and I thought I'd allow them to do it, but that was a soft touch.

To get them to do it, they had to be able to walk, and I had to get them to do it.

It's tough, but it works before I get there.

But, it's really been a great effect for me, and I'm going to do it again next year.

We shall be free.

We are the free that we need.

Hello, everybody.

I was just thinking before I came out.

By the way, we're in John chapter 11, John 11.

It's been a long time since I've spoken out of John 11, which is one of the most famous New Testament stories in the Jesus interaction with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

Lazarus.

But I was thinking before I came out to all of our campuses that we are, you know, we really are a very blessed people.

We live in a beautiful state.

It's got its problems.

Every state does.

Weather's not one of them.

We have each other.

We have a great church to be part of.

We...

You know, anytime that you have a church that's only had three pastors in its entire history, that is a blessing.

It's had good leadership for many, many years.

And I'm not talking about me.

I'm talking about elders and leaders.

And you get to a place like this, it's just a blessing that there's been no major, you know, no major moral failure and no major power struggle to where.

It does so much damage that the church cannot recover.

So we are blessed, but at the same time, so we need to be thankful, right?

And we need to be reminded that we need each other and we need to continue to pursue this course.

And we're in the series right now called Undisputed.

I love that.

The definition of undisputed means not called into question or undoubted or no doubt.

And last week we had a good look at David and Goliath and we learned that...

In Jesus, what do we have?

We have the ultimate undisputed champion of the universe.

And then we talked about how his victories, all of them have been credited to our account.

That's amazing.

So the righteous life he lived has been given to you.

So when God sees you, he sees you as righteous.

It's hard to believe that, isn't it?

I mean, I've been studying scripture for a long time.

And every time I go over it again, I still...

find it difficult to believe that God really looks at me and sees Jesus.

Now, not that I'm Jesus, but everything he accomplished has been credited to my account.

That's amazing.

There's no other teaching or philosophy or religion like that anywhere.

This is very unique.

My theology professor in grad school used to say, to understand what justified means, you need to understand that God looks at you just as if I'd never sinned.

And that's how he sees us, which means that we have no fear of death.

That for us, death is a gateway.

It's the door into the life we've always been looking for, right?

And even when we go through difficult things here, it's like the phrase out of the best merry-go-hotel, one of my favorite movies.

And he says throughout the movie, everything will be okay in the end.

So if everything's not yet okay, it's not yet the end.

Truth.

However.

Let's talk about now in John 11, the thing that you think that I wasn't going to talk about.

And the thing that you thought maybe I wasn't going to talk about is this.

It's not okay now.

Okay.

It's going to be okay someday.

I got it.

But it's not okay now to tell a young woman who's been diagnosed with cancer, not knowing the outcome, to tell a young mother who's lost a daughter or a son, to tell her it's going to be okay.

That's okay.

But it's not okay now.

In fact, the thing about forever is that it is a long time, but it seems like forever is taking forever to get here, right?

And so to tell you the truth, in ministry, one of the primary reasons people walk away from Jesus is over a basic theological question, and it goes like this.

And many have walked away because they could not harmonize the two.

They would say that if God is really all-powerful, he could stop suffering.

And if God is really all-loving, he would want to stop suffering.

So why do we have suffering?

If God is all-powerful, he's able to stop all suffering.

And if he's all-loving, he would desire to stop suffering.

So, the idea is he must be one or the other, but not both.

And a God who's one or the other or not both is not really God.

And so, I'm walking away.

On the surface, you look at that and you can understand why someone would say that.

Thank God in the scripture, God gives us stories, narratives to help us understand some things.

And in John 11, Even though most of you have heard the story again and again, I want you to pull out your Bibles, your phone, your iPad, and I want you to go through this narrative with me.

Because what we're going to start to see is that there is an undisputed champion, Jesus, who often allows suffering for reasons that are in fact associated with eternity, with forever.

So here's the scene.

Let's go through it quickly.

John 11, Jesus has just left Jerusalem, where the religious people were trying to kill him.

Actually, they picked up stones to stone him.

You say, well, why would they do that to the religious people?

Well, he was performing miracles.

Well, you would think they would be celebratory.

Wow, the lame are walking, the blind are seen.

No, the problem is because Jesus' popularity is growing, their popularity is getting less, and they're losing their power and control over the people, so now they want to kill him.

Not everything that glitters is gold, and not every religious leader has pure motivations.

So Jesus takes the caravan of disciples from Jerusalem, and he moves them four kilometers outside Bethany because his time had not yet come.

So he's running for his life because it's not yet time for him to give his life.

Verse one, we pick up the story.

A man named Lazarus was sick.

Already there's a key.

This is not a parable.

The man is named.

Usually the Bible says, and then there was this lame man, then there was this blind man, then there was this crippled or paralytic.

But when you're telling a real story, something that happened in history, you start using names.

And Jesus was so close and intimate with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus that when John writes John 11, he tells us there was a man named Lazarus who was sick.

And verse 3 tells us his sisters sent word to Jesus.

And how would you like to be called this?

The sisters don't say Lazarus is sick.

They say, Lord, the one you love is ill.

How would you like to be known?

Not as Jeff, but as the one Jesus loves.

That's pretty cool.

So verse five, and I think verse five is written by John to prepare us for verse six.

So verse five says, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

So there's a deep relationship here.

Jesus loves all people, but this is the family that Jesus would go over to their house after church on Sunday, have dinner.

Hang out.

Mary, Martha, Lazarus.

Now here's where it gets difficult.

Verse six says, so when he, that is Jesus, heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

Now, does anybody find a problem with that?

He's only four kilometers away.

Lazarus, the one he loves, is very ill.

He could be there in a half an hour, 45 minutes at the most.

And yet the Bible tells us he just stayed put.

for two more days.

Now you can understand why Mary and Martha sent the invitation to Jesus.

They've seen what he could do.

They followed him around as part of his disciples.

They witnessed as he fed 5,000.

They would have heard about Jesus walking on the water, calming the winds and the waves, the healing at the pool of Siloam.

So you can understand in their mind, Jesus healed people he did not even know.

They were just mere acquaintances.

But this is Lazarus we're talking about.

This is the one that Jesus loved.

So in verse seven, and then he said to his disciples, let us go back to Judea.

Now notice that Judea is where they tried to stone him.

So you might think, well, he didn't want to go back to where the stones were.

No, he was more than willing to go back to where they were trying to stone him.

However, remember, it's only four kilometers away, two miles, but he's waiting on something else.

What's he waiting for?

As we read the story, you learn that he's waiting.

for Lazarus to die.

Wow.

So he stays where he was on purpose two more days until Lazarus dies.

But right by verse eight, they said a short while ago, the Jews were trying to stone you and you're going back.

So then he gives them a little statement that you can do an entire message on about timing.

And then verse 11, after he had said this, he went on to tell them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I'm going there to wake him up.

And the disciples respond somewhere humorously.

They say, well, Lord, if he sleeps, he'll get better.

In other words, if he's asleep, he'll wake up.

And then verse 12 or verse 14, rather.

So then he told them that as Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus.

is dead.

Now look at verse 15.

And for your sake, I'm glad I was not there so that you may believe.

Believe what?

That you're a really bad friend?

That you don't care about your friend Lazarus?

We believe.

No, that means that there's something, the reason for the delay is more important than stopping the pain and suffering of Jesus' dear friend, Lazarus.

and of Mary and Martha, the sisters who are watching their brother die.

Did you hear me say that?

The only explanation for verse 15 is that the reason for delaying is more important than stopping the pain and suffering of Jesus, dear friend, and friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

So verse 16, then Thomas, also known as Didymus, or I like to refer to him as Eeyore, said to the rest of the disciples, let us also go that we may die with him.

This is not courage.

It's doubting Thomas.

Oh, let's go, fellas.

We might as well get it over with.

Now, it's important you place yourself in the scene because Mary and Martha have sent word to Jesus, and they've said, Lazarus is sick.

Mary knows, I guarantee you, and so does Martha, where Jesus is and how long it's going to take him to get back to where they are.

For Jesus to receive the message, Jesus to respond, and then make his way back to Bethany, which is exactly the sequence of the events that they're expecting or that they're counting on.

So Mary and Martha probably go out on the road to Bethany and stand waiting for Jesus to get there.

They stand out on the road to Bethany, waiting, hoping, trusting Jesus will come and know Jesus.

They're weeping over concern for their brother, knowing that he's very close to death.

They know Jesus is just across the valley, half an hour away at most, but still know Jesus.

They had to have remembered how Jesus had healed people he didn't even know.

And this is his friend.

Lazarus, the one he loves, still know Jesus.

And they wait and they wait and they wait and they watch Lazarus die.

They're ready to bury him.

Mary and Martha looking around one more time, still know Jesus.

And now Lazarus is gone, been dead for quite some time.

Stones have been rolled over the tomb and Jesus never showed up.

Man, is that us or what?

I mean, that's us.

Yeah, sure, there are all kinds of stories of healing in our church.

Miraculous stories.

Cancer healed.

Addiction recovery.

Marriages restored.

Children who'd gone astray, walked away from God, suddenly through prayer and intercessory turned their hearts toward home.

But there are also dozens and dozens and dozens of stories of people who are in financial trouble, who've been asking Jesus to show up for a long time, standing out on the road to Bethany and still no Jesus.

Marriage is falling apart, still no Jesus.

A loved one is ill.

We pray, we pray, still no Jesus.

Thousands of different struggles that we pastors see where people pray, and they pray, and they pray, and they wait, and they wait, and still there's no Jesus.

Now, when Jesus finally arrives, he's asked the same question by two different people, and he gives two different responses, although not contradictory.

First, he sees Martha.

In verse 21, when Jesus finally arrives, Martha says, Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died.

That's her way of saying, dude, you were just over the hill.

Why didn't you get over here?

Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.

Now notice what Martha says.

I know he'll rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

She said, yeah, I know there's a resurrection that's coming someday, but my problem is not, it'll be okay in the end.

My problem is right now.

I miss my brother.

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

The one who believes in me will live even though he died.

And whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

Do you believe this?

Now notice that Jesus gives Martha truth, a truth statement.

He says, you believe in the resurrection.

That's very good, Martha.

In fact, that is very good because most people in the day of Jesus did not believe in a resurrection.

So Martha is already ahead of the game.

So Jesus says, you believe that one day you'll see your brother.

That's great.

I mean, you're ahead.

You get an A.

That's great faith.

But Martha, think about it for a moment.

You've seen all the things that I've been doing.

Who am I, Martha?

Who am I?

I am the resurrection.

I don't just do resurrections.

I don't just do love.

I just don't do compassion.

I am these things.

You know who I am.

You know who I am, Martha, and you know if I want him to rise right now, he can, and he will.

So then, after talking to Martha, he meets Mary.

But when he meets Mary, he gets the same kind of question.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was...

and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.

So, Pete and repeat, right?

Same thing, same statement.

Mary says, where were you?

However, Jesus' response is not philosophical or propositional.

His answer is very personal, very emotional.

In fact, the text says that when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

Where have you laid him, he asked.

Come and see, Lord, they replied.

And then this powerful, the shortest verse in the Bible you've heard, Jesus wept.

The word for weep here is dakruo, which is not just shedding the tear, folks.

This is the most aggressive word in Greek for sadness.

It's weeping and wailing, okay?

It's not, oh, no.

It's shouting.

It's there's anger involved in it, which to me makes no sense because Jesus had to have known in a few minutes, he's going to do something very special.

Why take the time to cry?

Why does Jesus weep at the tomb?

In fact, the Bible says he's deeply troubled and he's deeply moved in spirit.

And I'm thinking, okay, but why?

I find that reaction startling because Jesus moves into this situation with two things you and I don't have.

The first thing, knowledge.

He knows how this is going to end and it's going to end really well.

In 10 minutes, there's going to be such a party and a celebration and a resurrection.

So why weep?

Second, he has power that we don't have.

He's able to do something about the problem.

You and I can't do a thing to undo what has been happened, but he can fix it in five minutes if he wants to.

Yet he still weeps.

That seems to me to be a colossal waste of time.

Why doesn't he just come in and say, wait till you see what I'm about to do.

I mean, if I showed up and I had that kind of power, I would skip right past grief into the show, right?

I'd go right past grief into celebration.

So why then would Jesus enter into their trauma and pain?

And the answer of course is because this is the father that we're all looking for.

God is not unmoved by our pain, even when he knows everything's going to be okay.

When Sian was a little girl, my daughter, she was chasing her brother, first mistake.

They were playing football up at the park, and she got a little bit ahead of herself, and she fell on her arm, and she broke her arm, little girl, and she raised up her arm, and I'm telling you, it looked like it was just not good.

Robin was away with some girlfriends down in Wellington, so I was on my own, because I'm a great husband.

I didn't know what to do though, because we men aren't good in these situations.

So thank God that one of the church members was in the park and had seen what had happened and got a splint on Sian's arm.

And Sian was crying and she was looking at me like it was my fault.

Dad, how could you let, I mean, you know what I'm saying?

Because when you're little, you don't understand.

And I knew everything was going to be okay, but I still cried.

I was so sad for her.

And then I took her to the hospital, emergency room.

And I took her to the door where the doctors are going to receive her, and they're going to take her back, and then they're going to put her to sleep, break, reset the arm, put her in a cast.

And as she went to the door, she looked at me like, what kind of father are you?

Handed me over to these strangers, but I thought you loved.

I mean, you can imagine what a father goes through.

Now, the reason I tell you that is simple.

We learn two things about suffering from this story.

And the first thing we learn, and we can't go to the Some of you will think, oh yeah, why didn't you just get to that part?

Because we need to know that there's absolutely nothing wrong about weeping.

Nothing.

Jesus Christ was the most mature person who ever lived, and he often fell into grief.

And those who are most like Jesus are those who don't avoid weeping and crying.

Those who are most like Jesus find themselves pulled into grief, into the lives of those who are hurting.

So when Jesus shows up, I want you to notice, it's important.

He gives Martha truth.

He says, there's hope, there's eternity.

I will restore all things.

And you know this, Martha.

You know who I am.

And if you know who I am, you know that death is no more.

Lazarus is not dead.

He's just sleeping.

Be patient for the restoration of all things.

But when he comes to Mary, he doesn't say anything about true statements.

He doesn't bring truth.

Instead, he brings what?

Tears.

No statements about restoration, redemption, resurrection.

He does not relate to her merely on a cerebral level of how everything's going to be okay.

And that's why I told you last week, man, if you just take that sermon on its own, it seems like the Christianity and Jesus himself are very heartless people.

But when Jesus sees Mary, even though he knows everything that's about to happen, he just simply stands there and he weeps with her as a father would weep for his children.

And that is the savior for which our heart longs, isn't it?

It's what we're looking for.

And can I just say to you, we've all had pain.

You cannot experience healing without both truth and tears.

If you lean too heavy into tears, you'll be miserable.

If you lean too heavy into truth, you'll be miserable and you'll never receive healing.

You've got to have both.

You've got to have compassion and you've got to have truth.

Now.

When you've experienced this, and we all have some, I hope, depending on the strength of your community.

I've mentioned that when my mother died, there were my friends who came around me and told me the truth.

Don't worry, Jeff, she'll be raised.

She will be with God.

And I wanted to say to them, yes, I know that.

I know that, but she's not with me now.

And forever is forever, but it seems like forever away.

And I told you that when they lowered her casket into the ground, God spoke to me through the Holy Spirit.

It wasn't audible, but he was reminding me, your mother's not there.

She's been with me since the day she stopped breathing.

And that is truth, and it felt good, but that was not enough.

Because I had other friends that came around me, friends that I hadn't seen in a while, basketball buddies that I'd played basketball with in high school, came to the funeral, and I hadn't seen them since, I don't know, probably 10, 15 years.

And they came, and the starting three that were still alive came to me, put their arms around me.

And I remember to this day, they just sat there and they said, Jeff, we're with you, man.

We're with you.

I don't know why that helped so much, but I can't explain it.

But to have Terry Barker, one of our point guards, put his arm around me and say, he always called me Biggin.

That's short for big one because I was the big one on the team.

He said, Biggin, that's how you speak in this Tennessee.

Biggin, I'm here for you.

And I don't know why that meant so much to my basketball coach, my high school coach.

Coach Lynn Duggar, Coach Eddie Carver came, and it was like the book of Job, sitting seven, sitting Shiva, where they just sat there.

They didn't say a word, but they never left my side.

They were there when my mother was on the ventilator until the day that she stopped breathing.

They were always there, just there.

Do you know, Canada's been in the news a lot this week.

Do you know what Canada did after 9-11, after the planes hit the Twin Towers?

Canada immediately started Operation...

Yellow Ribbon.

Now, if you know anything about Tony Orlando and the Yellow Ribbon, the Yellow Ribbon is a song about welcome home.

The Canadians, after the American airspace was closed, received all the American travelers who were stuck and put them up, billeted them in their homes and fed them and comforted and encouraged them.

Canada's not our enemy.

Yeah, we might be in a little bit of a trade war and who knows how that's going to end.

But as I read stories this week, I read of a town called Gander, Newfoundland in Canada is a town of only 10,000 and they took in 7,000 Americans.

While others were making truth claims about how God is judging America, this is what religion does to the world, this is what radicalism does, Canadians were shedding tears and showing mercy and compassion.

The first thing you need to learn about suffering is that people need both truth and tears.

Now, there's a second thing quickly we need to learn, and that is the anger of Jesus teaches us something.

In verse 33, again, we were told that when he came to the tomb, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

The Greek means to quake with rage.

Verse 33, as Jesus came to the tomb, it says he was deeply moved.

The Greek word actually means to roar or snort with anger like a lion or bull.

Man, we would Tell us this in the margins or something.

Because we think Jesus is just soft.

Oh, I'm sad.

No, he's angry.

He's so angry that the best translation of this text would be that he was bellowing with anger when he came to the tomb.

His nostrils flared with fury and he yelled out.

That's not the Jesus you know, right?

You don't look at Jesus like that.

Oh, but that's who he is.

And then I look at that and I think, why?

I mean, all you had to do was come two days earlier.

What are you so mad at?

I mean, it's your fault.

You could have come and put an end to all this thing, and now all of a sudden you're filled with rage?

He says to Martha, I'm the resurrection.

He doesn't say, I'm just a healer.

He says, I decide who lives and dies.

If you decide who lives and dies, where were you?

So what is Jesus angry about?

One, he's angry at the pain and suffering and death sin has caused.

When we lived in Savannah, Georgia, we had neighbors and my daughter, I don't know why she's coming up a lot today, but I guess I miss her.

She was probably 11 or 12 years old and she would go to a neighbor's house and play.

And one day she came home and her arm had puncture holes in it with fat oozing out.

The dog had bitten her numerous times.

I was so mad.

Wouldn't you be as a father?

I wanted to go.

I mean, look, all dogs do not go to heaven.

Some go straight to hell.

I'm just telling you now, now, now all cats go to hell.

That's a different story.

But this dog, I was so angry, man.

I'm telling you, I was mad.

I was really mad.

And I wanted, I'm serious.

I mean, pastor or not.

I wanted to go over there and tell that guy, hey, here's your choice, dude.

You put the dog down right now or you and I are going to have trouble.

Oh, I'm going to put the dog down.

Oh, yeah, I will.

And he never did.

And I just, the anger because of the injustice, it was tough.

Do you know the Bible says that in the book of Revelation that Jesus has two types of anger?

Orge and Thumos.

Orge is a settled anger where he's kind of, you know, he's angry at the injustice, but it's settled.

and he doesn't express his anger.

But then there's the anger called thumos.

And thumos anger is volcanic anger.

It's when a volcano just suppresses, suppresses, but one day it all comes out.

And the Bible says in the book of Revelation that one day, all the injustice, all the pain and suffering, God is going to say, I've had enough of this.

And the thumos wrath of Jesus Christ is going to come out and pain and suffering and death are going to die.

And his anger primarily is at the devil.

and at sin, but anyone who commits injustice, anyone who harms, anyone who oppresses the poor, harms people, create the image of God, stand in condemnation.

In Revelation 20, 10, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown.

They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Make no mistake, when you're suffering, Jesus is ticked.

He's angry at sin.

He's angry at what it's caused.

He's angry at what we do to one another.

You could go on and on, but it's not like he sits up in heaven thinking, hey, it'll all be okay.

No, he's angry.

He's angry.

The second thing that makes him angry, you say, well, what does he do about it?

We'll get to that.

Second thing that makes him angry, now listen carefully, at the self-righteous attitude by self-righteous people who assume that when bad things happen to others, they probably deserve it.

Man, does that take God off.

See, the problem with this, And I don't know how to get in some of your heads, but the problem is when you think, when you start to think that your life always turns out well because you're righteous, oh, but then when it doesn't turn out well, you're going to think you're unrighteous.

Can I give you some news?

You're always unrighteous.

You little biscuits.

We all are, right?

We all are.

We're all sinners.

This is the point Jesus makes in Luke 13.

Now, there were some present at the time who told Jesus about the Galileans.

whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

Jesus answered, do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?

I tell you no, but unless you repent, you too will perish.

Jesus is saying, you think this bad thing happened to them because they're worse than you?

Then why are you still breathing?

Why has nothing bad happened to you?

You're a sinner.

And he gives another example.

What about those 18 who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them?

Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?

I tell you no, but unless you repent, you too will all perish.

Basically saying this, I don't like it when you think bad things happen to people because they're not righteous and good things happen to people when they're righteous.

Now there's some truth in all of that, but the reality is sometimes we are victims of a fallen world.

It's that simple.

When they put stuff in our food that causes cancer, we're going to get cancer.

When the strong oppress the weak, bad things are going to happen.

Do you remember what happened to Job's friends when they took this position?

Job 42 verse 7.

After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz, by the way, Eliphaz the Temanite is the oldest of the three.

So I think God addresses him because he should know better.

He said, I'm angry with you and your two friends because you've not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has.

So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves.

My servant Job will pray for you.

and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly.

You have not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has.

Here's why I detour on this.

Some of you, your personality is you are fixers.

When you encounter somebody that's in pain, you just want to spout Bible verses.

Man, you're like a Pez dispenser, okay?

And you get frustrated with them because...

You're telling them, suck it up, you know, repent of your sin.

You know, this is obviously happening because of something here.

So all you need to do is, it's a matter of the blame game.

So they want to blame something or someone or something, the reason that it happened.

or someone for why this is happening.

So they'll tell you, repent of your sin, kind of like what Job's three friends told him.

And the problem is you want to fix it, and you think you can fix it just by spouting out theology and wisdom.

And you get mad at them because when they don't respond, you feel like it's an inconvenience.

So you just walk away.

Okay.

However, some of you are feelers.

Oh my goodness.

You love to just cry.

You cry all the time.

You go meet somebody who's in pain.

Let's just cry together.

Oh mercy, let's cry.

I mean, and all you want to talk about is all the things that happened in your past life to make you like this.

My mommy was mean to me.

My dad didn't love me.

You get to go, ha, ha, and you cry.

But nobody ever tells you the truth.

Nobody ever says, dude, get over it.

Life is tough for all of us.

You know, call on the spirit of the living God to help you forgive.

But you can't be just one or the other.

You got to be both.

You got to feel.

You got to shed some tears, but you also got to tell the truth.

I remember about my fifth year in ministry, there was this lady who came on the front row every Sunday night back when we did Sunday night services.

No, we're not doing them again.

But we used to do Sunday night services, and she would sit there, and I noticed after, I guess it was six months, and finally I decided I need to go down and talk to her because she's weeping through all my sermons, and some of them aren't even sad.

And so I went down there, and I sat down beside her, and she started to tell me her story.

how she was mad at God because the courts took her child away.

And I said, why did the courts take your child away?

She said, because I have a drug addiction.

Okay, she needs, all right, my first inclination, because I am a fixer, not a filler, my first inclination was this, dude, you deserve it.

I wouldn't want it.

Why do you want that kid with you?

You're a drug addict.

That is not what she needs.

She needs somebody to come along and put the arm around her and say, okay, let's talk about what got you started on this path.

I can tell you that Jesus can free you of this.

Somebody that will feel for her and then also speak the truth to her.

You've got to change.

If you want your kid back, you've got to change.

Now, here's the beauty.

You say, well, what did you, okay, Pastor Jeff, God, you know, eternity and everything's going to be okay, but it's not okay now.

So what does God do?

How is God helping me?

Well, that's why he invented this thing called the church.

Did you know that?

If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Do you know God's establishment of the church just wasn't because we would come together and worship him.

That's a major reason, but it was to build a community, a new community that would live and encourage and love each other in such a way that it would be compelling to those in the world who are isolated.

Michael, this past week.

I heard an African-American preacher tell a story.

It's just, it was great.

I wish I could tell it like him.

I'm going to try, but it was fan.

Cause you know, they, like I said, God gave African-American preacher something that he didn't give me.

And I wish I had it.

You know, I couldn't jump when I was playing basketball either.

It's just kind of the same thing.

So, so the pastor said to his congregation, cause I, I read about a farmer who set a mouse trap and the mouse.

Went to his friend, the chicken, and said, dude, chicken, they've set a mousetrap.

You've got to go to help me find it, and I know you can.

Please help me.

Dude, my life's in jeopardy.

And the chicken said, dude, you know I love you.

I got your back.

But this has nothing to do with me.

It's not a chicken trap.

So he goes to the pig, and he says to the pig, pig, you've got to help me.

Man, they've set it.

A farmer set a mousetrap, and it's going to bring me to ruin.

You've got to help me.

We've got to find it.

We've got to team up, find this, and destroy it.

And the pig goes, dude, you know, I got your back.

I love you.

I love you.

But it's not a pig trap.

It has nothing to do with me.

So then he goes to the cow, and he says to the cow, cow, you got to help me.

Dude, dog, you got to help me.

We got to find this mouse trap, or it's going to bring an end to me.

And the cow said, sorry, man, you know I love you.

You know I got your back.

I'm in your corner, but this has nothing to do with me.

It's not a cow trap.

And then one day, snake, venomous snake came into the farmer's house.

got his tail stuck in the mousetrap.

And they didn't know it, but the farmer's wife came into the kitchen where the mousetrap was, and she got bitten by this venomous snake.

Now, what do you do?

Now, I mean, she's pretty sick.

So what do you do when somebody gets sick?

On the farm, you make chicken soup.

So first one to go is the chicken.

And then she got more and more sick.

And people started coming by to visit her.

So they came by in the morning.

They needed eggs and bacon.

So the next to go was the pig.

And then the third one.

Uh, she died because it was a, it was a venomous snake and the illness led to death.

And now there's a funeral and everybody's coming to the funeral.

They're going to have to have beef.

So the cow was next.

And then the African-American preacher says, now what's the moral of this story?

And he says, when one of us is threatened, we're all threatened.

When one of us weeps, we all weep.

When one of us is in trouble, we're all in trouble.

And when one of us rejoices, we all rejoices.

And then he said, we're in this thing together.

That is the purpose of the church.

You say, Pastor Jeff, you say, I don't need people.

Well, good for you.

Good for you.

But people need you.

Don't be so selfish.

Be like Jesus.

Besides, if you desire to be isolated here on earth, what makes you think, what makes you think you'll enjoy community in heaven?

Can you imagine going to heaven?

Yeah, Jesus, I don't really like people that much.

Would you kind of put me over here in the private section?

Yeah, sure, we'll do that.

There's a trap door going straight to hell.

What I'm trying to say is God does not look down on us and say pain and evil and suffering are the result of a fallen world and the reality there is a prince of the power of the air who is wreaking havoc on humanity.

That's true.

He doesn't look down and say 99% of the pain and suffering in this world is the result of man's free will and his decision to oppress the poor.

You say, Pastor Jeff, this sounds like you.

Yes, it does because I work in that area of apologetics and I'm a truth guy, not I'm a fixer.

I'm not really a Philly guy.

which is why you don't really want me counseling you when you're in pain.

I will.

I'll try my best, but it's not my gift.

So God doesn't look down upon us and say, life is tough for everyone.

Suck it up.

It's an evil world.

Stop complaining.

I told you everything will be okay in the end.

Just trust me.

And while it's important to give people who are hurting the truth, Romans 8, 28, God will work everything together for good.

The wonderful gift he gives us is his church, each other.

You know, I made a list of some of my friends here, thinking about what they would do if I was suffering.

Okay.

So here's my little group of people.

So let's start with my friend Rick Reed over here.

I think if I was in trouble, Rick would say, just do it, man.

I think Rick is a truth guy.

Hey, do it.

Come on.

You can do this.

Okay.

Now what time's our tea time?

Okay.

Randy, my friend Randy, I think Randy would say, man, Jeff, I'm so sorry.

Let's talk and pray.

Okay.

My friend Mike Masterson that I talk about, I think he would say, Jeff, bad things happen to everybody.

The question now is how are we going to tackle and solve this problem?

Okay.

And then my friend Anthony over here.

Anthony is actually one of my friends that's really good at both.

And here's why, because both of us lost our mothers.

And I think when you lose your mother, you become a filler, at least a little bit.

And you might say, well, what happened to you?

I don't know.

I'm still working on it, but I do feel more than I've ever felt.

The Bible says that we are to encourage one another.

And if you try to go through this life isolated, you're not gonna make it.

Okay, now, oh my goodness.

I cannot believe this.

Can't do it.

Hold on.

Gotta think, gotta think, gotta think.

Unbelievable.

Why can't time stand still?

All right, let me end like this.

We need both truth and tears if we're going to deal with suffering.

The second and final thing we need is encouragement and vision.

Now, by vision, here's what I mean.

This is so important, so I'm going to spend a little time here, then I'll finish.

I want you to notice what Jesus says to Mary and Martha.

Verse 23 again, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.

Martha answered, I know he'll rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life.

The one who believes in me will live even though they die, and he will be the one who will live.

whoever lives by believing in me will never die.

Do you believe this?

Jesus does not say to her, if you trust me someday, I'm going to take you away from all of this.

And someday, if you believe in me, I will take you to this wonderful paradise where your soul will be able to forget about all this.

That is not what Jesus says.

Jesus does not say, I know you're suffering greatly right now, but one day I'll make up for all this loss.

One day I'll give you consolation prizes.

That's not what he does.

When Jesus says, I am the resurrection, resurrection means I have come not to take you out of earth to heaven, but to bring the power of heaven down to earth and make everything new.

Now you have to understand what this means.

And I know I have gone here a few times and I'm going to keep going until I see in your eyes that you get it.

And it's not your fault.

It's obvious that I have not yet explained it in such a way that would cause you to dance.

Maybe not here, but later.

Do you understand that...

Heaven is not you leaving this earth.

In Revelation 21, the Bible is clear that there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth.

There are two Greek words for new, kynos neos, two primary words.

One means brand new.

The other means refurbished.

The word used in Revelation is refurbish, not totally new.

Now, let me ask you something.

When you go to heaven, are you going to be...

Is God just going to wipe you out of existence and start over?

Or is he going to renew you?

Have you read 1 Corinthians 15?

According to 1 Corinthians 15, when we get to heaven, I will know you as you.

I will know if Rick makes it, I will know Rick as Rick, and he will know me as me.

There's distinction.

There's uniqueness.

Okay?

There's uniqueness.

So we're distinguishable.

We're all not little angels flying around.

You have been glorified.

When Jesus was in his glorified body, before he went to the Father, They still knew.

It was different enough for them to say, who is this?

But at the same time, they realized who he was.

You will be new and improved, right?

Okay.

The same is true about earth.

When God created everything, he said, this is good, right?

And sin came in and tainted it so that what we live in now is a tainted version of the original.

So what is God planning on doing?

He's renewing you and he's renewing me.

See, as long as you keep thinking heaven is kind of up there somewhere, you know, past the Billy Star, way up there, you're never going to get a vision for this.

You have to understand that God said when he created the heavens and the earth, this is good.

So one day we're going to be called up in the air to meet him and he's going to put a ribbon around planet earth, be back after lunch repairing.

We don't know exactly what that looks like.

But...

I like to dream a little bit, just quickly.

Robin loves to snorkel.

She loves it.

It's so beautiful.

I wish I could experience that, but I'm not comfortable in the ocean.

I'm just not.

My friend Randy loves the cliff dive.

I wish I could experience that, but I'm not comfortable jumping 100 feet into the ocean.

I love Victoria Falls.

We were just there, but I'm not comfortable getting too close to the edge.

People bungee jump off the Victoria Falls Bridge, and I wish I could experience that, but I'm not comfortable jumping off of a...

a ledge into hippo crocodile infested waters.

Some of you are saying, man, you're just a coward, aren't you?

There's a fine line between courage and stupidity.

I'm saying to you that God is going to make this world remake it.

And when he does, the beauty, the wonder is all going to be here without the impact of sin and death.

And that's why we know that when a person dies, they're not dead.

You with me?

They are being remade, renewed so that no loss is eternal.

It's temporary at best.

You say, but Pastor Jeff, I still lose the person now.

Yes, I know.

But do you, this is the last part of the message.

But do you realize according to what Jesus teaches, one day when you get to heaven, you're going to look back and see everything that happened and everything you experienced.

And you know what you're going to do?

You're going to say, wow.

Now, listen to me now.

Listen, I thought that was the worst thing ever.

But now that I see what it is, really, every sad thing becomes untrue.

Every sad thing becomes untrue.

Now, this is when I'm getting the look.

So I've tried to explain it here, okay?

The brother's karma's off.

Fascinating passage goes like this.

I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage.

In the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all crimes of humanity, of all the blood they've shed, that it will make it not only possible to forgive, but to justify all that has happened with men.

Now, what is he saying there?

Do you remember the example?

Come on, stay with me.

You remember the example that I've used from the Lord of the Rings, the hobbit Sam, who thought everything was going wrong.

He wakes up and the sun is out.

He sees Gandalf, the great wizard, and here's what he says.

He says, Gandalf, I thought you were dead, but then I thought I was dead myself.

Is everything said going to become untrue?

And Jesus would answer, yes, someday in the great morning.

morning, new day, when all the horrible memories of our lives, everything bad that has ever happened to us, will actually be brought back in and become untrue.

How so?

I would say, I'm going to call, I'm going to let the band get up now and go back and prepare because I don't want you to be distracted as I finish this.

They're going to go back now and they're going to prepare for what we're going to do.

I'm sorry this has taken a bit long.

Let me finish.

And you're the only one that will get the sermon this weekend, but let me finish.

A story that I have told often that has changed my life is the story of when Robin and I were in Africa and a little boy by the name of Verus, a 12-year-old boy, was injured on a rugby field.

His head hit a rock.

And I'll shorten the story.

A young man by the name of Patrick, one of his friends, came to the house, knocked on the door, and told us that he was in the hospital.

Verus was in the hospital.

Now, this was devastating to us because Verus' father is a man by the name of Mr.

Meshunga.

Mr.

Meshunga was kind of the chief of the village.

He lived right across the street from the church, but had never been.

And Patrick had told me months before that until Mr.

Meshunga becomes a Christ follower, that our church growth will be stifled because the people follow the chief.

They follow the leader.

And so we did a 30-day prayer experience.

30 nights in a row we met.

in my little farmhouse.

And we prayed that God would do whatever's necessary to bring Mr.

Meshunga to Christ.

And you can imagine what I'm thinking as a 23-year-old as I'm being told that Mr. Meshunga's son has been injured and is close to death.

So I go down to...

when we went to a hospital and the nurses let me through and I got to speed the story up and I go into the waiting room.

As I go to the waiting room, because in Zimbabwe, the pastors are allowed into even ER.

And so as I pass the waiting room, Mr.

Meshunga's there and he's giving me this look like, okay, all right, you say that your God is powerful, here's your chance.

Go in and pray and heal my son.

and I go in and I pray for about three hours.

I bargain with God.

God, this is your opportunity.

You know how we do.

God, this is your great opportunity.

If you heal him, and especially if you heal him while I'm sitting here, you know, they're going to think we're connected.

Okay, and I'm going to get you.

you know, our church is going to get the credit.

And so there was about three hours into the night died.

And then it's my job to go and tell the father.

I tell the father, he just looks at me like, yeah, the next day was Sunday.

That happened on a Saturday.

I get up to preach that morning.

And as I'm preaching, I'm thinking, what am I?

I don't even know.

even know what I'm going to talk about because I was angry with God.

You know, say, God, you blew it, man.

This was your great opportunity and you blew it.

And as I'm preaching, I'm about 10 minutes into the sermon and Mr.

Mishonga, who had never been to the church, walks into the church building and he keeps walking, walks right up onto the stage while I'm preaching and says to me, because he's the chief, and he says to me, Pastor Jeff, can I have a word with my people?

And they are his people.

So I just sat back down and let him speak.

Mr.

Michon gets up and he keeps doing this.

And he says, most of you know, I lost my pride and joy.

I lost my son, Verus, to an accident.

And I'm so sad.

And then he says, this guy back here pointing to me.

says that his God is loving and powerful and strong.

I don't know about that, but what I do know, and this is where he started, he said, what I do know is that since Vera started coming to this church, he was a better student, he was a better son, he was a better man, and I was just wondering, whatever it is you gave him, could you give that to me?

And Mr.

Meshunga, Mr.

Meshunga became the chairman of the Board of Elders about a year later.

And Mr. Mishonga had a daughter as well, and her name is Shingi.

And she's married to Denver Chizanga, who we support in Zimbabwe.

And together, they have planted hundreds.

They have done so much more work for the kingdom than Robin and I.

So here's, okay.

So how does that make everything untrue?

Well, here's how it makes everything untrue.

Verus is alive.

He's not dead.

Mr.

Mishonga is eternally alive.

Because he found Christ and he is with his son.

And Dimford and Chingy have brought thousands far from God, near to God, into eternity.

So when we say that everything sad is going to become untrue, we're not saying that tragic circumstances did not occur and that there's not a time for weeping.

We're simply saying two things.

The lack of redemptive value in these events is an illusion.

God is redeeming and remaking all things.

And second, the same events will somehow, someday, be greater for having once been broken and lost.

Now let me illustrate that, and then I got to finish.

I'm having this dream the last 10 years, and I don't know, last five years.

I keep having this dream that Robin dies.

And I wake up, and there's real tears.

There's real tears, and there's panic.

Okay?

Have you ever had that dream, Anthony?

Not about Robin, about Vivian.

I cannot express to you that when I wake up and find her in bed beside me, I cannot express to you the joy and the relief that I have.

And I think that when you and I enter into our new life, that because we've lost something precious and those things have been restored to us, the joy of having them will be far greater than had we never lost them at all.

That's what I mean.

And so Jesus, we're told, moves to the tomb.

And we're told that he's been dead for a long time and the body stinketh.

I love the King James Version, the body stinketh.

And then in verse 40, Jesus said, let me finish.

Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?

I love this.

You will see the beauty, wonder, and glory of God.

He's saying everything sad is about to become untrue.

Lazarus lives.

And then he tells him to roll the stone away.

And then he says, Lazarus, come out.

And someone had said he had to say Lazarus because if he didn't, everybody would have come out.

So he says, Lazarus, come out.

And then he said, take off the grave clothes and let him go.

But then we ask the question, why did Jesus wait until Lazarus died before he left Bethany?

And, you know, we find it in the text in verse 4.

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

It's for the glory of God.

And we find it in verse 40.

Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?

And then verse 45, therefore, many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.

Can I tell you something?

It took a long time for me to recognize this, but here's the truth, because I'm a truth guy.

Our convenience is not God's highest priority.

God's highest priority is the people far from God come near to him.

And sometimes because he wants everyone in heaven with him for eternity, He is willing to go to drastic measures to give every person every possible chance.

And sometimes that's suffering.

Your sufferings can be the avenue through which others see the power and glory of God in your life and you know it.

Greg Laurie, been doing the Harvest Crusade for many, many years.

Great man of God.

When he was younger, they called him the next Billy Graham.

In 2008, his son Christopher was killed in a car accident.

The following August, 48,000 people showed up at the Anaheim crusade.

They turned away another thousand.

And that year, 7,000 people came to Christ.

And the interviewers, interviewing people in the parking lot as they exited, said, why did you come this year?

And they all said the same thing.

Not all said the same thing, but majority said the same thing.

I wanted to see if Pastor Lurie was real.

Would he still serve God when he lost his son?

Let us give each other tears and truth.

And if we do, we'll all make it.

Father, thank you for your goodness.

And I thank you for a text that speaks volumes.

And even though we couldn't cover everything, I know that your spirit can speak to the lives of those who have heard.

And I pray that if there's anybody in this room that has never completely and fully submitted their lives to you and said, God, I know I'm going to win in the end and I know it's going to be okay.

Use me as you please, but God, please send people around me that will give me tears and truth that I may be able to weather some of the most difficult storms of my life.

That's our prayer as a church.

In Christ's name, amen.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

If you want to know more about what it's like to be a Christ follower, I want to encourage you to go to oneandall.church.com to get more information, as well as to reach out to us to walk alongside you in this step.

I also want to encourage you to download our One and All app as we have so many resources there for you, like...

our daily devotionals, our conversations, podcasts, as well as the sermons, and to know what is happening here at our church so you can get plugged in.

We hope you have a great rest of your week, and we'll end as we always do with one hope, one life in Christ.