From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Lazarus died. Jesus comes to the tomb. Jesus weeps at the tomb. And the people said, "This doesn't make sense. Behold how he loved Lazarus. Couldn't this man who opened the eyes of him who was blind..." Listen, you and I need to believe God's word even when it seems impossible.

Larry Nobles: This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And as we see, the story of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead is fertile ground for asking the question that comes up at some point in all of our lives, and it's this: "God, why are you allowing this to happen to me?"

And today we're continuing to find the answers to that question in part two of the lesson "When God Doesn't Make Sense." Now, maybe you've had someone die in your family, you lost your job, maybe your marriage is suffering, maybe it failed, and you've got troubles and struggles, and you're asking God why.

There's really one great answer, and we'll discover that today. Open your Bible to the Gospel of John, chapter 11, to begin the final part of the final message in Pastor Jeff's series this month, "It's All About Jesus." And it's the last time we'll be mentioning Pastor Jeff's new book, "The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning Into God's Truth." It's our gift to you to thank you for your support of any amount this month. So find out about that when you go to FromHisHeart.org. Now, let's learn what to do when God doesn't make sense.

Melinda: Several years ago, my husband and son decided to go to one of the Texas high football games that was being played in Tyler. And while at the game, he suffered a heart attack. He was in a coma for two weeks. And 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: Well, it was on a Friday afternoon in May, five years ago. My eldest daughter had come by with the kids right before we closed, and they had decided that they wanted to go to Hope, Arkansas, to eat dinner that night. 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, and there was nothing I could do to help her.

Melinda: 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 to turn the other way and become bitter.

Larry Nobles: When God doesn't make sense... Have you ever experienced that, where God doesn't make sense? Roger and Melinda both had tragedy touch down in their lives like a tornado, and it ripped everything apart. And the questions filled their hearts. "Why, God? Why didn't you come at my time of great need?"

Can you relate to their story? 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." And 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. 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.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Action number one: You cling to what you know God says to be true. 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. 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 purposely stayed two more days in Perea.

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, heartbroken because their brother's gone, saying, "What gives with this? I'm so heartsick 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 may be filled with now, as Roger's and Melinda's minds and hearts were filled with questions and doubts.

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. Now, 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. 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 high-tail it over here? 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.

Second action: You trust that God knows what he's doing. Let's look again in verse six. "When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed then two days longer in the place where he was." He did it on purpose. "Lazarus is sick, and he's really sick." Obviously really sick. It's not that, "Hey, Lazarus has a bad cold, Lord. Lazarus has a bunion, Lord. Could you come over and pray for him?" It's not that. "Hey, Lazarus is really, really, really sick." We wouldn't have come bothered you, Lord, we wouldn't have sent the servant 20-something miles if he were just coming down with a cold. No, he's really sick. And the Lord knew he was really sick. And he purposely, when he got the news, he purposely stayed two more days. He did it on purpose.

Now, see, the Lord does everything on purpose. God is not a haphazard, willy-nilly kind of God, like he doesn't know what's going on. You know one thing you're never going to hear in heaven, in the throne room of heaven? You're never going to hear the word "oops." "Lazarus is sick? Are you serious? Man, I ought to have come there if I knew that he was that sick. You should have told me he was really, really sick." The Lord knew before he ever created Lazarus that he was going to get sick and die. He knew that. And see, everything he does is with a purpose. So whatever you're going through today, God knows. It didn't come to you until it first filtered through his fingers of love. And he knows, and he's using it in your life. There's a purpose there. You say, "Jeff, what in the world is the purpose?" I'm glad you asked that.

The Lord wants to strengthen your faith. That's the purpose. Look at verse 15 again. When Jesus said to them, "Lazarus is dead," he said this: "And I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe." Now, he said that to the disciples. You say, "Well, didn't the disciples already believe?" Yes, but they believed... think of God kind of like the ocean. And they believed up to their knees. They're kind of playing in the surf with the Lord. Now, they've been growing in their faith, and they've been getting out a little deeper and a little deeper.

Remember when Jesus calmed the storm, when he was asleep in the boat and calmed the storm? They were like, "Wow, who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey his voice?" And they're starting to get it. This is God. When he walked on the water, they finally, when he got back in the boat, they worshiped him. They said, "Of a truth, you are the Son of God." And they worshiped him, and they keep going out deeper and deeper. And now the Lord is getting ready to take them past the next sandbar. They're going to go in the deep water. They're fixing to get a master's degree in understanding and believing.

And see, that's what the Lord does. He wants to strengthen our faith. And in your life, he wants to take you deeper. Now, how does God do that? What is God's way of strengthening your faith so that you would believe? He runs you through trials. He allows difficulties to come into your life. He allows those tornadoes of trouble to touch down in your life, and that helps you grow because that makes you trust God.

And so he is going to do a great work here. Now, if we could see with spiritual eyes what we look like inside, would we see a strong man or would we see a weakling? "See my muscles, Lord." The Lord says, "What muscles? You got no muscles there. You're not trusting me. We've got to get you in the weight room. We're going to help you believe. We're going to strengthen your faith so that you can be a mighty man of God, so that you can be a warrior." The Lord knows what he's doing. Trust that God knows what he's doing.

Look what he says to Martha in verse 21. When he sees her, she comes out to him as he's coming to Bethany. Verse 21: "Martha therefore said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.'" Jesus said to her, "Your brother shall rise again." And she says, "Well, yes, Lord, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." And Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" And she said to him, "Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even he who comes into the world."

Now, she believed that Jesus was the Messiah. But she's getting ready to go to graduate school, too. She's going to believe in a whole different way. She had no concept and no idea that Jesus was going to come to the tomb and raise four-day-old dead Lazarus. She had no idea about that. We know that's for sure because when Jesus told her to roll away the stone, she didn't want to do it. She was going to grow in her faith. God, what is he doing? He's strengthening you and me. He wants to do a work in us. So when God doesn't make sense, you cling to what you know God says to be true. Second action: you trust that God knows what he's doing. And action number three: you believe his word regardless of the circumstances. We'll continue to explore this truth in just a moment.

But first, as we close out this month, we want to take one more opportunity to tell you about our special thank-you gift for your support. Here's Pastor Jeff. You are surely aware that Satan loves to make people view God through the lens of their bad circumstances instead of viewing their bad circumstances through the lens of God's goodness and grace. The devil loves to whisper that sin has no consequences, and if ever there were a time when people needed clarity, boldness, and biblical conviction, it's right now.

That's why I've written a new book called "The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning Into God's Truth." It's our gift of appreciation for your joining this effort to expose the lies of the devil. When you do that, you'll be speaking into the chaos with biblical truth, and you'll help share the Gospel with those who've been blinded to the only truth that can set them free. Our prayer is that this book strengthens your faith, sharpens your discernment, and helps you to tune out the enemy's lies and tune in to the voice of God.

Larry Nobles: To receive your copy of "The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning Into God's Truth," call 866-40-BIBLE (866-402-4253), or go to FromHisHeart.org. Now, let's return to the final message in this series, "What to Do When God Doesn't Make Sense."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Jesus comes to the tomb. Jesus weeps at the tomb. And the people said, "This doesn't make sense. Behold how he loved Lazarus. Couldn't this man who opened the eyes of him who was blind, couldn't he have intervened? Couldn't he have done something here in this situation?" You know, when Lazarus still had life in him, there was an opportunity, but but now it's over with.

Do 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. And then when Jesus stands at the tomb and says, "Roll away the stone," and Martha doesn't want to roll it away, he said, "Did I not say to you, if you believe, you'll see the glory of God? You remember the word, Martha, that I gave to you in verse four, that you were going to see the glory of God? If you believe, you'll see the glory of God."

Now, when you get that word after Lazarus is dead, you just think, "Well, I guess you missed that one, Lord, because he's dead." That's a hollow word. That's a pretty hollow promise when you leave the cemetery, right? Lazarus is dead. "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. Because God is at work, and God is a God who specializes in the impossible. When circumstances say no way, when your feelings say no way, you trust the word of God and the promises of God. Believe his word even when it seems impossible. Believe his word even when it seems unreasonable.

Verse 39: Jesus said to Martha, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days." "Did I not say to you, if you believe, you'll see the glory of God?" She didn't want to do it. She didn't want to remove the stone. They didn't embalm. They would just wrap the body with cloth that was in spices. But there's nothing that went into the body like we do today, and so if you've been dead four days, you start to stink. You start to decompose. And to remove the stone would be like, "Oh, really don't want to do that. That wouldn't be smart. What's the logic in that, Lord? That's unreasonable."

It's not that it's hard to do. It's that you don't want to do it because it seems unreasonable. It seems insane. It seems crazy. And have you not learned this about God? When he asks us something to do, it almost always seems unreasonable and illogical and crazy to our minds. Why? Because we don't see and declare the end from the beginning. We see life in little snapshots. We don't know what God is going to do. We can't figure out the mind of God and the power of God, and we have trouble believing the impossible. And when the Lord says to do this, we go, "Ah, that doesn't seem right. I'd rather not do that, Lord. That's just kind of dumb." "Did I not say to you, if you believe, you'll see the glory of God?"

Now, this is something really interesting about this story. The Lord purposely waited two days so by the time he got to the tomb, Lazarus would have been in the tomb four days. Now, remember this about the Jews: they would bury the day you died because they didn't embalm, and you would be a big stinker if you waited. "Well, we're going to wait three days to bury Joe." Well, nobody wants to come to that service because he's stinking up the joint, right? So they would bury that day.

And Jesus waited, purposely waited, so he got to the tomb on the fourth day. Now, the Jews believed that the spirit would hover over a person for three days trying to find access to get back in. But after the third day, the body would have decomposed to the place where they couldn't recognize the face, and so the spirit would leave. This is the fourth day. So in their mind, in the teaching of some of the rabbis, they would say, "Well, there's no way because the spirit is now gone." Jesus, if you had shown up on day one or day two, maybe even day three, maybe then we could understand in our theology how that could work. But now it's too much time.

He purposely waited. "Remove the stone. Roll away the stone. Believe God, even when it's unreasonable." When God says forgive that person who hurt you terribly, do it. Do it by God's grace, by God's power. Do it. When God says give, and you say, "I don't have, Lord, the resources to really do this," God says do it. Do it. Whatever he says to you, do it. When God says you wait on me, do it. Even if it seems unreasonable.

As I told you before, I'll tell you again: every miracle has two parts—your part and God's part. "Remove the stone." Jesus wasn't going to remove the stone. God will not do what you can do, and you cannot do what he can do. You can remove the stone, but only the Lord can say, "Lazarus, come forth." Only the Lord can do that. And he wasn't going to do it until they removed the stone. Has God been telling you to do something lately that seems impossible, that seems unreasonable?

Proverbs 3:5: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path." And then believe God's word and see his glory. Jesus said, "If you believe, you'll see the glory of God." Verse 41: "And so they removed the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, 'Father, I thank you that you heard me. And I knew that you hear me always; but because of the people standing around I said it, that they may believe that you sent me.'" That's the purpose of this miracle, so that they would know he's the resurrection and the life and that he was sent by God.

"And when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth!' And he who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go.' Many therefore of the Jews who had come to Mary and beheld what he had done, believed in him."

How could you not after you saw that? And this is so interesting. He says to Martha, "Did I not say to you, if you believe, you will see" what? "You will see Lazarus rise from the dead? You will see a miracle?" No. He says, "If you believe, you will see the glory of God." The miracle revealed his glory. It revealed that he is God, that he's good, that he can do anything in your life, that he can truly give beauty for ashes if you'll just trust him. And that's what Roger and Melinda found out as they trusted God.

Melinda: I had no idea the plan that the Lord had for me for my life, for my future. But one thing I did know for sure was that he did have a plan for me. I knew he would be faithful to me and he would see me through all the ordeal that I have been through. He would be faithful to me.

Roger: One Sunday night at church, Melinda just happened to sit down in front of me. And she started feeling the Lord impress upon her that she needed to just talk to me, to speak to me, because she could relate to what I was feeling. At the invitation time, I had gone down for prayer with Jeff. And when I came back, she could see my face and all the pain and the hurt that was on my face, and she knew then she had to talk to me. I am thankful that Melinda obeyed the Lord that night and, having not met me before, to come and to share with me how God had been faithful to her and seeing her through the difficult time of readjustment of the loss of her husband of 28 years.

Melinda: Well, several weeks passed, and he did call me. And he said he had some questions for me that he wanted to see if I could help him with a few things. And so I agreed, and we met for lunch.

Roger: Little did we know that God was building a relationship from that time. We did have lunch, and we talked over the grieving process and how we'd get through life now. And little did we know that God was working something in our hearts that would be the next phase of our life. And we subsequently got married in April of 2007, and we've just been so blessed ever since. And we can honestly say that God has met every need in our lives—physically, emotionally, spiritually—and he continues to do so this day. We love him, we know he loves us, and he will take care of you. You can trust him, for he is faithful.

Larry Nobles: Maybe you're anticipating the day when you can look back on the fact that God has met your physical, emotional, and spiritual needs through whatever crisis or difficulty that's been going on. Remember to cling to what you know God says is true, trust him totally, and believe his word for future provision and comfort, even a miracle, regardless of the circumstances.

What a powerful message on From His Heart today called "When God Doesn't Make Sense." You heard part two today. It's part of a series called "It's All About Jesus," eight messages that are available online at FromHisHeart.org. Also, Pastor Jeff's new book, "The Devil's Newsroom," our gift to you for your support this month of any amount. Go to FromHisHeart.org for details.

Thank you for being here today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, and we trust that you'll be here next time when Pastor Jeff Schreve will begin a new month and a new series about God and money. Join Pastor Jeff Schreve next time as he speaks truth, love, and hope to a lost and a hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at FromHisHeart.org.