was right, you knew you stepped out in faith, you knew it worked, but when you tell everyone, they think you're lying.

No, I'm not lying.

God is just big.

He's just big.

I tested him, he's my friend, and he did it.

We all want to live out those kind of stories.

Let's look at the privilege of being a friend to Jesus.

John 15, verse 15.

John 15:15

There's a privilege that comes along with being with Jesus.

I had the privilege of hanging out with one of my friends yesterday.

He is, now X, because he started a new ministry, drummer for Cutlass.

And he was in town yesterday and he called me and said, Hey, can we can we go to dinner?

And so we went to dinner.

He was in town the night before.

Can we go to dinner?

We went to dinner and then he called me yesterday and said, Hey, can we hang out?

And so, yeah, we'll hang out.

So we went to his new ministry, and I'm getting the privilege of meeting all these people.

And then I'm sitting in the office with the president of this ministry.

I never met the guy before, but I'm sitting in the office with the president of this ministry, and he talks to me for like an hour.

And my friend, I don't know where he went, but he's gone.

And I'm talking to the president.

Me and this guy are getting to know each other.

I mean, it's really working.

We're enjoying getting to know each other.

And then I come out of there and my friend's like, dude, you got like an hour with the president.

And I'm like, is that like a big deal?

He said, Yeah, I've never had an hour with him.

And I'm like, oh, I'm sorry about that.

He's a cool guy.

You should get to know him.

But that doesn't happen without the privilege of having a friend.

This friend walked me in and gave me access to something that I did not have access to, other than the fact that I knew someone that was my friend that said, Come in.

Now look at this privilege that we have in John 15, 15.

I no longer call you servants.

Because as servants, they do not know, a servant does not know his master's business.

Instead, I call you friends, for everything that I've learned from my Father, I've made known to you.

We have access to what God's thinking.

And again, it's almost like we don't believe that.

It's almost like, no, God's here.

No, there's a God who created all of the universe, and he created you, and you literally have access to what he's thinking.

Now, we have access because of what Jesus Christ did, but we access that through the Holy Spirit, don't we?

It's we're walking in the Holy Spirit.

And I was sitting down this week with my wife, and we were talking, and then the Lord just showed us what he was doing.

Right there.

And it's so, you're so privileged by it that it just captures you.

It almost takes your breath away that the Lord just revealed something.

That's a privilege, guys.

I mean, I know that we're a little spoiled because we all have Bibles and we're not persecuted, and we all get to learn under people like Pastor Steve, who really can break open the scripture.

But anytime that God shows you what he's doing, that's really, really big.

That says, You're my friend.

He spoke in parables.

He did not speak in parables to be clearer.

He spoke in parables so that his friends would get it.

He was speaking in code.

And if you understand that code, that's an incredible privilege.

I want to look now at the deepening of friendship real quick, and then we've got to get moving.

Go to Revelation chapter 3, verse 20.

Revelation 3:20

In Revelation 3.20, it says, Here I am.

I stand at the door and knock.

Revelation 3.20.

Here I am, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat.

And something about saying, hey, get around the table, man.

We're friends.

Come in here.

I want to show you my dive.

I've got a dive place that you've got to try.

Jesus says, I want to come in and eat with you.

Here I am.

I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.

We will have fellowship with each other.

Our relationship will grow.

And this is not an evangelistic verse.

I know we use it all the time like evangelism.

No, no.

This is for believers to say, come get closer.

Come get closer.

Wash your repent.

Ask forgiveness of your sin.

And then come on in here.

Let's get closer.

Let's fellowship.

I'm standing at the door of the believer and knocking.

And he's saying, I want to get to know you better.

You should want to get to know me better.

And there is this deepening relationship that comes with fellowship.

And the way that we eat with the Lord is obviously through things like reading God's Word, fasting and praying, but also sheer obedience to what the Spirit of God is telling you.

So when the Spirit of God is telling you, hey, I want you to go to this university.

Okay, I don't understand, but all right, I'm going.

Hey, I want you to go and invite that family to dinner.

That family?

Yeah, well, I was going to invite, no, not that family.

That family.

All right, I'm going to go invite that family to dinner.

I remember driving down the road one night and God told me to turn around and go to someone's house.

I went to their house and they were trying to get up enough courage to commit suicide.

And I learned to trust the Lord.

I came in, I ate with him.

He ate with me.

I learned more through that act of obedience that, wow, when God speaks, you actually can listen to him, and he actually can lead you.

And I want to do that more.

So that's how we eat with the Lord.

We also eat with the Lord by caring for the hurting, poor, and helpless of the world.

I don't think there's anything closer to the Lord's heart than an orphan.

I don't think there is.

And when you stop and you notice, you have to grow in intimacy with the Lord.

When you stop and you care for someone that looks, smells, or acts nothing like you.

Man, I can't.

I remember I was a rapper.

That's what I did, that's what I used to do.

And uh there was this boys' home that asked me to come to their boys' home and really counsel their kids through acting or through rapping.

So I would bring them in, I would have them all write songs.

Some of them were terrible, some of them were great.

That wasn't what was important.

It wasn't even about the songs.

But I was using songs to make them pour their heart out.

Because there's something about when music starts happening, you'll communicate differently than you would communicate if you sat down and talked with a counselor.

So we spent like six, eight weeks, I don't remember, writing songs, and I would help them compile them and make them and create them and then come out with a real song.

There was a kid there, gosh, he seemed to be seven foot.

I don't know how big he was.

He wasn't really seven foot, but he was so big.

Just massive, this large African-American, 16-year-old kid that, hmm, just a good kid.

Hurting.

Don't know dad, but I didn't know dad either, and so I felt like there was a connection there.

Gave everybody a lot of problems.

Hard kid, but a good kid.

And I remember getting in my car to leave one night, and the classroom areas were on the bottom floor, and then the dorm rooms, they lived there, were on the top floor.

And I remember getting in my car to pull out, and this kid is sitting in the window with the curtain draped behind him so that he can actually see me leave.

And I didn't realize it.

Maybe he did it all the time, but this was the one time I saw him do it.

He's watching me leave.

He's sitting there like this, and he's just waving, waving goodbye to me.

You want to grow closer to the Lord?

Take moments like that.

That's how the Lord knocks.

And going and serving and loving and opening up your heart is how you say, Come in.

And I'm telling you, when you do it, you leave knowing God better.

So Lazarus was God's friend, but you too can be God's friend.

He wants to be your friend.

He says, Greater love has no one than the man that would lay his life down for his friend.

And then he said, I laid my life down for you.

He's saying, I choose you.

I want you to be my friend.

And you have the opportunity to do that.

Jesus is incredibly human.

I mean, I'm telling you, when he was with his friends, this sounds terrible, but when he was with his friends and they were all in a circle, and then there was that not good smell, and you're looking at each other like, dude, did you just it could have been him.

He could have done it.

And it's hard to wrap your head around that, but he's that real.

He's that real.

His feet stunk too.

He's that real.

There's a reason why he had to wash his feet.

And we sometimes act like he's not.

He's not real.

And you're doing yourself a disservice.

Look real quick before we get off this part and move to all the rest of it.

Look at Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15 and 16.

Hebrews 4:15

And then we will move on.

But it is important, important, important that you know that Jesus Christ is human.

Because if you don't, you won't take your deepest and darkest to Him.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness.

But we have one who has been tempted in every way.

Just as we are, yet he did not sin.

Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Lose the snow globe, guys.

Let's look at the next part and go to verse 4 of John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

John chapter 11, verse 4.

John 11:4

So the sisters come to him and they say, The one you love is sick.

And then look at this.

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

No.

It is for God's glory, so that God's Son may be glorified through it.

God is incredibly human.

He knows what being human is like.

But verse 4 reminds us that he is undeniably God.

It's not like he's looking at Lazarus and saying, no, I can tell.

He's going to be okay.

I've seen this before.

He'll be fine.

He doesn't see him.

He's in another part of Jerusalem.

He's not around.

He's not like even in the neighborhood.

And Jesus says, Oh, he's going to be fine.

This is for God's glory.

Look, there's a reason why those words are in red.

And that is because only God should talk like that.

And it is important for you and I to understand that yes, we have a friend in Jesus, but he has the ability to transform our lives.

Incredible authority and power and ability that this friend has.

Being in the music industry comes with some friendships that kind of give you some level of privilege.

And so if I'm going to a concert and I'm just walking through the gate, I have no identification at all.

I'm just walking through the gate.

Somebody's going to stop me and say, Oh, you can't come back here.

This is exclusive.

But more than once this has happened.

Down the hall, the artist will scream out, hey, hey, hey.

No, he's okay.

Oh, he's okay.

That's authority.

That's power.

That's the ability to speak something, and because of who you are, I'm now able to just walk in.

That's pretty cool.

God can do exponentially more than that.

The ability to come to God with confidence.

Not just in the fact that Jesus loves us, but the fact that he's able to do something on our behalf.

He has power and he has authority and he can do something on our behalf that others can't do.

Go to Psalm chapter 46.

Psalms 46 · chapter mention

Psalm chapter 46.

Psalms 46 · chapter mention

I'm going to read the whole thing.

It's only 11 verses.

God is our refuge and our strength.

He's an ever-present help, not a sometimes help.

He's ever-present, an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore, we will not fear.

Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

There's a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the most high dwells.

God is within her.

She will not fall.

God will help her at break of day.

Nations are in uproar.

That's still true today.

Kingdoms fall, that's still true today.

He lifts his voice, and the whole earth melts.

The Lord Almighty is with us.

The God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.

He makes war cease to the end of earth.

Look, you don't think your marriage can heal?

He makes war cease to the ends of the earth.

He can make the arguing stop in your home.

That's totally possible.

Okay?

He breaks the bow and shatters the spear.

He burns the shields with fire.

He says, I'm done.

The war is over.

It's not going to happen.

I'm removing all of that.

It's a new day.

He says, Be still and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations.

I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord Almighty is with us.

The God of Jacob is our fortress.

Yes, he's human.

Yes, his feet stunk.

Yes, he understands what it feels like to be disappointed.

Yes, he knows what it means when a friend stabs him in the back.

Yes, he knows what it feels like to cross the street because I don't even want to deal with that today.

He knows all of that.

He knows what it means to abandon the crowd and go somewhere and be lonely because, gosh, I can't even be around people right now.

Y'all are driving me nuts.

He knows all of that, but he is completely God.

So he is capable to act on your behalf in ways that will accomplish the things that you think are impossible.

You are never hopeless when Jesus is your friend.

Ever.

You're never hopeless when Jesus is your friend.

Now this next part is really important because we're getting ready to go to John chapter 11, verse 5 through 6.

John 11:5–6

And I'll give you a second to read it.

Just read it on your own for a quick second.

And I'm going to remind you of something after you read that.

For those of you that don't have a Bible, I'll read it to you here in just a second.

But read that.

Because I read it, and it is disturbing to me.

John 11, 5 through 6.

And then I'm going to remind you of two things I've already told you.

Number one, God is a friend of yours.

He's incredibly human.

And he is a friend.

Number two, God is all-powerful, almighty.

He is God.

So your friend is God.

It's very important.

Let's read this together now.

Chapter 11, verse 5 through 6.

Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus so.

When he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days.

It's very important because when you find yourself in a John chapter 11, verse 5 through 6, where you're like, where's Jesus?

John 11:5–6

He should have been here by now.

He should have been here two days ago.

You have to remember, God is your friend and he is God.

He loves you.

He has not stopped loving you.

He does love you, and he is God.

So he knows how this thing is going to turn out.

Because you're going to go sometimes through two days, two weeks, two years, sometimes two decades.

Where it's like, where is he?

If he's really God.

If he really loves us, like the Bible says he loves us, then why do I keep going through this?

I'm telling you more than we want to come to grips with.

We better lose this.

Because this does not work in John chapter 11, verse 5 through 6.

John 11:5–6

It does not work.

And this is how faith gets put on a shelf.

This is how I've been here for two weeks, two years, two months, two days.

I've been in this mess for so long, and he's not coming.

He's coming.

He's your friend.

But he's also God.

So timing is never an issue to him.

He's perfect on his timing.

But you better deeply believe it.

Or that snow globe is not going to work for you.

Not in this time.

Look at verse 7.

Then in verse 7, after two days of what probably felt like disappointment at the very least, to Mary and Martha.

He said to his disciples, let us go back to Judea.

What can we learn about Jesus through this statement?

Let's go back to Judea.

There's no length that God will not go for you.

See, if you read all of John, you'll find out, and you're getting ready to see his disciples getting ready to get really upset here.

Because they're like, hey, newsflash, we just left Judea.

We left Judea to save your neck.

Because you kept talking to the point that they picked up rocks and started throwing them at your head.

That's why we're here and not there.

It's not a good place to go.

Look at verse 8.

In verse 8, they say, but Rabbi, a short while ago, the Jews tried to stone you.

We really gonna go back?

Like just like just a little bit ago.

Did you forget?

They tried to kill you.

And we're gonna go back.

There's no limit to what Jesus will do for you.

None.

None.

He's already proven that.

He proved that at the cross.

There's no limit to what he'll do for you.

Ephesians, don't turn there.

It's okay.

Ephesians chapter 3, verse 18 says that it's God's desire that we have the power, together with all the holy people, to grasp how wide, how long, how deep the love of Christ is.

Ephesians 3:18

He really wants you to know how much he loves him.

But in verse 8, the disciples say, hey, newsflash, that's not a good place for you.

Do you ever do that?

Do you ever give God an announcement?

Hey, uh, I wanted to, oh, I think you forgot.

Yeah, that was the one place.

Remember the rocks and the stuff?

Yeah, that was it's not a Place to go.

And then Jesus says this.

You know, he speaks in parables.

This is one that I had to struggle to really understand.

In verse 9, after they said to him, just a little bit ago, they tried to kill you, Jesus.

In verse 9, he says, Are there not twelve hours of daylight?

Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this the world's light.

It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, and that for they have no light.

Let me tell you this.

Essentially, what that parable means is giddy up.

They said, Jesus, just a little while ago, they've thrown rocks at your head.

He's like, Yeah, pack your bags.

And what?

The thing that astonishes me in here is that the disciples didn't accomplish anything in this whole story.

Even if you read all the way through, it's not like he needed their help.

If you read to where he actually raised Lazarus from the dead, they never did anything.

They were just with them.

Ever.

They never did anything.

So why is it important that they come?

I got bad news for you.

I've got good news and bad news.

Good news, there is no limit to the distance or the extent, Ryan, that God will come to help you.

The bad news, Steve, is that he's probably going to ask you to come with him.

Why do I have to risk my life?

Like, I don't even have a band-aid, and you're wanting me, I don't, what am I doing in this thing?

Yeah, I just want you to come.

I want you to look at verse 16 as we get ready to close out.

In verse 16, after Jesus has said, hey, I want you to come.

We're gonna go, the last thing that I want you to know about Jesus, know better about him, is that he is not put out.

He is not put out by wholehearted disciples.

He's not put out by them.

Now, if there's any church that should understand what wholehearted disciples are, it should be Steve Holt's church.

Wholehearted disciples don't mean some, I'm all in.

No, that's not it.

Wholehearted disciples means I'm trying my best to be a disciple.

Sometimes I'm pessimistic about it.

I'm doing my very best, but my whole heart, I want you to see my whole heart.

Lord, I give you my whole heart.

I give you the part that's committed to you, and I give you the part that I'm embarrassed about.

I give you the faith, and I give you the faithless, I give you the whole thing.

Look at verse 16 and look at what Thomas says.

In verse 16, Thomas, then Thomas, also known as Didymus, said to the rest of the disciples, Let us go also, that we may die with him.

Now that is a very faith-filled verse in that he's saying, We're gonna die, but let us go.

And it's also a very faithless verse.

Because Jesus just let them know that he has the authority over death.

How did you know?

How do we know he's letting them know that?

Because he said, Let's go back.

If you're reading verse 15, don't do it right now for the sake of time, but if you go back, he says, Hey, we've got to go.

Lazarus is sleeping.

And the disciples said, Let him sleep.

My mom told me this.

Back when we used to give us chicken little soup and just tell us to sleep.

Sleep it off.

And if he sleeps, he's gonna get better.

And Jesus says, No, you don't understand.

Lazarus is dead.

And for your sake, I'm glad that he was.

And I'm gonna go raise him from the dead.

To Jesus, raising someone from the dead is no greater problem than waking up someone who's asleep.

He has that much power.

So walking in a room and saying, Good morning, rise and shine, time to get going another day.

He's able to do that to dead people.

Yet Thomas is just worked up because he might die.

He has enough faith to believe that Jesus is going to go raise somebody from the dead, yet he is petrified that he might die.

We're all like that.

Every one of us is like, well, let's follow the Lord to China so that we can all destroy our lives.

Well, God's called me to ministry.

I guess it's over.

It's not over.

It's not over.

But he is okay.

He is okay with where you are.

He's okay with you being a wholehearted disciple.

Saying, Lord, I'm willing to follow you.

But I haven't grown enough to come to grips with the fact that even if I died and you wanted me to raise up, you could just say, Thomas, come on.

Quit laying around.

We got stuff to do.

He's able to do that.

Look, I want to challenge you guys.

Telling the world John 3.16, it's the most beautiful verse in all the world, but telling the world that doesn't help that much.

Not nearly as much as when people can look at you and say, Wow, you really do know Jesus, don't you?

Yeah, I do.

I do.

I know him because I've been in moments where I thought I was gonna die.

And he was there.

I know him because I stopped believing that he was in some glass globe.

And I started just telling him what I was really thinking.

And he's helping me to grow out of that.

And I know him because when he said, Come on, I'm gonna go and we're gonna do something to make an impact in the world, he told me to come with him, and I went with him, and I learned a lot while I was on that trip.

Let's pray.

Father God, we thank you that you are real, that we can know you.

And Father God, as we move into a time of worship, Lord, I pray that you help us to just yield our hearts to you, to just have a real intimate time with you that says, Hey, I want to know you better.

Because your word said, I'm standing at the door of your heart and I'm knocking.

And if you'll just be open to it, I will come and you will know me better.

So help us, Father God, to worship you in a way that calls out to know you better and to worship you with our lives this week and to seek you.

In Christ's great name we pray.

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