I am the Resurrection and Life | Pr Gloria Paul

You're listening to a message to go from axt church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

And so today we're going to go into I am

the Resurrection and the Life. Is it just me or

my mic seems to be changing? Sound a bit? Echo? Issire? Yeah? Okay,

all right, I'll just continue here here, Am I too loud?

No?

Okay? All right? Okay? So I am the Resurrection and

the Life right, And as we go into this particular scripture,

as we read, you know where this comes from. I

just want to highlight what the apostle John. So as

we know, if you if you're familiar with the Bible,

if you're Fred, you realize that we have the four

Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John right, and so in

all of these four gospels we see similar stories, okay,

but the only difference, if you know, if you actually read,

it's very interesting how each of this author captures different things, okay,

And that is also relating to the kind of professions.

Some are doctors, some were lawyers, some are teachers, and

so the way they looked and experienced their encounter with

Jesus was pretty different, but yet it had the same meaning. Okay,

and so that's just fascinating, and you'd read the gospels

and and try to understand. Yeah, and so in we

read the book of John. Okay, as we know, John

referred himself as do you know what? Do you know?

What was he called? He referred himself as the beloved

of Jesus? Right, So to him was that, you know,

I'm the favorite. You know, I'm the closest to Jesus.

And I think it's just nice to hear that. I mean,

omiavers can tell that, because I think it takes a

lot of confidence to say that I am loved by God.

I'm the beloved, and that's how you you'd see yourself, right,

and God loves us. And so that is how John

regarded himself. And so as we went through all these

different ims, you know, in John twenty thirty one, Okay,

John's purpose is very clear on why these ims were

mentioned and the teaching that Jesus gavis. Okay, you can

just turn your bibles with me, and let's read John

chapter twenty. Okay. It's good to have your own bibles

and to turn our scriptures. Right. Remember, our feet is active,

it's not passive. Okay, it's not just a religion where

I just come on Sunday, but it's a lifestyle. Yeah,

So we want to encourage you to bring your bibles,

to flip it, to turn it around. Yeah. Doesn't mean

it's all school, Okay, it is because God is the

same yesterday, today, forever. So nothing changes with our bibles too. Yeah.

And if you don't have one, you can just turn

to the person next to you and just read together. Okay.

So we read this in John twenty, verse thirdy one, Okay,

towards the end, okay, where if some of your Bibles

may have the different hating, that says that you may

believe right, And in verse thirty one it says, but

these are written that you may believe that Jesus is

the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you

may have life in His name. Right. Just take some

time look at that scripture. You'd see that the very

focus why these i ams were written, all these teachings

that we have been going through, is so that people

will believe, people will have life in them. Right. And

as we know our faith with God, if you're serving

a God who is alive, right, you're serving a God

who is present, he's here with us.

Right.

You may not see him as a person, but we

can feel him, right, We can feel his presence, we

can feel his goodness. Yeah, and so it is about

having life in his name, right. And from there, I

just want to emphasize why is it that the one

of the last ims is I am the resurrection and

the life. Okay, And it's not just the one who

gives lies gives life right where he shows you, Okay,

go there, that's life. But he's saying I am live,

meaning you need him to experience life. Okay, life to

the fullest. There's always different quotes you've written in social media, right,

living life to the fullest. But what kind of life

are we talking about? Right? What kind of life?

Is it?

The kind of life that only can be given by God? Yeah?

And so when we look at this word life, right,

it's a it's a major team in the John's Gospel particularly,

and we can see it occurring at least thirty six

times compared to more than seventeen in any of the

other gospels. Right, So thirty six times, which is quite

a lot, right, And that's something that has been size

here when a word is being repeated, especially in the

context of when we learn a language or you know,

a particular subject meaning, it means something, right, it got

to mean something. It's trying to remind us of something.

So life, Yeah, and Jesus did not just have the

power to resurrect, but when he says that I am

the resurrection and the Life, it makes him the very

sauce of resurrection and life, right, the very source of

the resurrection and life. So when we looked at that

different i ams that was listed out earlier, you would

see that at least three of them will contain the

word of the word life. Okay. I am the braid

of life, it says, Yeah, whoever comes to me will

never go hungry, and everyone whoever believes in me will

never be thirsty. Yeah. And of course we have the

I am the Resurrection and Life. Okay. So the one

who believes in me will leave even though they die.

And I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Okay.

So life has been repeated even in these seven ims.

So when we talk about life in the context of

Christ and the gift that He has given to us,

it's about the life in living fellowship with God. It's

a relationship that we have with him now and forever. Okay,

So we're gonna look at a portion of a scripture

this morning from the Book of John chapter eleven. And

for those of you would have read this scripture, you

might be familiar with this story, okay, and the very

well well known shortest scripture I mean scratted worse right,

Jesus wept is found here as well. Yeah. So John

chapter eleven, Okay, you can see it here. And as

we read this portion of the message, and we draw

three points for us, okay, to help us understand what

do we mean by life here? What is Jesus trying

to say when he says, you know, I am live? Yeah,

and by that to help us also kind of reflect

and ask ourselves that if I'm truly believing in a

God who is alive, does my life reflect that? So

when someone sees you, they can tell that, oh, this

person is believing in someone who is alive. And we

can't just fake things like that when we leave it

out right, it is so much with what we believe

in that is how it represents. Yeah, So a reflection

for us as well. So let's just read some scriptures here,

John chapter eleven Versus seventeen. Okay too, versus seventy I'm

sorry forty four. There are a couple of scriptures, but

just bear with me. Yeah, it's always good to read

the word of God. Okay. So I'm reading from the

NKJV version. Okay, it says here, so when Jesus came. Okay,

let me we just maybe start from verse one to

give you some context if you have not been re

reading this, yem So John Chapter eleven, Verse one, it says,

now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Betany, the

town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that

Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped

his feet with a hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Now do you remember that story, Yeah, right before Jesus

went to the cross. This is when Mary used the

expensive perfume here, and of course was criticized after that.

So this was the same Mary. Okay. Therefore the sisters

said to him, saying, Lord, behold him, who you love

is sick. So from this we know that Lazarus was

a dear friend of Jesus. When Jesus heard that, he said,

this sickness is not unto death. But for the glory

of God, that the Son of God may be glorified

through it. Now, Jesus loved Martha and a sister and Lesterus,

so when he heard that he was sick, he stayed

two more days in the place where he was. Okay,

take a pause. Think about this. First of all, he

says that Jesus loved them. Okay, they were good friends

of Jesus. And if you read the scriptures, you realize

that he often goes back to this place, so it

could be a place where, you know, he fellowshiped, you know,

a place of rest for him. But when he found

out of this, he did not actually immediately go. That's

the usual thing that we would do, right, We will

actually pack out things because someone beloved and we want

to be there. But Jesus did not. He decided to

stay on to where he was. He waited. Okay, so

that's something to pick up and then it let's continue here.

In verse seven, it says, then after this he said

to his disciples, let us go to Judea again. The

disciples said to him, Rabbi, lately the you so to stone,

you and you are going there again. Jesus, unswered, are

there not twelve hours in the day. If anyone walks

in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees

the light of this world. But if one walks in

the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.

These things he said. And after that he said to them,

our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may

wake him. Right. So that's his respond And then from

there you will see that the disciples, as usual, sometimes

the disciples are the ones who give the most odd response.

And they were thinking that Jesus is saying that maybe

it's just resting in sleep. Yeah, but that was not

what Jesus was saying. And it was fifteen And I

am glad for your sake that I was not there,

that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him

right now, verse seventeen. So when Jesus came, he found

that he had already been in the tomb four days

because he waited, right, He waited two days, and then

he went so four days now, Betany was near Jerusalem,

about two miles away, so it's not about a distance, okay,

But he just waited, and many of the Jews had

joined the woman around Martha and Mary to comfort them

concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard

that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary

was sitting in the house. Now, Martha said to Jesus, Lord,

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

But even now I know that whatever you asked of God,

God will give you. It was the twenty three Jesus

said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said

to him, I know that he will rise again in

the resurrection of the last Day. Teresus said to her her,

I am the Resurrection and the life. He who believes

in me, though he may die, he shall leave, and

whoever 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 to come into the world. So we can

see a conversation going on here between Jesus and Marta.

The other sister was still at home. We're Mary, and

so in the midst of all that waiting, yet she

could still say that God, Jesus, if you still did something,

things could change. Write such faith, such relationship with Jesus. Yeah,

Now let's look at the exposion here verse twenty eight.

So when she had said these things, she went away

and secretly called Mary a sister, saying, the teacher has

come and is calling for you. As soon as she

heard that, she arose quickly and came to him. Now

Jesus has not yet come into the town, but was

in the place where Martha met him, So he was

outside of the place. Then the Jews, who were with

her in the house and comforting her, when they saw

that Mary rose up, rose up quickly and went out,

followed her, saying she's going to the tomb to weep there.

Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him,

she fell down at his feet, saying to him, Lord,

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

when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came

with her weeping, he grown in the spirit and was trouble,

and he said, where have you laid him? They said

to him, Lord, come and see Jesus wept. Then the

Jews said, see how he loved him, And some of

them said, could not this man who opened the eyes

of the blind also have kept this man from dying.

So a you're following me with the contexts, right, So

we can see Jesus being in his own place. And

then four days he comes not yet to the home

of Mary Martha, but to the tomb. We was having

a conversation with Marta, and then Martha goes and calls Mary,

you know, and Mary fell on the feet of Jesus

and said, if you could do something right And when

he saw the sadness crying, he was moved in the

spirit and he was there to comfort. Right now, there

are different portions to this story, and we're just gonna

pause and pick out the very first point from this

that we read. The first point was that there was

a need, right, there was a need, and the knee

in this story was that Lazarus who was sick and

then he passed away. Right, he was to date the

story that the Bible tells us. In the midst of

all this, we can see the sisters who were mourning,

the sisters who are troubled, you know, and you look

at the response. You can even kind of think about

if you're in their in their context with them, think

about the things that were maybe running in their minds

that you know, Jesus could come and heal, But why

didn't he do anything? Right? So the kind of maybe doubt,

wouldn't say doubt, but maybe just wondering what is going on?

Because it was not doubt if you can look at

your respond they said, if you do something now, things

could change. So they had that faith, they had that trust, right,

but just wondering what is happening because Jesus, you see

for yourself there is a need. Yeah, And Jesus went

on saying that I am the resurrection. And then as

we can see, Jesus was there to comfort. Jesus was

there to bring the comfort and the peace that they

needed at that point of time.

Right.

And so from this passage you can see that Jesus

could feel with the people. You know, he was not

someone who just because he had all the authority, all

the power, he was distanced. He was there with them.

And that is the God we have with us, right.

He's with them, comforting, walking with them. How many of

you have experienced that god? Right for us to have

walked with him, that is how he is with us, right.

And there a couple of things that we can pick

up from here. Is first of all, is that Jesus

is someone who meets us where we are, and thenk

there's something that all of us need to understand, right,

whether it's a prayer that you're believing to come true,

a breakthrough, whether it happens or not, it's his will.

That's something we have the first understand, right. But the

important thing is that he is journeying with us, true

that journey until we get there, no matter how long

it takes. Because remember Mary and Martha was in that

waiting season. They were you know, like, yes, Jesus still

could do something, but he's gone. Right in a way,

it seems to be over. In the eyes of man.

It seemed to be over, because that's what that represents, right,

It is the end. It is the end. But Jesus

meets them where they are. He brings comfort, and he

brings eating and give you some You know that sometimes

when you have someone present with you, it helps. And

that is exactly what Jesus was doing. Right In Hebrews

Fall sixteen, what does it say. It says, let us

therefore come bully to the throne of grace, that we

may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time

of need. It says, come boldly and I believe Mary

and Martha had such confidence, such boldness to just fall

at his feet and to say, Jesus, if you only

did something right, and I believe you being the resurrection

and the life and true that they received the help

that they needed at that point. Was it a healing

and a resurrection right away? No, But it was that

moment of waiting that they received their help. And sometimes

for us, when we're praying for an answered prayer to

be answered or a breakthrough, right, we've been praying for

a long time. It is only when we get there

that we choose to glorify God, right and we say, okay, God,

thank you for answering my prayer because you hurt. But

let me remind you this morning that it's not about

only when the prayer is answered, but it's while you're waiting.

You can already praise Scott a man. You can already

glory by God, because you know what, Sometimes, walking through

the journey until you receive that prayer answered, it's not

easy at times, right, it could be challenging. You could

be facing with different doubts because that is the time

that you can actually be doubtful, worry, fearful, all those things.

But as you invite God into your heart, into your life,

into your heart, it helps you to go through that

season as well, the season of waiting. So let's let's

cultivate a faith. Let's you know, you know, have that

that ability to not just praise God when we see

things happening, but in the waiting as well. Okay, while

we are waiting, let's have the spirit of, Yes, I'm

going to choose to still trust God. I'm just going

to choose to praise God. Because when we come in

with that kind of an attitude, it changes the way

we speak, the way we live our lives. That we're

not just leaving our lives for the sake of waiting

for something to happen, Right, And that can get very

frustrating if you do that. But if you can we

can live our lives in the moment, in the present,

it makes things so much more bearable. Yeah, And in

Jeremiah thirty one twenty five, it says I will refresh

the weary and satisfy the fate. If you're weary today,

if you're saying, I've been praying for a very long time, God,

why are you not unswering this? Well, It says here

that He will refresh you, right, refresh you in a

way that know how not any strong coffee may not

be able to refresh you as that much as Jesus

to keep you awake and alot. Right, that is how

refreshing God is. Amen, some say Tree one to two

it says, the Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads

me beside quiet waters. That is who God is. Amen.

So he means us where we are. Another thing that

we can see in the scripture is that God's timing

is the best. And to remember who it is. And

as we saw the scripture is now as we read

towards verse thirty seven, nothing happened at that point. But

yet Martha and Mary kept walking with Jesus, and they

knew that he knew best, whether they saw the brother

alive again or whether no, They just kept walking with

him right, trusting in what he knows what's best. In

Haber Book two to one, it says, write the vision

and make it plain on tablets that he may run

who reads it. And verse three it says, for the

vision is yet for an appointed time, But at the

end it will speak, and it will not lie. Do it,

Harry's wait for it, because it will surely come. It

will not. Tarry, turn to the person next to you

and say, it will come. Right, it will come. It

will happen whatever that you're believing, for God can make

it happen in his perfect timing if only we believe.

Right in last Sunday's message in doctor Daniel shared with

us about listening God's voice right, writing it down so

that we'll never forget, okay, and mostly pleas to hold

on back to it. Don't just keep asking God for

new visions, new promises, because He's already given to us

and we just got to claim it and believe it

a man. So that's the first portion that we can

see where Jesus came and was with them during the neat,

meeting them where they are. And also, you know, just

the understanding that God will make it happen and He's

perfect timing right now, the next thing that we can

see from the scriptures is that he feels the need. Right,

he feels the need. Let's continue reading this passage. So

we stopped at verse thirty seven. Okay, was thirty six

thirty seven when they saw Jesus, wh you know, crying

and whipping, and they saw and they thought that, oh,

maybe Jesus loved this person so much, love Lazarus. Therefore

he was crying. And then there were of course those

who were criticizing and saying, well, if he healed everyone else,

why couldn't he do something for Lazris. So there was

that whole crowd that was speaking. And then we see

verse thirty eight. Okay, Chapter eleven was thirty eight. Then Jesus, again,

groaning in himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave,

and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away

the stone. Martha, the sister of him who was dead,

said to him, Lord, by this time there is a stench,

for he has been dad days. We can only imagine

right physical death and how it will be off for

four days. And Jesus said to her, did I not

say to you that you would believe? If you would believe,

you would see the glory of God. Then they took

away the stone from the place where the dead man

was lying, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father,

I thank you that you have hurt me, and I

know that you always hear me. But because of the

people who are standing by, I say this, that they

may believe that you sent me. Now, when he had

seen these things, he cried, cried the loud voice, Lazarus

comfort and he woe had died. Came out bound hand

and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped

with the cloth. Jesus said to him, say to them,

lose him and let him go. And so this is

when the story gets unexpected, right if you have not

heard this, if it's in the form of a movie like,

Oh what happened? That's a twist. I thought Lazarus died, Okay,

I thought it's the end. But you know what, there's

a continuation to the story. And as we know the

whole thing about you know, death and being raised, it's

a lot more that Jesus is trying to teach us today.

And sometimes you could be seated here thinking that it

was a prayer that I had when I was very young,

or a dream that I used to have. But do

you know that God can sometimes even reignite that dream,

he can make it alive again. There was a reason

why he plays that dream in your hearts. There's the

reason why he plays that desire in your heart, Okay,

And if it's truly his will and his plan for

it to happen, he will bring it to pass, even

though it may look like it's right. And how sometimes

you may think we may look at it in the

way we look at physical right, because it seems to be, oh,

I'm too old for this, Let others do it right,

Or I may not have the finances for it, it's

too long, maybe I'm doing something else. It's just not

for me. I'll just make do with what we have, right,

That's how our physical minds tend to think. But you

know what, God always has a better plan for us, right,

and the lie and the plan is to always give

us life, and not just any life, but life to

the fullest a man, life to the fullest. And so

in this scripture we can see that he comes and

fills the need. And it's not just something that he gave,

but he came to feel the need because he is life. Remember,

he is life. And I'm just going to give you

a couple of pointers of what life means. Like you know,

we speak about the English language is very limited. When

we look at the word life, it just means life okay,

meaning I'm alive life or something is alive. Right. But

when we look at the you know, the the Greek

language or even Hebrew. When life, the word life is

used in the Bible, it actually brings different meanings, okay,

different meanings to this. And so let's look at three words,

yeah and hopefully some new language for you. Okay. So

the first meaning of life, yeare, is bios okay, bos,

and in Greek it means life. Okay. Now, what this

word boss actually means is that it actually refers to

our physical body, meaning what you can actually see. And

in fact, our English word biology comes from the word bios. Yeah.

And so let's look at an example of a scripture.

It says in Luke eight fourteen and that which fell

into the tones, these are those who hurt and going

away are utterly choked by anxieties and and pleasures of

this life, and do not bring any fruit to maturity.

And so it says pleasures of this life. So this

life that we are referring is the life that we

see in this earth, okay, meaning the success that we're

looking for, the work, you know, work satisfaction, or the

people that we love on the earth, right, material possessions life.

So if you look at this word life, it doesn't

mean Jesus, it doesn't mean God because it talks about

the pleasures of this life that does not bring any

fruit to maturity. And sometimes we get just so caught

up to be filled in this form of life, and

then we wonder what is next, right, or why am

I never been fulfilled? I keep trying, but it doesn't ya.

That's the first meaning. And then there's another word that

has the meaning of life. Okay. I am not sure

how do I pronounce this, but maybe it's zuok Okay,

maybe it's a silent p right, it's from the Greek okay.

And what this word here means is that is that

it actually refers to our psychological part of life, okay,

meaning our soul, our mind, our emotions, our will. Yeah.

And in fact, the English word psychology comes from this

word okay. And so let's look an example of a

scripture where the word life is found. In Matthew sixteen

twenty five, it says, for whoever wants to save his

life in bracket soul, Yeah, that is what it means,

shall lose it. But whoever loses his life for my

sake shall find it. Okay. Can you see the difference here.

So when we say life, here we're talking about soul.

So if you want to save your soul, you're trying hard,

you will lose it. But when you lose your life

for my sake, you shall find it. And this life

here meaning our will meaning I want it by way

right or our mind. So the things that we think,

the things that we pursue, our perceptions, you know, the

way we make our decisions, or sometimes what we fit

in our souls. Right, it's either we are feeding in

with the word of God or we're fitting in with

everything else that brings happiness. Yeah, So that is another

meaning of life. And I feel this is the very

tricky part that the world sometimes kind of traps us. Yeah,

I'm I'm not sure if you're friends. So sometimes say that,

oh I am not religion, but I am spiritual. There's

a new thing that's going on with the whole mindfulness. Okay,

and I wonder what is it. So they don't have

much of a faith or a belief to a god,

but they are spiritual, meaning they do meditation. They're very calm. Okay,

A vegan and in all that kind of a lifestyle,

so they feel that they're feeling in their soul. Okay,

they're so calm, but we all know that there will

be an emptiness because who can actually feel the soul

that was created by Him? Right? And so you can

go all mindful, but how fool is your mind? Right

with the true life? Right, the true life? And so

that's another kind of life that we can speak about.

And now let me show you another word of life. Okay,

and this is in Greek, which is zoe. Yeah, zoe.

So it says here in John one four, in him

was life, and the life was the light of men. Right,

And this is another word life. But when it says

in him was life, meaning this is the life of

who he is, and the life was the light of man.

And this life that you're talking about is the eternal life,

the life that never changes, is divine and is uniquely

possessed by God and God alone. It's not what the

world gives us, it's not the satisfaction that our soul gives,

but it is Him alone. Right. So this eternal year

is not reflected based on duration of time, okay, which

is everlasting without end, but also the quality, meaning this

life is perfect, complete without any kind of shortage and defect.

You can't find any kind of anything wrong with this life.

It is perfect as it is right, and it is

not something vague. But it's about the wonderful person of

our Lord Jesus, right, and that is the life that

is offering us. And you can only get this life

in Him no other way. Okay. We can have the

first life that we spoke about just now, right, the

first one, beause we have that, you know, the way

we live. We can have the second life fisk okay,

which is the soul. Right. We can of find happiness

fulfillment all that we do. But so we can only

be fulfilled when you believe in God as your personal

Lord and savior, meaning you welcome Him into your heart,

you sit in his presence. Right? Do you know that

that we can actually welcome different things into ourselves? Right?

It really depends to what we say come in, Okay,

what kind of thoughts do I put in? What kind

of things that I read? What do I believe? We

can all be seated here in church, but we can

all have different thoughts, right, because we are in control

or what we choose to say, okay, come, I take

it in right, So that is the life that God

gives us. And let's think about this, Okay, let's think

about this. If God is life, we spoke about it.

We all know this by now, right. If God is

life and he lives in us, how we call to

live our lives? Right? So if let's say, now, Richard,

God is life, he's living, and you, Richard, always study

amongst her, always in the friend. Sorry, okay, So yes,

God is in him, right, God is in us is

a life. So if that's the case, how are we

living our lives? How we call to live our lives?

How would it be reflected by the things we speak about?

First of all, we shouldn't say things like dila, this

would not happen.

Right.

It may sound like it's just a very common phrase

or you know, like like Malaysians tend to use when

something is difficult, But I think we should avoid right

because remember the world is so powerful. The Bible speaks

a lot about the power of our tongue. Right, And

so when you say that it's not going to work,

then it's not going to work. But if you say, yes,

it is difficult, but I'm going to trust God. I

believe he will bring this true. Okay, I mean, come on,

if you think look at the world. The world talks

so much about words of affirmation. What you speak is

what you get, right, and these people are actually talking

about these things without even knowing God. Right. What you

believe in is what you draw in if you listen

to motivational speakers, because that's what they always say, right,

It's all about drawing the positive energy. And if you're positive,

then everything comes your way. But how about us, right,

we believe in a God who is alife. We have

this word that is eternal and alife. Then how much

more are we supposed to live our lives? Right? Not

a defeated one, not something that is you know, just

relying on our own capabilities or what our physical eye sees.

But who God is? Right? So let's ask this question

to ourselves. How am I living my lives? That's my life?

Actually testify that we worship our God who is a

life right. Actions speaks louder. We all know that. So

when you speak to someone, can you tell that this

person actually believes in a God who is a life

right or is it doubtful? Like what's this person's faith

or what is this person believe? Because you're saying you're

a Christian, but you're living your life differently. Let's not

be having that two personality split personality, right, We just

got to be that one person, one person. Wherever I

see Truman, that is who is Okay, that same spirit,

the same excitement that he has with God. That is

how we are. We are not just in church just

because we're surrounded by believers, but in our schools, even

in our workplace, even if you're surrounded with people who

may not look like they're alive, okay, if you get

what I mean. If they are down negative, you know,

if they're upset, angry. But can you still be different? Right?

Can you still be different? Because God leaves in us

every other day, not just on a certain timing, but

every other day if only you believe, right, if only

you believe. So, now that we know that God is alife,

my last point here is that what are we doing

with this truth? What is our response? Okay? Because I

always like to see our fate as something practical, We've

got to know that when I learned, when I heard

today's message, how am I going to leave this life?

And I go back tomorrow, right, that is when the

real thing starts and with other people. And I just

like to draw our attention to Marry. Okay. And as

we as we read about Mary here, we'll see that

we can see her, you know, in different portions of

the passage, of different portions of the Book of John

and even the Book of Luke. And one similar thing

that we can see about Mary is that she was

constantly in the presence of God. Okay, the presence of God.

Let's just even look at a portion here from the

Book of Luke, chapter ten, okay, the scriptures Luke chapter ten. Okay, Hi,

y'all there, all right, So Luke chapter ten, verse thirty eight, Okay,

So what does it say now? It happened as they

went that he entered a certain village, and a certain

woman named Marta welcomed him into a house. And she

had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus'

feet and heard his word. But Martha was distracted with

so much serving, and she approached him and said, Lord,

do you not care that my sister has left me

to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me. And

so she was thinking that Jesus will actually speak up

for her. But you know what Jesus says here, It

was forty one Martha. Martha, you are worried and troubled

about many things, but one thing is needed and Mary

has chosen that good part which will not be taken

away from her. Amen. So what can we see about

Mary her? She was just in his presence. I mean,

she had all the reason because Jesus was an important

guess to make sure things are all fine, right, to

help out Martha, to serve food. But she just chose

to sit down in his presence, at his feet, right.

And I believe there was a reason why she did this,

because she knew who he is, she knew what he

could offer her life. He could offer her the freedom,

the presence, right. And it's not when Jesus looked at

the respond and you look at Jesus' respond here, he

was not so much caught up with how good the

cooking or the meal was served to him, but he

was more concerned about whether she was. They were there

to enjoy his presence, right. And how many of us

here this morning are coming into church with that kind

of an attitude, even for those of us who are

serving today? Right? Are we just sometimes so caught up

with I've got to make things right? Well that's good, right,

But is that the only focus compared to I want

to seek his presence. I want to be before him

and just keep aside everything else and let him speak

to me. Do we come in with that kind of

an attitude? Not just to church but even Holmes Prayer service?

Right when we come every time God is trying to

speak to us. What kind of an attitude do we

come with? Right? Is it like Martha caught up with things?

Or like Mary was always ready to sit at his feet? Okay,

let me show you another example here. Of course. The

second one is when we read this now the scriptures. Okay,

when Lazarus was ill, you know, and you know, Martha

came speaking to Jesus. And then Martha Mary came a

little bit later, and the scriptures tells us that she

fell at his feet and said, Lord, if you had

been here, my brother would not have died. Yeah, my

brother would not have died. So both of them expressed

their fate, but they expressed it in a very different way.

I think Martha was a bit different personality, of course. Yeah,

so she she had spoke to him. But Mary was

just immediately palon his feet. And as we know, when

we speak about falling down to the feet, bowing down,

it talks about humbleness, right, It talks about humility where

you're just seeking for an answer, and that is what

she was doing, right, And that was one the next

encounter we can see of Mary. Okay, believe you have

the scriptures here as well. Is you know the part

where it was just six days before Jesus was going

to his going to the cross and his final pass

over the disciples. And let's just read this scripture here

from Luke chapter seven, verse thirty six. Okay, Luke chapter seven,

verse thirty six. Let me see if I got it right. Okay,

hold on, let me go back. Let's gay, let's go

back to the book of John John. Okay, yes, got it, John,

chapter twelve. Sorry, but that John chapter twelve, verse one. Okay.

So it says here, then six days before the passover,

Jesus came to Batany where Lazarus was, who had been Dad,

whom he had raised from the dead. Yeah. There, they

made him a supper and Martha serf. But Lazarus was

with one who sat at the table with him. Then

Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spignet,

anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with

a hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance

of the oil. But one of his disciples, judas Is

carried Simon's son, who would betray him, said why was

this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denari and

given to the poor. This he said, not that he

cared for the poor, but because he was a chief

and had the money box, and he used to take

what was put in. But Jesus said, let her alone.

She has kept this for the day of my burial

for the poor. You have with you always, but you

do not have. But you do not have me, You

do not have always. Right, this is what Jesus was saying.

Another encounter that we can see how Mary gave her

best for Jesus. Right, it says expensive per oil, perfume.

And if we could it smelt in the entire room,

we could know how much she actually used. And she

used a hair to wipe his feet, right, that speaks

a lot about humbleness. Right, she was wiping And this

happened right after Lazrus was raised from the Dad, and

it speaks so much about how much she honors Jesus.

She saw something happening here, right, She saw that Jesus

was able to, you know, to raise my brother Lazarus, right,

and so because of that she glorified God's name. It

what she has. And I think more than that, this

represents what Jesus was about to do. When we read

the different context here, it is actually a symbol to

what Jesus would actually be doing for the disciples later

on in the scriptures, as you read where he actually

wipes the feet of the disciples. Okay, and wiping feet

here is actually a custom in those times because people

used to wear sandals. It used to be very a

lot of sand wherever they walk. It's not like how

our roads, right, and so wherever they went it was dusty,

and so the moment they stepped into the house, they

had to wipe their feet. There's always water prepared, they

wipe their feets and then they come in. Yeah, and

so wiping the feet here speaks a lot about you know,

just I mean, you will wipe your own feet usually,

but when you wipe someone else's feet, it talks so

much about humbleness, how you honor them, right, And that

is how much Mary Jesus. She gave her best, okay,

and that just speaks so much about her heart and

how much she loved him. Yeah, and I believe she

also knew because she spent so much time with Jesus,

she knew that he was his time was to come.

And so that's when Jesus says that she's doing this

for my burial, right, she was preparing that. And many

actually missed that until the point he went to the cross.

Some couldn't actually even understand that fact. But Mary was

one of the few ones who actually understood that whatever

Jesus was teaching was actually heading to the crucifixion, and

he was preparing the people for that, and Mary was

one of them. Was prepared, okay, and that is why

she was not caught up. Again, we can see Martha

was preparing dinner there, okay, but Mary was still there,

present with Jesus. Yeah, present with Jesus. And this is

just so beautiful because we see this is what it means,

sitting in the presence of God.

Right.

We may not see Jesus in a physical way like

how we read in the scriptures here. But you know,

do we actually enjoy his presence because we know that

he's always there with us? Right? How much time do

we spend to seek his face? Okay, not just being

caught up with the things that I need to do,

the roles that I need to fill in, but to

just be there with him? Because if you want to

experience this God that we are speaking about, who is alivee,

who is life, it just means that we've got to

live with him, right, simple as that, Because to experience

it is to allow him to live in you. Only

then you can see the fruits being bad. Only then

you can see things happen through him, right, And that

is what you know Mary understood. In Isaiah fifty two seven,

it says, how beautiful about upon the mountains, at the

feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace,

who brings good news of happiness, and who brings salvation,

who says to Zion, your God reigns. And so perhaps

Mary was just so thankful for the feed of him

who brought the good news of salvation. Yeah, and she

wanted to anoint him because she was there seeing all

that Jesus has done, right, all the different miracles he's

been doing, healing the blind and you know, ministering to

different people, and so just honoring God, Jesus, thank you

for doing this for us. And she did that, Yeah,

the anointed One. And so as we know, Jesus Christ,

the Messiah is the meaning of it is the anointed One.

And how beautiful it is that when Mary was anointing

his feet was just right before he went to the cross.

Is to actually honor the anointed One. She anointed his

feet with oil. Right, that is what the Messiah actually means.

And so there's so everything that we read in the

scriptures there is a purpose. There's a bigger significance to it,

to the point where it was also planned in a

way that Jesus said, Okay, I mean Jesus's plan to

send his one and only listen to the cross. And

as you read the scriptures in the Bible, right, it's

just amazing to see how everything sticks together, everything is

just joined together, like each one of these characters in

the Bible played a very significant part to the journey

that Jesus was going to the cross, right, And do

you know that you are the characters as well of

God's plan, Right, You're all the plan that God has, Okay,

and he has placed all of our characters. You can

imagine us being in a movie, right, We're all in

different settings, different locations, dealing with different people. And if

you can recognize that we are the character that was

created by God to complete this beautiful movie, this beautiful

story until His coming. How amazing is that? Right? When

we fulfill the purpose that God has. But you know

that we could also sometimes miss out the calling if

we get so caught up with the different life that

we studied just now, the life of the world. Yeah,

so let's not be caught up with that. Let's be

focused on the life giving savior, Jesus. A man's going

to invite extreme forward. And I'm going to just even

end this with a couple of things that I want

us to think about in regards to Mary. Number one

is that they saw that she had humility, right, she

was humble. She was very humble, and the different instances

in the story with all she was always at the

feet of Jesus. She was always ready to just bow down, right,

And how many of us are willing to do that?

You know? When I mean she could I mean she was.

She could have been consonant with what her sister would

have said for not helping out. She could have been

concerned with the judas was trying to criticize her for

spending so much for anointing Jesus' feet. But no, she

didn't bother about any of those because she knew who

she was serving. She only had one master, which is

Jesus himself. Right, such humility, such devotion. Right, she was

so caught up in listening and worshiping Jesus that whatever

that was happening around her didn't matter. Whatever noises that

was around her didn't matter. Yeah, And of course such confidence,

she could boldly go before Jesus. In fact, that is

what she told him before Lazarus was raised from the

date that if you could do something right, if you

could do something and of course intent listening, intent listening.

She hung on his every word. And because she could

listen to him, and we say listen meaning did not

just give room for the voices around her, but she

chose what she had to listen to. She understood about

his death. Not everyone could understand that, right, But because

she spends so much time with him, she knew that yes,

Jesus is going to the cross, and she was preparing

for that. Yeah, and so likewise for us, Okay, we

can choose to also sit at the feet of Jesus.

We can sit at his feet, we can listen to

his word, and you know what, you can actually lay

down everything to him, your sorrow, your confusion, your questions.

And you know what's the good thing about putting it

before him because he knows, He knows why it happened,

he knows what's going to happen, right, and most importantly,

to enjoy his presence. Okay, not just when it has

been answered, but while I'm waiting, I just want to

enjoy his presence. Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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hit for you. God bless