You Will See It When You Believe

The glory is for now. Why would God have sent us here?

I'm going off on a tape. Why would God have sent us here if it wasn't for the glory now?

Why not just take us straight to heaven? He wants the best for us.

Why not just take us straight to heaven if that's where the ultimate glory is?

Because it's here and it's now. Amen?

All right, Lazarus. Let's talk about some glory here, shall we?

John 11 verses 1 to 6 says this, Now a certain man was sick,

John 11:1–6

Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

It was Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with

her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Therefore the sisters sent to him Jesus saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.

When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death,

but for the glory of God and that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was.

Now, I want to start the message by saying something that's probably not too encouraging.

Okay, I want to start and say something here that it's not a very encouraging

way to start this message, but I have to say it in order to clarify the thoughts

that we're going to develop through this message, okay?

We're talking about the glory of God at the moment, okay?

We're going to talk about the glory of God, and yet the setting of this text is anything but glory.

Someone's dying. Someone died. There's nothing glorious about that.

But when we read this text, Mary and Martha, they're very sad.

In fact, there is death.

There is loss. There is grief.

It's all coming out in the text. There is disappointment. There's anger.

There's frustration. And there's confusion all at the same time. All at the same time.

Their brother Lazarus has died. And they are convinced that Jesus could have prevented his death.

Okay? So they're not happy with Jesus at all.

They're not happy with him. They can't understand how or why Jesus,

who could have stopped this tragedy and could have prevented all this pain from

entering their lives, didn't. Why didn't he?

Let me ask you a question right now. Have you ever felt like that?

Have you ever felt like that?

Maybe you feel that way right now, today.

You're going through things that don't make any sense to you,

and you can't see any glory in it whatsoever.

And you're confused. You could be bewildered. You could be frustrated by it.

Who's ever had a little bit of frustration?

Maybe even if you're honest about it, maybe even you're a little bit disappointed

in the Lord as well, because he hasn't come through for you up to now.

I think one of the reasons why we get angry and agitated and disappointment

and frustrated is because we have a lopsided view of what the glory of God is.

Our human tendency is to think of the glory of God as glorious streams of light

coming down from heaven, shining from heaven, and a choir of angels singing

hallelujah at the same time.

Yeah, who can picture that with me?

That's beautiful. There's no doubt about that. But the problem is with this

is that it's not usually the setting for the glory of God.

And if that's your perception about the glory of God, you could easily miss

it when the glory of God actually shows up.

Are you hearing me at the moment? Yep.

Jesus said to Mary and Martha, if you believe, you will see the glory of God.

Okay. Why did Jesus require them to believe to see the glory of God?

Because there was nothing happening at that time for Mary and Martha in their

present condition that spoke of glory. Okay.

Let me park here for a little minute. Let me stop here for a little minute and

talk about what was going on in their lives at the moment.

There was sickness and there was death. Let me say right here that sickness

and disease and death do not glorify God in any way at all.

Sickness and disease and death is not the glory of God. He doesn't want that.

If it was, then Jesus was robbing God of his glory by healing the sick,

by casting out devils, and by raising the dead.

It doesn't glorify God in any way at all.

That's why Peter and I say this regularly. It frustrates me when people get

sick because it does not glorify God and God does not want that.

Okay. When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he said to his disciples.

Lazarus's sickness will not end in death. No.

If it happened for the glory of God, no, it happened for the glory of God so

that the son of God will receive glory from this. That's what he said.

What Jesus was saying was this, this sickness, this sickness is not going to

be the last word, even though it would lead to death. It's not going to be the last word.

I need to say this to somebody today.

This sickness is not the last word.

This bad doctor's report you got is not the last word.

The bad news that you may be received this week is not the last word i'm losing my microphone i'm.

Jesus said this sickness or this present dilemma is not the last word.

In fact, the Bible says this, this present tribulation is actually working for you.

Okay. In 2 Corinthians 4 verse 17, it says, For our present troubles are small

2 Corinthians 4:17

and won't last very long, yet they produce for us glory that vastly outweighs

them and will last forever.

Did you get that? It's working for you, a heavy weight of glory, a heavy weight of glory.

Then the Bible, of course, says in Romans 8.28, who can quote Romans 8.28?

All things. And we know that all things work together for good to those who

love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

But there's a condition here, okay? Somehow you have to look past and beyond the present pains.

You've got to look beyond that. You have to see with the eye of faith a glory not yet revealed.

Every situation you go through, every problem, every bad report,

every issue, you need to look at it with the eye of faith that a glory has not

been revealed yet, but it's on its way.

Paul said, these tribulations and afflictions are bringing us to a weighty glory, a weighty glory.

While we look at not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

Then he says, for the things which are seen are temporary or temporal,

but the things which are not seen are eternal.

That's exactly what Jesus was saying to Mary and Martha that day.

He was saying, if you want to see the glory of God, you're going to have to look with eyes of.

You're going to have to see right through that mountain with the x-ray vision of faith.

You're going to have to see right through the bad report the doctor gave you

or the decision that was passed down with eyes of faith.

Jesus said that this sickness, whatever this sickness is, whether it's physical,

whether it's financial, whether it's spiritual, whether it's emotional,

is not the last word. It's not the last word.

Then he said, but for the glory of God, but for the glory of God,

that the son of man may be glorified through it.

Now, I want to talk about those two words, through it. I want to talk about

through it for a little while.

Those words through it are very all encompassing. Okay.

To you, through it may be a sickness.

It may be a financial problem. or it may be the loss of a loved one,

may be a painful divorce.

Through it is all of those things. Whatever hurts you, whatever makes you cry,

it makes you question life and frustrates you, infuriates you, that's your through it.

That's your through it. Through it is not the end.

Glory is the end, but through it is the hallway that leads to the glory of God, okay?

But you have to believe you're going to see the glory of God while you're still

going through it, while you're still in that hallway.

You have to believe that you're going to see the glory of God.

In fact, right now, you are in exactly the same place that Mary and Martha were standing.

They were heartbroken. They were hurt. They were confused, frustrated,

angry, and they were very disappointed in Jesus.

Now, one of the hardest things in life is trying to make sense of all the pain.

Why did it happen to me? Why did God let this happen? If God was so good,

why didn't he stop this from happening?

There's questions that we hear regularly, isn't it? Particularly from non-believers.

If your God is so good, why did he let this happen to me?

The truth is, there are some things in life that don't make any sense at all.

There are some questions that there are no answers for this side of heaven.

And really, the really hard part about it is this. God doesn't give us the answers.

He just says, trust me. He says, trust me.

Remember this. When you can't trace God's hands, you can always trust God's

heart. When you can't trace what God's doing in your life You can always trust

your heart Or trust his heart.

Jesus didn't answer their questions. He just said, if you believe,

you will see the glory of God.

You are not asked to feel it, to understand it, or even to like it.

We're just asked to believe it.

Just believe it. What are we supposed to believe, you ask me? Good question.

We're supposed to believe that God loves us to start with. We've sung about it many times.

God loves us. You're supposed to believe that he knows exactly what you're feeling.

You're supposed to believe that

there's a bigger picture than what you can actually see at the moment.

You're supposed to believe that something good will come out of this,

whatever this is, whatever this through it is, something good is going to come

out of it. Let me say it again.

Jesus didn't answer their questions. He just said, if you believe,

you will see the glory of God.

What did Jesus ask them to believe? He asked them to believe the same things

that he's asking you and I to believe right now.

That he was the resurrection and the life at that moment back for Mary and Martha,

but he's also the resurrection and the life in our lives right now.

Both Mary and Martha had faith in Jesus, but it was a pretty tense faith, particularly that day.

If you would have been here, you could have kept our brother from dying, they said to Jesus.

They also had a future faith as well, which is one of my points this morning. They had a future faith.

We know our brother will live again in the resurrection in the last day,

but Jesus knew there is no healing in the past or in the future because faith lives in the now.

Faith lives in the now your miracle

is now your healing of your body is now your deliverance is now your victory

when is it now thank you your restoration is now the breakthrough in your finances is now.

The joy that's missing from your life, it's coming back now.

The peace that you need is now. You're getting my point? It's now.

The fresh fire in your soul is now.

I don't know what you need, but I know where it is, okay? It's now.

It's now, and it's in Jesus. It's in Jesus.

Jesus said, all that is standing between you and the glory of God is where your faith is.

The glory of God is now.

The power of God is now. The anointing is now.

Jesus said, where have you laid him?

He said this to Mary and Martha, where have you laid him?

And that's the same question he's asking you guys now today as well. Where have you laid it?

Where have you laid it? Where did you lay down your dreams?

Where did you give up? Where did you resign yourself to exist without joy,

without peace, and without passion and fire?

Where did you stop living and resign yourself just to go through the motions?

Where did you lay that down? Jesus is saying to you.

Then Jesus said these words. He said, take away the stone.

Take away the stone. That stone represents a number of things,

but it represents all the objections, all the hindrances, and all the enemies of your faith.

That stone, it needs to be taken away.

The stone represents all of that stuff.

All the logical reasons why it can never happen is that stone.

All the religious objections is that stone.

Listen to Mary and Martha. Listen to Mary and Martha.

Listen to what they say. They say, Lord, he's been dead four days, but now he stinks.

Or in the King James Version, he stinketh.

Stinketh. Who loves the King James Version?

Thou stinketh. He stinks. That's all they could talk about was he stinks.

Think about that. They would rather Lazarus stay dead than have to deal with the stink. Yeah.

Basically, what they're saying is this. Lord, now that we've passed the initial

pain and stress of the loss and we've already let it go, we don't really see

any reason to stir up the stink.

At that moment, the greatest obstruction and the greatest hindrance to the resurrection

of Lazarus was not the huge stone blocking the cave.

It was the reluctance of Mary and Martha to have to deal with the possibility

of the stink and the mess.

Friends, okay, you have to have enough faith in Jesus to not only believe that

he can raise the dead, but that he can also handle the mess.

And the fact is Jesus can handle the stink as well.

Can we just stop here for a second and praise God? I just want to praise God.

But yeah, stop. Praise God. Praise God that he didn't let the stink stop him in our lives.

That stink, you know what I'm talking about? That stink, he didn't let that stop him.

Let's be honest about it. But some wouldn't be here where they are today if

Jesus was afraid of the stink.

We've all got stinks in our background. We all stinketh in the background.

Think about this. Mary and Martha no longer doubted Jesus' ability to resurrect Lazarus.

Now they were resisting the miracle because they might have to deal with an offensive odor.

Come and play for me, Josh. Come on. Now, many times, many times,

the greatest hindrance to the manifestation of the power and the glory of God is religion.

Let's talk about stink, shall we?

Religion that wants everything clean. Religion that wants everything sanitized.

Religion that wants everything homogenized and smelling really good.

That's what religion wants.

Then Jesus called, Lazarus, come forth.

And he that was dead, he that was dead and stinketh came forward,

came forth bound with grave clothes, hand and foot, and his face was bound with a cloth.

Then Jesus said, loose him and let him go. Loose him and let him go.

Do you really want to see the glory of God? Do you really want to see the glory of God?

Are you willing to deal with a stink and a mess?

We need to. Are you really willing to participate with Jesus in the salvation,

the healing, the resurrection, the restoration, the deliverance and the miraculous?

Do you really want to? Yeah, great.

The last hindrance or obstruction to Lazarus's miracle was not death.

It was the stone that needed to be rolled away.

And the removing of the stone had to be intentional and it had to be personal.

The same is true today. The same is true today.

I can teach you the Word. I can preach to you. I can teach you the Word,

but I can't take away the stones for you.

And I can't do your believing for you either. But I can tell you this,

you can believe and when you believe, you will see the glory of God now.

Now.