He Can Get Me Out of Here

Welcome to Gateway Church's podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

So there's a lot to celebrate.

Um in the midst of that, some of you might be celebrating that this is my last week here at Gateway Church.

And we're that much closer to getting Pastor Robert back.

Uh but I have enjoyed my time with you.

The last three weeks have been great, and uh I I have a burden to preach this last message.

I was telling my wife, my fine wife, who is here today with her fine self.

Love you, Juliet.

Her birthday was yesterday.

Mine is tomorrow.

It's just a birthday weekend.

So excited.

But but I told her, I said, I'm I'm so excited about this message.

I feel such a burden for it.

This may be like the churchiest weekend that Gateway has ever had, because I feel like preaching, preaching on my birthday weekend.

Uh uh, and and the reason why is because this text speaks so much to me.

So if you would, if you would go to the Gospel according to Saint John chapter number 11, the gospel according to Saint John chapter number 11.

I was so tempted to read 44 verses to y'all.

Ooh, I was so tempted to do it.

Uh, but because of time constraints, I can't get uh all 44 verses in and get where I need to go.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna just give you 10, um uh 34 through 44, but I at least want to recap uh the the previous verses so that we are all on the same page.

John chapter number 11 is the story of Lazarus, Mary and Martha.

Verses 1 through 10 is uh a breakdown of Lazarus getting sick, Mary and Martha sending out a messenger to Jesus, who is a dear friend of both of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.

And the messenger says, You need to come uh back to Judea, even though everybody there has just tried to kill you.

You just need to come back real quick because your friend is sick.

And Jesus says, Uh, don't worry about it, I will come back.

Uh, his sickness is not unto death.

And so the disciples are like, Well, if his sickness is not unto death, then I guess we're all good.

Jesus kind of rolls his eyes and is like, dude, you guys have no idea what I'm talking about.

He's dead.

Well, which one is it?

Is he asleep or is he dead?

And uh they kind of go back and forth.

Verses uh 11 through 20, uh, he tells them that he is glad that Lazarus uh is not not glad that Lazarus is dead, but he's glad that he wasn't there so that the glory of God could be realized in this moment.

Thomas, not understanding what's going on at all, is like, cool, let's go with Jesus so we can die too.

Imagine being the other disciples like, speak for yourself, but I did not, mm-mm.

I'm not trying to do all that.

Jesus gets down to Bethany.

Uh uh, when he's there, if anybody was with us last weekend, then you remember the professional criers and the wailers, they're here too.

And so um when Jesus shows up, it's pretty much the same kind of scene as when they went to Jairus' house.

And um, you know, the first one to meet him out there is Martha.

Martha's like, hey, uh, if you would have been here, my brother would have still lived.

And he's like, I promise you, you're gonna see the resurrection.

And she's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the last day, but not now.

He's already dead, we already buried him, it's all good.

Um just letting you know, you should have been here.

Um, we're friends.

And so uh I know this is like a complete uh paraphrase, but deal with it.

So getting down to uh 21 through uh about 33, he gets closer to the house.

Uh Mary comes out, says basically the exact same words as Martha, and uh Jesus is looking at this scene, he's starting to get a little bit disturbed on the inside because he's like, if anybody knew, I thought my friends would know um that I can do this too.

And so uh now we pick up at verse number 34.

He says to them, Where have you put them?

They told him, Lord, come and see.

Then Jesus wept.

The people who were standing nearby said, See how much he loved him?

But some said, This man healed a blind man.

Couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying?

Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb.

A cave with a stone rolled across its entrance.

Roll the stone aside, Jesus told them.

But Martha, the dead man's sister, protested, Lord, he has been dead for four days.

The smell will be terrible.

Jesus responded, Didn't I tell you?

That's how I feel like the tone was.

I mean, the dude was already angry.

I just feel like keeping that same energy.

Your boy was like, Didn't I tell you that you will see God's glory if you believe?

So they rolled the stone aside.

Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Father, thank you for hearing me.

You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here.

This is hilarious, so that they will believe you sent me.

Then Jesus shouted, Lazarus! Come out! And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth.

Jesus told them, unwrap him and let him go.

Oh, this is good.

If you're taking notes on this message, here's a title.

Last message in this series.

And I feel like the last miracle you need to know is that he can get you out of here.

He can get you out of every dead place you have ever found yourself in.

He can get you out of here.

Holy Spirit, get us out of here.

Amen.

Oh, Jesus has taken us on quite an adventure this month.

All the miracles that uh the Holy Spirit has kind of led us into, we get to see all of these beautiful ways that He chooses to show and reveal God's glory to us.

The gospel, according to St.

John's meticulous writing by the apostle who lived the longest, gives us a glimpse into what is to be, not known to the people around at the time, but the precursor to Jesus' own resurrection.

If there was any trailer to a movie that was about to be released, this was it.

That the man that would say to Martha, I am the resurrection, would perform a resurrection before having his own experience with the Holy Spirit raising him from the dead.

It's amazing to me uh that we can be in Jesus' presence, that we can see all the miracles that he has done, hear about all the testimonies of how the Holy Spirit moves in people's lives and find it uh uh in our lives and in our space that we can believe it for everybody else, but sometimes we can lose sight of it for ourselves.

And we can believe for everybody else's miracle, but then write off our own.

Believe for everybody else's healing, but not believe that he'll do it for us.

Believe for everyone else's breakthrough, but then look around and say, I don't think he would do it for me.

Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are dear friends of Jesus.

Three people that have believed in his ministry, known, received the revelation without being with him every day as the other disciples were.

They knew that he was the Messiah.

And so when the sisters call for their friend, they expect him to come right away.

Lazarus, who is sick on what is to be his deathbed, has faith that his friend will come while he is yet living.

While life is escaping his body by the hour and the minute, he is literally dying, holding on to his faith.

I don't know if you know what it feels like to be dying and still holding on to your faith.

Being in a season of life where you feel like nothing is going your way and everything around you is withering and dying, and yet you are still believing God that he can do this too.

Lazarus is laying on his bed, dying with the thought in his mind that my friend can get me out of this situation.

The messenger comes back after receiving the word from Jesus to let Mary and Martha know that Jesus said he was coming, but what he comes back to is the same kind of report that Jairus came back to, and that is he's dead.

Well, well, he came, he he he told me to come back and let you know that that that he that he was going to to to do a miracle for Lazarus, and and they're like, well, he's dead.

And as it is with Jewish custom, we have to bury this man today.

So they wrap him up, they put him in a tomb, and they roll a stone in front of it.

Jesus has already promised that he was going to come and fix the situation.

But because they did not that because he did not come on their timetable, they put Lazarus away.

Anybody beside me ever believed God to come at a certain time and it was like he did not pick up the phone?

You ever told him, I need you now, and he's like, I'll be there in September.

Imagine the frustration in this situation as Mary and Martha are sitting there perplexed, they're they're holding a message from the messenger saying that Jesus is gonna heal, but they have buried their friend.

And he didn't show up that day, and he didn't show up on day two, he didn't show up on day three, he shows up casually on day four, seemingly unbothered by what these sisters and this extended family has gone through.

Just kind of walks in.

Hey y'all.

Martha's like, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

And he's like, I Martha, I told you I am the resurrection.

I am literally the resurrection.

Yeah, I I know you are, but I know you're gonna be raised in the last day.

Uh I get it, you're the Messiah, and we know everybody's gonna get up.

But right now, though.

And he's like, You've missed it.

Mary comes out of the house, the professional wellers run with her.

And they all get up to Jesus, and and and she says the same thing that her sister says, You should have been here.

Jesus gets a little bit perturbed on the inside.

I don't believe he's angry with them, but he's angry at this situation.

Because anytime God steps into a dead situation, he knows something that we don't.

That ain't nothing dead in God's presence that cannot be resurrected back to life.

And so I have five points to this message.

I mean, I'm ending on the strong note.

I'm giving you five because the last two weeks I gave you none.

So I'm giving you five points to this message because I believe the statements that are here are just meant to put something on the inside of you uh uh uh to believe that God can get you out of whatever situation you feel like you're in right now that you can't handle by yourself.

Point number one, please write this down.

The question he asked him was where have you put them?

After arriving on the scene and understanding what the situation was, where their faith was, where their misunderstanding was, he wanted to know where did you put Lazarus?

I need to know where you buried your faith.

I need to know where you buried your belief.

I need to know where you stopped believing me.

Where did you put it?

He doesn't, he doesn't show up and ask the Holy Spirit to lead him to the situation.

He says, You show me where you put Lazarus because God wants you to own the responsibility of what it takes to see him do a miracle in your life.

So show me where you stopped believing, show me where you've buried the promise, show me where you stopped having faith that I would come through in this situation.

Where did you put him?

Where have you put your faith?

Where have you put your belief in Jesus?

Is this still centered around the great I am?

Is it still centered around the fact that He is the way, the truth, and the life, or has it been displaced?

Has it been misdirected?

Have you allowed the vicissitudes of life to come in and cause you to put your faith in a place that's not securely anchored on the rock?

Where did you put him?

And they bring him to the place, and they said he's in there.

Right there.

I mean, I don't know what we're gonna do right now, but that's where he is.

Which brings us to point number two.

Please write this down.

The second statement he makes that we need to observe is he tells them, roll the stone aside.

From my King James people, roll the stone away.

He says, Thank you for showing me where you put him.

Now roll the stone away.

And Martha.

Martha said, um, Rabbi, it's been four days.

He stinks.

I don't know if you know how decomposition works, but this body has already gone through the stages of rigor mortis.

The blood has already settled down to the bottom of this man's body.

He is beginning to rot from the inside out.

We put spices and herbs and wrapped them properly, but that's only gonna last for a little while.

There are bugs in his gut right now eating his way out.

I know y'all didn't want it to be this graphic, but you gonna deal with this today?

I was gonna be a homicide detective.

I know about the decomposition of a body, okay?

I won't go that far, but just know I can give y'all this work right now if you wanted to.

He stinks, the body is rotten.

There is no way he's coming back from now.

I don't want to deal with a stinky situation.

I wanted you to come when it was still alive.

I wanted you to come while it still had a heartbeat.

You showed up too late, the marriage stinks.

You showed up too late, the body is rotten, you showed up too late, the relationship with my kids is already broken.

You should have came when there was still some hope.

You should have came before I went back and relapsed to alcohol.

You should have came when I still had something to fight for, it's too late.

Jesus says, roll the stone away.

You heard what I said, roll the stone away.

I need to tell at least 200 people in this room: God is not intimidated of your stinky situation, He does not care how rotten your situation has gotten, God will come in if you just roll the stone away.

So they do.

They literally push that stone away.

And Jesus does, well, Jesus doesn't do something, which is amazing to me.

He doesn't go in there too.

He tells them to roll the stone away.

As the stone is rolled away.

And Jesus doesn't go near that tomb.

And I'm probab they're probably like do the thing.

We know you can do the thing.

He's been talking about it to us about the things the last three weeks.

We know you can do the thing.

Do the thing.

But before he does the thing, he says something.

Ooh, this thing got me in my study.

Point number three, three words.

Didn't I tell you?

He wrote that stone away.

She said, He stinks by now.

We don't want anything to do with this.

And he looked at her and he said, Didn't I tell you that you would see the glory of God if you just believed?

Do you not understand that I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last?

Do you not understand that I am the word wrapped in flesh?

That when I came down, I cannot go back to my father without accomplishing everything that he has asked me to do.

Didn't I tell you I was gonna restore you?

Didn't I tell you I was gonna break generational curses off of you?

Didn't I tell you I was gonna restore that marriage?

Didn't I tell you I was gonna bring your wayward son back home?

Didn't I tell you I would break that addiction?

Didn't I tell you?

I don't need you to agree with me.

I'm not taking back what I said.

I'm gonna do this because I said so.

They're all standing there.

That's when Jesus says the three words.

That changes the whole trajectory of everyone that is there on that day.

Theologians have said this before, but it is worth saying again that Jesus had to name Lazarus.

He had to call him by his name.

Because had he simply said, Come out, every dead person within a hundred square mile radius would have popped up out of their grave and came walking to the Savior.

Because when God speaks the word, everything has to listen and bow down to the name of Jesus.

He had to show some restraint this day.

And he said, Lazarus, come out.

Started to have his blood circulate again.

Whatever was trying to get out of his body went back in his body.

The whole process of decomposition reversed.

And he got up.

Now here's the miracle.

The miracle is that he's alive.

But this other miracle is that he could get up.

Bound.

In his grave clothes.

Hand and foot.

With what they called a death napkin wrapped around his head.

He was essentially mummified.

Do you know how hard it has to be?

Y'all know where we are.

This is not like the other deaths and resurrections.

This one is different because he's tied down.

And now he has been told to not just come alive, but to come forth.

How do you come forth bound?

My answer is the best way you can.

Lazarus heard that word?

And it did not matter how much was tying him down.

He knew that God's word was stronger than the thing that had him tied up, and this man went to moving around until he could get up.

The last thing I remember was being in the bed waiting for Jesus, and now I'm tied up.

And he makes it to his feet somehow and bound head to toe.

Lazarus starts hopping out of the grave.

Bound and all.

Can't see where he's going, but following the voice.

Because the just shall live by faith.

We do not go off of what we see in the kingdom, we go off of what we hear.

The Bible says that the just shall live by faith.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

He got up.

He gotta stop right here.

Because I cannot tell you how many people think that when they come to church, they have to be free before they come forward.

I can't tell you how many people have been misled to believe that they need to get all of their grave clothes off first before they come into the presence of Jesus.

But let this example be a message to us all that God will take you stinking, God will take you rotten, God will take you with grave clothes on because he knows that he is not going to leave you the way he found you.

Is there anybody in here beside me that knows what it is to have your grave clothes come off in a way that makes you be someone that you never was going to be before?

It is, it is, oh, whoo Jesus.

Lazarus.

Of sanctification, justification.

The process of what it takes to come out of the grave.

And there are some people in this room.

You've been making excuses.

Point number four.

Across all campuses, wherever you may be.

This is what it feels like.

To not let a grave define you.

To not let grave close define you.

That's point four.

I told you there were five points.

The fifth point just loose him and let him go.

NLT, unwrap him.

Unwrap her.

Let him go.

You don't have to stay like this.

You don't have to stay like this.

Look at me.

I'm talking to you.

He loves you so much.

He loves you so much.

There is a purpose and a plan that God has for you.

The enemy had to come at you real young to try to derail you, but it's not gonna work.

He loves you.

I'm gonna ask the altar ministry team to come.

I know this is kind of crazy right now.

But here's what I want to let you know: you can't get free by yourself.

Lazarus could not untie himself from those grave clothes.

That's why Jesus said, get the community around Lazarus, loose him and let him go.

See, sometimes the reason why we stay bound in our grave clothes is because we try to fix ourselves, we try to work it out ourselves.

Sometimes we have too much pride to ask for help.

But when you're tied up and you're wrapped up in a bunch of stuff, don't try to get free alone.

There's some people that love you that want to help you, that will help you get unwrapped from the stuff that you are wrapped up in.

This is a holy moment.

One that I want to pray over before we end.

Community is taking their place.

Lazarus is taking his place, her place.

I see tears and smiles and burdens being lifted all over this altar.

God loves you so much that he would not let the month of June escape with you still trapped in a grave.

So, God, I thank you so much for my brothers and sisters, for your sons and daughters.

I thank you, Lord God, that there is nothing too dead that you cannot bring back to life.

God, I pray that you would restore marriages right now at this altar, that you would heal hearts right now at this altar, that you would free people here right now in ways they've never felt free before.

God, I pray that someone confesses something they've held a secret for years and just watch shame come out of their life.

God, I pray that you would continue to be the miracle worker that brings dead things back to life.

God, thank you for raising people from the dead.

Thank you for raising us up and lifting us up out of darkness, shame, despair, and death.

May the sweet work of the Holy Spirit do for us what we can never do for ourselves, and may the beautiful work of the community that we're surrounded with unwrap us in ways and free us in ways that we never thought possible.

Let none of this be for our credit, but all for your glory.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.