Death to Life – John 11

 

Ever had something feel too far gone?

• Relationship

• Marriage

• A child

• Your own habits

Not just broken… dead

 

If God loves me… why is this happening?

God loves Lazarus
Lazarus is sick

God’s love does not mean the absence of pain

 

Why does God allow pain?

• Test from God → reveals trust

• Your sin → consequences are real

• Others’ sin → not your fault, still redeemable

• Fallen world → things are broken

 

God is at work in all things
(Romans 8:28)

 

God’s love does not always look like we expect

Jesus loved them… so He stayed

When God feels late:

• Don’t measure His love by your situation

• Measure it by the cross

 

Jesus is the resurrection and the life
Not just what He does… who He is

Do you believe this?

 

Jesus meets people in their pain

Martha → truth
Mary → tears

 

Jesus wept

He is present in your pain

 

Jesus moves toward the tomb

Take away the stone
Lazarus, come out
Unbind him and let him go

 

You can be alive… and still living like you’re dead

• Saved… but stuck

• Forgiven… but carrying shame

• Free… but thinking like a slave

 

Those grave clothes represent your old life

• Old sin

• Old habits

• Old identity

• Old labels

They don’t fit you anymore

 

The biggest thing about you is not what you’ve done…
it’s what He has done for you

 

You don’t take them off alone

You need people
You need the church

Isolation keeps you stuck

 

If Jesus has called you out of the grave…
why are you still wearing what belongs in it?

 

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