From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Have you experienced in your life some tragedy, some kind of difficulty, some kind of huge problem that came in like a cruel intruder? And you said, "Who signed me up for this? Why did this happen? God, where are you?"

Maybe you're going through financial reversal and everything is falling apart for you financially and you're praying and you're saying, "God, where are you?" Maybe death has touched your life, your family. Maybe sickness has come in. God, where are you? Where are you? What do you do when God doesn't seem to make sense?

Larry Nobles: A wonderful question to start an insightful message. This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Today on the broadcast, we begin the last eye-opening message from Pastor Jeff's series, "It's All About Jesus."

When we go through those times in our lives where the things God allows to happen to us just don't make sense, it sometimes gets difficult to believe that he really cares. Everyone has been impacted for sure by the things that have happened over the last five or ten years in our nation alone.

But the disciples of Jesus along with Mary and Martha also faced something that didn't make sense when their good friend Lazarus died. We're going to learn from that story today how to trust deeply in the miracles found in the book of John and discover what we're to do when God doesn't make sense. That's the name of today's message.

If you miss any of this broadcast or part two for tomorrow, you can listen again online once they've aired at FromHisHeart.org. Now, though, open your Bible to John chapter 11. We're going to begin today's message a little differently. We're going to hear from a couple of members of Pastor Jeff's church, Linda and Roger, who experienced tragedy in their lives and had to decide between bitterness or faith in God.

Linda: Several years ago, my husband and son decided to go to one of the Texas High football games that was being played in Tyler. While at the game, he suffered a heart attack. He was in a coma for two weeks and we had to make the decision whether or not he would have to be taken off life support. On September the 9th of 2004, the decision was made and we took him off the life support and he went to be with the Lord.

Roger: It was on a Friday afternoon in May five years ago. My eldest daughter had come by with the kids right before we closed. They had decided that they wanted to go to Hope, Arkansas to eat dinner that night. It would be an easy ride and we could get home before dark. So we left the shop at 4:55, and at 5:15, my wife of 39 years laid dead. She had lost control of her motorcycle in a curve and that all happened right before me. There was nothing I could do to help her. What had started out as an enjoyable evening ended in tragedy. The life that I had known all the years was no longer there.

Linda: The pain was something that I can't even describe. It was like a whole part of me had left. I had died as well. A black veil seemed to have been put over my face and everything that I looked at just seemed dark and gloomy. There was no brightness left. I felt like I had to stay strong for my family and for my kids, but it obviously was a very difficult time for me and my family.

I had so many questions at that time. What could we have done to have prevented this? Why was God allowing this to happen? How was I going to make it financially? All the questions that come at you, you don't have any answers, but you keep searching and searching for those answers but they never seem to come.

Roger: I kept praying for a revelation as to why this had happened. God seemed to not answer that prayer. I could not understand why she had lost her life in that way. It was a tragic accident. We had both thought that we would at some point in life die together, but that wasn't in God's plan.

Linda: I tried very hard not to be angry with God, but I felt somewhat cheated. There were just so many plans that we'd made for the future and now all of our plans were just gone because he had passed away.

Roger: But I had a decision to make that I would either cling to the Lord and hang on to him to see me through this difficult period in life or turn the other way and become bitter.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: When God doesn't make sense. Have you ever experienced that where God doesn't make sense? Roger and Linda both had tragedy touch down in their lives like a tornado and it ripped everything apart. When that happens, questions fill our hearts. Roger and Linda both love the Lord and when that tragedy struck them, they were walking with God.

The questions filled their hearts: "Why, God? Where were you, God? Lord, why didn't you just show up? Why didn't you show off? Why didn't you come at my time of great need?" Can you relate to their story? Have you experienced in your life some tragedy, some kind of difficulty, some kind of huge problem that came in like a cruel intruder and you said, "Who signed me up for this? Why did this happen? God, where are you?"

Mary and Martha can relate to that. In the 11th chapter of John, Mary and Martha had a brother whom they loved. His name was Lazarus. Lazarus got sick and so they called for the Great Physician to come to them. But Jesus didn't come and Lazarus died. They both, when they saw Jesus when he finally did make it and Lazarus had already been buried—he'd been in the tomb for four days—they both said to Jesus, the first thing out of their mouths when they saw Jesus, they said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

And in that statement, you read into them saying, "Where were you, Jesus? Where were you? We called for you. Where were you?" Maybe you're here today and you say, "I can relate to the fact that God doesn't make sense because I'm going through a problem right now and I'm wondering where is God? I've been praying and praying and praying for a spouse and no spouse is coming and I'm saying, 'God, where are you?'"

You say that you give the desires of a man's heart, of a woman's heart. Lord, where are you? Maybe you're going through financial reversal and everything is falling apart for you financially and you're praying and you're saying, "God, where are you?" Maybe death has touched your life, your family. Maybe sickness has come in. God, where are you? Where are you? What do you do when God doesn't seem to make sense?

We're finishing our series on the gospel of John. It's entitled "It's All About Jesus." We're going to look today at the greatest of miracles that Jesus did for a man named Lazarus and for his family, his sisters, Mary and Martha. John has been sharing miracles and signs and testimonies to show that Jesus truly is the Christ, the son of the living God, that he really is God in the flesh.

He started off by saying that Jesus, John chapter two, he turned water into wine. Jesus, John chapter four, he healed a nobleman's son. Jesus, John chapter five, he raised up a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years at the Pool of Bethesda. Jesus in John chapter six, he fed the multitudes and then in that same chapter, he walked on water. And then in John chapter nine, he healed a man born blind. Never has it been said, never has it been witnessed that anyone should be healed who was born blind and Jesus did that.

And now in John chapter 11, the greatest of all miracles. If we were French, we would call it the *pièce de résistance*. It's the most magnificent of miracles and it shows that Jesus Christ is God. He's God and he can handle any and every situation. John chapter 11, I'll begin reading in verse one. "Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick." She's going to do that in John chapter 12, but John is writing this many years after that fact, so he said, "That's the Mary that this was." "The sisters, therefore, sent to him saying, 'Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.' And when Jesus heard it, he said, 'This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it.'

Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed then two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this, he said to the disciples, 'Let us go to Judea again.' The disciples were saying to him, 'Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you. Are you going there again?'"

And then look in verse 11. "This he said, and after that he said to them, 'Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go that I may awaken him out of sleep.' The disciples, therefore, said to him, 'Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.' Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he was speaking of literal sleep. Then Jesus, therefore, said to them plainly, 'Lazarus is dead.

And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there so that you may believe. But let us go to him.'" Verse 17: "So when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb four days." What do you do when God doesn't make sense? Three essential actions to take when you're going through a situation and the Lord doesn't make sense. Action number one: you cling to what you know God says to be true.

Now, here is the background. Jesus, in John chapter 10, had presented himself to the Jews. He said that "I and the father are one." And the Jews picked up stones to stone him and Jesus said, "I've done many good works. Why are you going to stone me?" He said, "We don't stone you for a good work. We stone you for this because you, being a man, claim to be God."

That's the emphasis of John's whole gospel: that Jesus Christ is God. That's why he starts off his gospel different from all the other gospels. How does he start it off? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Jesus Christ is God. "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

But the people, they didn't want to accept the fact that Jesus was God. They picked up stones to stone him. So Jesus and the disciples left Jerusalem and they traveled about 20 miles or so to the east, to the other side of the Jordan River, to the place where John the Baptist was originally baptizing in a region called Perea. And they are there off the beaten track, so to speak.

And then they get the word from the sisters. A servant came from the sisters. "Lazarus is sick, very sick. Lord, the one whom you love is very, very sick." And Jesus doesn't just jump up and run over the 20 miles to Bethany. He doesn't do that. He doesn't even speak a word like he did in John chapter four with the nobleman's son. Remember that guy said, "Lord, come and heal my son, he's very, very sick." He didn't do that.

He just gave a word that said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it." And then he purposely stayed two more days in Perea. Wow. Well, after he said, "Hey, take this message back: this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God," when the servant came back with that message—it took a day to get back—Lazarus was already dead. Lazarus died the day Jesus said verse four.

So here is Mary, here is Martha, scratching their heads, broken-hearted because their brother's gone, saying, "What gives with this? I'm so heart-sick and so heartbroken, and then we get this message. It doesn't make sense at all." And their minds were filled with questions as your mind would have been had you experienced what they experienced, what your mind may be experiencing now and maybe filled with now, as Roger's and Linda's minds and hearts were filled with questions and doubts.

It's natural to feel like that. So when you go through that, what do you do? You cling to what you know God says to be true. Well, what does he say to be true? He says that he loves you. The Lord loves you. That's something that you can cling to because God clearly says that is true. All this other stuff, when God doesn't make sense and you can't put it together, you're trying—it's like grabbing a shadow and I don't know what's real, I don't know what's not real—but you can go and cling and hold to the things that you know are true. And you know that you know that you know that you know that God says in his word that he loves you.

In the first five verses of this story, we read two times about the Lord's love for Lazarus and the Lord's love for Martha and for Mary. Verse three, when they come with the question, "Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick." Isn't it interesting they didn't say, "Lord, the one who loves you, Lazarus, who loves you so much, he is sick"? They said, "No, no, no, Lord, the one whom you love. The one whom you love is sick."

And the word for love in verse three is the Greek word *phileo*. You know the Greeks had more than one word for love. They had four words for love and this was the word *phileo*. And it means brotherly love. It means warm love, friendship kind of love, tender, affectionate kind of love. And that's how the Lord loved Lazarus.

And then in verse five, it repeats: "Now the Lord loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." And that word for love is the Greek word *agapao*. We know about *agape* love. That's the highest kind of love. Now, the Lord loved Lazarus like a friend, like a brother, but he also loved Lazarus and his sisters with the highest kind of love.

He loved them when they weren't doing good. He loved them when they were in doubt. He loved them when their minds were filled with questions. He loved them when they were angry and fighting bitterness as Roger talked about. He had a choice: he could cling to God or get bitter. And when you're fighting that bitterness, the Lord still loves you with an *agape*, highest kind of love. The Lord loves you.

Now, why does it have that in there twice, in verse three and in verse five? Why the emphasis on the love of the Lord for Lazarus and Mary and for Martha? It's because when you read verse six, you say, "Well, I don't think he loves them. He stayed two days longer in the place where he was." Well, Lord, if you really loved us and if you really cared, wouldn't you hightail it over here? Wouldn't you do something? "If you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Listen, verse six is something that doesn't make sense to us. It didn't make sense to them. But what we can cling to and hold to, what does make sense, is the fact that God says that he loves us and he proved it when Jesus died on the cross. See, here's a good little exercise for you to do. Where it says in verse five, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus," write in "and me too." "And me too." Jesus loves me too.

Galatians chapter 2 verse 20, Paul said about the Lord, "who loved me and delivered himself up for me." God loves me. Paul prayed in Ephesians chapter three, a great prayer for the Ephesian Christians, and he said that "I want you to be rooted and grounded in love, to be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge."

Did you know that it is so very critical to be rooted and grounded in love like a tree, like a fortress? Rooted like a tree, grounded like a fortress. So when the winds blow and when the rains come and when the storms hit your life and when the tornado comes into your life, you're able to stand and you're able to know that God really does love me. I don't see it right now, but I'm clinging to the fact that he does because he says that he does over and over and over again in his word. God says that he loves us, that he loves us, that he loves us.

And not only does the Lord love us, the Lord is good. Lord, you are good and your mercy endures forever. Those are the two cornerstones of life. They get you through anything and keep your heart from getting bitter at the situations that come to us in little snapshots that we don't understand when God doesn't make sense because it gives you two things to hold onto: the Lord loves me and the Lord is good.

And I don't understand all this other stuff, but I know that I know that I know that God says he loves me and that God says he's good. Look at Second Chronicles chapter 7 verse 3. This is the dedication of Solomon's Temple. And it says that "the glory of the Lord filled the house and all the sons of Israel seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground and they worshiped and gave praise to the Lord saying, 'Truly he is good, truly his lovingkindness is everlasting.'"

I remember some years ago I was reading through Chronicles and I ran across that verse and it just leaped off the page at me. And it was as if God said, "Jeff, do you see it? That's the cornerstone, the two cornerstones of life: that I'm good and that my lovingkindness is everlasting. And no matter what you go through, no matter what storm comes into your life, you know that you know that you know that I'm good and that I love you."

And I believe that any person can get through anything if you know that, if you're anchored with that truth: God is good and God loves me. Listen, the tendency that we all have is to let our "me-ology" mess up our theology. And we look at "me-ology"—what is that? It's like what's happening to me right now. "God, you say you love me, but I'm evaluating your love based on this snapshot in my life, what's going on in my life right now."

And Lord, I think "me-ology" trumps theology. I just think that what's going on with me right now, that shows that you're not good, that you don't love me. Bitter people, that's what happens to them. They let "me-ology" trump theology. You can't do that. You've got to say, "God, I don't understand and my heart's shattered and broken in a million pieces, but I know that you're good. Truly the Lord is good. Truly his lovingkindness is everlasting." What do you do when God doesn't make sense? The very first thing you do: you cling to what you know God says to be true.

Larry Nobles: As you go through difficult times in your life right now, are you allowing your "me-ology" to overshadow your theology? You've got to hold on to the fact that God loves you and that he is truly good. But there are yet two more essential actions to take when facing a confusing crisis. Make sure that you're here tomorrow for part two of "When God Doesn't Make Sense," from Pastor Jeff's eight-lesson series, "It's All About Jesus."

Thank you for being with us today and we hope the program touched your heart and the amazing grace and provision of God will fill you with joy. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to join us on Friday for the last message in this series, "It's All About Jesus," as we show you how important it is to believe even when God doesn't make sense. Here's a preview of what we'll learn then.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You remember the word Jesus gave Martha and Mary, John 11:4: "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it." That was the word that he gave them. "This sickness is not unto death." Well, yes it was, Lord, because he died. Listen, you and I need to believe God's word even when it seems impossible.

Larry Nobles: Join Pastor Jeff Schreve next time as he speaks truth, love, and hope to a lost and hurting world. Remember that no matter what, God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more when you go to FromHisHeart.org. Now, though, let's hear about how the Devil can fool so many people. Pastor Jeff can help you with that when you read his new book called, "The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning into God's Truth."

This exciting new offering is our gift of thanks to you for your support of any amount to From His Heart this month. It'll help focus your attention on exactly how the Devil distorts truth and how he can destroy your family and our nation if we don't pay attention. To get your copy of the book, "The Devil's Newsroom," call 866-40-BIBLE or simply go online to FromHisHeart.org.

And with this book, you'll find out how to recognize and reject deception through the power of God's word. Again, call 866-40-BIBLE or go to FromHisHeart.org. And thank you for standing with us to help share the good news to a lost and hurting world. Now let's continue today's message from Pastor Jeff's series "It's All About Jesus," the lesson, part one of "When God Doesn't Make Sense."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I believe that knowing the Lord loves you and knowing the Lord is good, those are the two cornerstones of life. They get you through anything and keep your heart from getting bitter at the situations that come to us in little snapshots that we don't understand when God doesn't make sense because it gives you two things to hold onto: the Lord loves me and the Lord is good.

And I don't understand all this other stuff, but I know that I know that I know that God says he loves me and that God says he's good. I believe that any person can get through anything if you know that, if you're anchored with that truth: God is good and God loves me.

Listen, the tendency that we all have is to let our "me-ology" mess up our theology. And we look at "me-ology"—what's happening to me right now. "God, you say you love me, but I'm evaluating your love based on this snapshot in my life, what's going on in my life right now." Lord, I just think that what's going on with me right now, that shows that you're not good, that you don't love me. Bitter people, that's what happens to them. They let "me-ology" trump theology.

You can't do that. You've got to say, "God, I don't understand and my heart's shattered and broken in a million pieces, but I know that you're good. Truly the Lord is good. Truly his lovingkindness is everlasting." What do you do when God doesn't make sense? The very first thing you do: you cling to what you know God says to be true.