Today we started a new series called, “Finish Strong.” Our word as a church at the beginning of the year was, “STRONGER!” Even though this year hasn’t been what anyone expected, we still need to FINISH STRONG! Our Chief of Staff, Pastor Brie Davis taught us that God uses EVERYTHING for good in our lives. There are gifts in the trauma, pain, loss and frustration you are feeling right now. If you need to be encouraged by the loss you have faced previously or the pain you are currently facing, check out this message.
well good morning transformation
church yes we are so excited that you
have joined us
today my name is bree and i have the
honor and privilege of serving
as a chief of staff here at tc and uh
i am as you know pastor mike and natalie
are on sabbatical right now they’re
arresting
and rejuvenating and hearing vision even
for 2021
right now what we want to do before i
even jump into anything
is we want to thank those of you that
have stayed plugged in during this time
of sabbatical
that we know that it’s a sign of a
mature believer
for you to eat food from any chef that
gives it to you as long as it’s coming
from the lord
and today i have a word for you
i’m so excited about what god is doing
here at tc and in our lives and
the beautiful thing is we know that
every single year just like that video
just showed you every single year we
have a word from god
and we believe that this year the word
from god was stronger
now i don’t know about y’all but 2020
has been a hater
and it doesn’t necessarily feel
like we’ve gotten stronger this year
with a myriad of things that we have
experienced
but what we know is that god stands on
his
promises if this is a year that he
promised that we would get stronger
than this year we’re getting stronger
and so what we want to do
is over the next couple weeks we just
want to do a mini series
called finish strong and the idea behind
this is that we
are realigning and refocusing in on what
god said at the beginning of this year
because we believe it’s not how you
begin a thing is how you end the thing
that determines whether or not you were
strengthened
and so this year no matter what has come
no matter what has went
we are declaring that this is still our
year
to get stronger so go ahead and say
finish strong
i’m going to finish strong put that in
the comments in the chat right now
we believe that this year no matter what
has
happened we are still going to finish
strong now as we were talking about this
mini-series and what we’re going to
do in here i was thinking about what i
feel like has
made me strong strong in my relationship
with god
strong in my faith strong in my identity
in christ
and the crazy thing is the first thing
that popped in my mind
was loss that in my life and in my story
and many of you can attest to this as
well
the thing that has strengthened me the
most
is how i have seen the goodness of god
even
in my loss even in the things that i
feel like
failed or didn’t go well or didn’t go
the way that i thought it was going to
go
that those things made me stronger
so today i’m here for those of you
that feel like you’ve lost today i have
a word
for those of you who feel like you have
taken the l this year
maybe not even just this year you feel
like you’ve taken the l in your entire
life
maybe you feel like back from childhood
you’ve been taken else
today i’m here for you today i have a
word for those of you who feel like you
have failed
who feel like life hasn’t happened the
way that you thought it was going to
happen
for those of you that feel like you’re
brokenhearted or saddened by what life
has given you
for those of you that are having a hard
time enjoying the life that god has
given you because it looks like
it’s surrounded by loss because what i
believe
is there’s gifts in loss
that if we took on a god perspective
that we can see that there are gifts
in loss loss has something to offer us
if we’re looking for it in the way that
we should be and i know that that is my
testimony
and that’s my story that it was through
loss
that i saw the gifts that god wanted to
give me
so today very flat-footed i’m going to
say what my title
is today today the title of the sermon
is
i’m glad i lost
i’m glad i lost let’s pray lord we thank
you so much
for what you are doing in this place
today god we thank you god that
at the beginning of this year even with
you knowing in your sovereignty
what was going to happen this year that
you still declared
strength over us that we would get
stronger
this year god and so i thank you so much
that that’s what’s happening in us today
that god we are getting stronger and
that we
will finish strong no matter what has
come no matter what has went lord god
we will finish strong we thank you for
that
in the name of jesus we pray amen amen
well let’s be honest okay as humans
we’re just
typically sore losers okay no one
enjoys losing no one enjoys taking
ale i mean from from a serious very
serious devastating situation to uno
we don’t want to lose no one wants to
lose i know even for myself
all of salvation goes out the front door
when i lose a taboo
i just i don’t even know what happens
it’s like jesus never went to the cross
for me
i just everything goes out the window
and i don’t know what comes over me
because the truth is
we’re really all sore losers i remember
back in childhood okay so number one i
wasn’t athletic growing up okay that
just wasn’t my thing
sports was not my thing i like to read
and i stand firm on that i’m okay with
that
um but there was a game that i was a
champion at
and that game was tetherball
tetherball now if you don’t know what
channel volley is let me explain to you
what tetherball is okay
tetherball is a metal pole in the ground
has a string on top and at the end of
that string there’s a ball and you hit
that ball you’re trying to get that ball
to go in the direction in which you’re
hitting
and not the direction in which your
opponent is hitting it so
god blessed me with extra long ligaments
and so
my arm usually went over to the
opponent’s side
and i always won the game well my
parents knew that i loved tetherball
bless their hearts
and from somewhere probably a garage
sale because that’s where my mom shop
normally they found a tetherball and
brought it and put it in our backyard
i kid you not now this doesn’t make
sense normally you put you know
basketball or something like that
no no my parents put a tetherball in our
backyard okay
so we would have kids lined around our
house
to come play tetherball like it was a
very normal thing
and one day i was playing but the thing
is and i really do that’s the shirt
the dirt off my shoulders i was a
champion okay
and so one day we were playing and the
champ me was playing against a younger
guy
and he was upset because i was really i
mean i was really beating him i was
doing great
and at the end of the game i walked away
with my victory title and my imaginary
trophy that no one gave me but in my
mind i had
i walked away from that game and he was
such a sore
loser that he literally ran after me
jumped on my back and convinced to beat
me up
now i was gonna tell the ball but i
wasn’t a fighter
and uh the brother was probably four
years younger than me and
four inches as well and well all i could
do was get them off me and run into the
house
to this day my brother still teases me
about that story it’s childhood wounds
but it’s neither here nor there
um so anyways the point is oftentimes
that’s how we react to loss
we because we don’t enjoy loss and
honestly because we can’t see
the gifts that loss can give us
oftentimes when we lose
we want to fight whatever it is that
made us lose
instead of asking god what do you want
to do
through this loss what are you trying to
give me see our god is a good
giver of gifts he gives us good gifts
oftentimes though the packaging is not
what we expect
oftentimes when god gives us a gift
we’re thinking that the packaging is
going to be beautiful and great and
amazing and all of this
and usually god will give us gifts
through suffering
through pain through loss through
failure
and those aren’t packages that we want
to open
but the truth is isaiah 43 says
i give you treasures hidden in darkness
that even in the darkest hour even in
the times where you feel like you have
lost it all our good god
gives us good gifts he hides
treasures in darkness whatever you feel
like is your darkest hour whatever you
feel like is the loss or the failure
that you have been through
our god hides treasures there
and so today i’m hoping that there is a
a perspective shift that you’re able to
see
that even through loss our god is giving
us a gift
and that we don’t have to be sore losers
nor do we have to fear
loss because we know that our victory
has already been won that what the enemy
meant for evil and i want to say this
directly to you watching right now
whatever the enemy meant for evil
god can use it for good
no matter what it is that you’ve been
through so i want to ask you
what have you lost what have you lost
what are the things that you felt like
you had a grasp on and now it’s gone
what about that business that
relationship
that issue at home that lord some of us
some parents have almost lost their mind
trying to
homeschool these kids right now what do
you feel like you have lost
and have you noticed that there’s gifts
in the middle
of that loss that god is with us
and that if he is with us that no matter
what it is that we feel like we have
lost
that he is going to give us a gift out
of it
so what i want to do today is i want to
share with you the story of
where i feel like i have taken i took
the biggest
l in my life and um i feel like
even as i was preparing for today and
getting ready for today
i was really just asking god how he
wants me to even tell this story because
i want to make sure
that you understand that i am glad that
i lost
i am glad that i experienced this ill
and so my husband and i we’ve been
married for five years
uh before we got married we went to
pre-marital counseling
and i’ll never forget the guy who was
counseling us he was
a pastor and so he was kind of
prophesying over us the first time that
we went to go visit him
i’ll never forget that one of the main
things that he said
is that your marriage is going to
minister to people
now immediately when he said that i was
already working at the church
and so immediately when he said that all
my life my mind went to all these lofty
ideas of how our
marriage can minister to other people
and all this glitz and glam of
all these people coming to us how did
you do your marriage we want
give us the juice give us the wisdom and
what i didn’t know
is that that ministry was going to come
through loss
that today i’m going to be able to
minister to you through our marriage
but not through the success of our
marriage through the loss
of our marriage see within the first
year of our marriage
my husband came to me and let me know
and confessed to me
that he had been unfaithful and that was
in our first
year the honeymoon phase the phase where
you’re supposed to just be still
kind of in the cloud still and all those
different things no no
it was the worst year not only of our
marriage but it was the worst year of
our
lives he came to me and let me know
that he had been unfaithful and it
crushed me
i had never experienced a loss like that
before
i never experienced betrayal or that
kind of sorrow or sadness i never
experienced that type of depression
before
and and it was something that really
tried to take
the life of god out of me and the light
of god
out of me not because i was so upset at
my husband which i was i felt absolutely
betrayed by him
but more than i felt betrayed by my
husband i felt betrayed by god
because see when i got married it wasn’t
no
willy-nilly decision i prayed about it
and i fasted about it and i went to
counseling and i saved myself for
marriage
and all those many different things that
i thought were the right things to do
to create this healthy foundation for us
to live upon
i thought we had done all of those
things and i
felt like god said yes
he said yes to us getting married
and i felt betrayed because how could
god say
yes knowing that i was going to
experience
pain like that how could a good
god a god that said he’ll never leave us
nor forsake us
a god that said he’s close to the broken
heart how could a god
that sees me and knows me and heard all
my prayers and saw my fasting and all of
that
how could he allow me say yes to not
just allow
say yes to me experiencing that
kind of pain and loss
and for somebody today you’re asking the
same question
why why would you allow me to have this
child and my child have disabilities
why would you allow me to get married to
this person
and we end up in divorce why would you
allow this
and that pain come why would you allow
this and that suffering come why would
you say yes to the business plan god
if you knew it was going to fail why
would you say yes to the dream
if you knew it wasn’t going to work and
that was my question to god
why why would you say yes
to this knowing that i was going to
experience this pain
what i know is as i have walked
this question out and honestly this
journey out
is that what the enemy meant for evil
god meant for good that what i would
have
at that time consider my greatest loss
created the greatest victory i would
have ever
i would have never experienced it had i
not
experienced that loss that god
did a deepening in me that he created
wells of living water in me
because of that loss because i was so
desperate because i needed god so bad
he did a deep work in me that i thought
my roots ran deep but it wasn’t until
that loss happened that i noticed oh
i can go a little deeper and today i
want you to know
that god allowed it he said yes
but he has a purpose behind it he has a
plan behind it he has not forgotten you
and he has not forsaken you and he sees
you and he hears you
and he heard your prayers and matter of
fact he collects your tears
or god sees you he knows you he loves
you
and he has good plans for you
i’m glad i lost because of the gifts
that were given to me
i want to look at a story in the bible
today in john 11.
it’s about a family that experienced
loss and i want to give you some points
today
on the gifts that we receive through
loss and devastation
that oftentimes we only have a 1d view
of loss in our lives but the truth is
there is deeper wells and deeper gifts
and treasures that god wants to give us
so let’s go to john
11 and we’re looking at today the story
of
lazarus now because you probably have
already read this story
you know that lazarus died and jesus
raised him from the grave but i don’t
want you to think about it
with the end in mind i want you to walk
through this journey
as if you were mary or martha or anybody
else that was around
watching lazarus get sick die and jesus
wait to come heal him and then raise him
from the grave okay
the myriad of emotions that are found in
this story is one that god shows us that
there’s gifts and loss
so let’s look at john 11 and we’re going
to start at one through three row kind
of go through this story
bit by bit verse 1 says
a man named lazarus was sick he lived in
bethany with his sisters mary and martha
this is the mary who later poured the
expensive perfume
on the lord’s feet and wiped them with
her hair
her brother lazarus was sick so the two
sisters
sent a message to jesus telling him lord
your dear friend is sick
point number one the gift of devastation
is dependence now i know you may think
to yourself
how is dependence a gift
because in our society we have been
taught that the more that you mature
the more you grow up and the more you
become an adult the more independent you
should be
that our parents i mean their job is to
raise us as children
so that we can go off one day and become
more independent it’s the goal
is that your parents don’t have to be as
intricately involved in your life as
they were when you were a child
that is a sign of maturity in our world
well the kingdom of god is very
different
a sign of maturity and the kingdom of
god is not
independence but dependence that the
more i try
to get away from god or independent of
god the more mature
i am the more immature i am but the more
that i
recognize my need for god the more i am
dependent on him
the more mature i am because you see
it’s not until you experience some type
of devastation
that you really recognize how much you
need god
see the good times don’t necessarily
teach us that oftentimes the good times
have taught us
that we got here on our own we did this
by ourselves
but the truth is it’s not until
devastation
where you do not know how to make this
may make sense anymore you don’t know
what to do what solution to follow
that is in that time that we recognize
our need for god mary and martha
called on jesus when lazarus got sick
in other words if lazarus had not gotten
sick
mary and martha wouldn’t experience the
presence of god
in their life because they wouldn’t have
needed them see
what devastation does is it reminds us
of our need for god
there therefore it makes us aware of the
presence of god and that we get to
experience the presence of jesus
because of the devastation
i think about my story uh with my me and
my husband
and the truth is that even though this
is four years later from when we
experienced that
there are still major triggers for me
there are certain
words or names or thoughts or
memories or whatever the case may be
that bring up triggers
and they bring up sadness or anger or
whatever the case may be and
honestly the other day i had one of
these trigger nights
and i was sitting in my bedroom and i
was crying
and just so emotional just thinking
about how
there’s still areas that we still need
god to heal us in
and i was like god when
am i going to be over this
when am i going to be healed from this i
don’t want to deal with this anymore
but what the holy spirit reminded me of
in that moment
is that if i didn’t have that moment of
trigger that moment where
where a emotion arise i would have never
called out to god
and i would have never experienced his
presence in that moment
the more i call out to him the more i’m
aware of his presence that’s already
around me
and so what i what happens is when i get
into those moments of grief
or those moments of sorrow those moments
of anger whatever the case may be
i know i can’t fix it on my own because
if i could have healed myself i would
have healed myself by now
i wouldn’t deal with it anymore but what
it is is those are reminders
of our need for the presence of god
so don’t be mad at devastation because
all it does is mature you
it matures you as a believer for you to
know that you cannot do this life
on your own here’s the truth the truth
is we’re all going to experience loss in
some kind of way
we might as well find out what the gifts
are that it has to give us
we might as well lean into the
dependence
and the sad truth the sad reality is
i don’t want to need god all the time
you know why because if i need god all
the time i have to admit my weaknesses
i have to admit the gaps that i have i
have to admit the things that i don’t
know how to solve on my own
my own ego doesn’t want to have to need
god
but i do and you do
and devastation reminds us of that
mary and martha were reminded of their
need for jesus
when lazarus got sick when he fell
ill they were reminded that they
need jesus and they called out to him
and said
your friend is sick now let’s keep
moving on in the story here
verse number four it says when jesus
heard
about it he said lazarus sickness will
not end in death
no it happened for the glory of god
so that the son of god will receive
glory from this
point number two the gift of grief
is glory now
we throw this word glory around all the
time in church okay
but i want to kind of explain what glory
is and let me say
before i do that it is difficult to
describe glory glory is not like
describing
a chair and it has just physical
attributes that you can share with
no no glory is more like trying to
describe the word beauty
it has a myriad of of definitions and
reasons behind it
but the glory of god simply put it as
best as i can define it
is the manifestation of god’s holiness
it is the going public of god’s
holiness and by holiness i mean his
completeness
and his fullness and his perfection
and oftentimes grief
is what helps us see the perfection of
who
god is see it wasn’t until
my grief that i was able to see that
although god stood
outside of time he was also close to the
brokenhearted
it wasn’t until my grief that i realized
that god could be
joy in the midst of sorrow
that god could take ashes and create
beauty
out of them it wasn’t until that grief
that i was able to see
the glory of who god is that he is a
lion and that he defends and fights on
my behalf but he is also the lamb he is
my comforter and my peace
that our god is both in that our god is
flu
is full and complete and perfect it
wasn’t until grief
that i was able to see that see they
knew
jesus as a healer but they didn’t know
jesus as a resurrector
and it wasn’t until lazarus died that
jesus was able to show
the fullness of his glory that everybody
knew
they called on him when lazarus got sick
but that’s what god said they’re like
jesus come
hurry up obviously he was sick enough
that the doctors couldn’t heal him
the medicine couldn’t heal him that they
didn’t have any other solutions
so they called on jesus because jesus
had healed people they knew he could do
that
but they had never seen jesus resurrect
somebody from the dead
they had never seen jesus as a
resurrector and because of that
because of their grief jesus was able to
show up and go public full of
glory that they were able to see him in
a perfected way
that they were able to see him in all
his fullness and completeness of who he
is our god
is there for the good days and the bad
days
he is our defender and our champion and
yet he is our comforter
our god is both and and
oftentimes it’s not until we experience
grief
devastation loss suffering that we’re
able to see him for
fully who he is
jesus wanted to show his glory
to those people and he did it through a
loss
so we can see that glory is something
that oftentimes
we don’t get to tap into until we
experience something
where god needs to show us fully who he
is
let’s move on to the next verse here
john 11 5-6 it says although
jesus loved martha mary and lazarus
he stayed where he was for the next
two days
okay point number three the gift
of frustration is fruit now i want you
to think about this
when they sent the message to jesus they
said
your dear friend is sick
when they sent the message they were
clear on something this wasn’t just some
random guy that jesus had bumped into at
the grocery store one day
lazarus was jesus’s friend they had an
intimate relationship so when they
called and they said jesus hey
lazarus is sick we need you to come they
expected
an immediate response they expected that
because of the relationship
that jesus would immediately turn and go
and heal lazarus and i’m not gonna lie
that’s what i expected
i expected when that pain and that
sorrow hit me like a ton of bricks
that god was gonna immediately turn the
situation around
but the truth is love will make
you wait
[Applause]
it said that although jesus
loved them he stayed for two
days why in the world why in the world
would they include in there that
although jesus loved him
because god wants us to redefine what
love is
it’s not until we go through frustration
that we’re able to see the
fruit developed in us it’s not until
you’re
surrounded by the opposite that you’re
able to see really what’s inside of
you you cannot say that you have love
until you’re surrounded by hate until
you’re surrounded by people that don’t
like you
then you know if you really love well or
not it’s not until you’re surrounded by
chaos and torment that you’re able to
see whether or not you really have the
peace of god
it’s not until you’re surrounded by
sorrow and sadness
until you know if you have real joy not
a joy that just comes because your life
is easy and perfect
a joy that stable even during the midst
of sorrow
you do not know if you have self-control
until those temptations begin to tempt
you
then you know if you got self-control or
not because self-control is not oh
nothing tempts me
it’s i want it and i want it really bad
but i’m not gonna grab for it
that is self-control we don’t know
the fruit that god has put us put in
us and developed in us until
something frustrates it until something
backs up against it and asks is it
really real
do you really know how to love do you
really have peace do you really have joy
i can’t imagine how mary and martha felt
his friend was dying he wasn’t just
a little bit sick he was major sick
they sent for jesus sent a message to
him
and jesus waited
now no i was gonna be honest
if i was married martha i might or might
not
have been cussing out jesus in my head i
don’t know i don’t know
but the messenger now you remind let me
remind you of this
someone went to give jesus the message
that messenger
had to go back to mary and martha and
say
what jesus said once he came back he had
to tell them
they thought as soon as they saw the
messenger jesus was going to be right
behind him
that wasn’t the case what do you do
when the god that you trusted and you
believed in you called out for help
waits what
do you do in those moments
you have to know that waiting isn’t
wasted that if you are in a waiting
season
much like i was if you were in a waiting
season for god to produce some
life out of the loss that you have
experienced that there’s something
being developed in you right now there’s
character being built in you
there’s fruits that being developed in
you right now
there’s something growing and maturing
in you right now
during your season of waiting
jesus made them wait
but for a good reason he knew what was
going to happen next
see we want him to come immediately
because we don’t know
we don’t know what’s going to happen
next and so i need to hurry up quick
rescue right now
because i have no idea what’s going to
happen next but god
does it’s in these moments where we have
to trust
in the sovereignty of god the
sovereignty meaning that he is
all knowing he knows the end before the
beginning
our god is sovereign and we must trust
in that sovereignty
in these unknown times while we’re
waiting
on him so so jesus made them wait
and i just can’t even imagine how they
felt about this but we’re going to
skip down to verse 11. he got there and
and
uh basically well before he got there
the disciples were trying to stop him
jesus should we go there should we not
whatever the case would be we want to
get that part go down to verse 11. okay
it says then he said this is jesus
talking to his disciples he says
our friend lazarus has fallen asleep and
now i will
go and wake him up the disciples said
lord if he’s sleeping he will soon get
better
they thought jesus meant lazarus was
simply sleeping
but jesus meant lazarus had died
so he told them plainly and i just can’t
imagine jesus having a slight attitude
while he was talking to them too
he told them plainly lazarus is
dead and for your sakes i’m glad i
wasn’t there
for now you will really believe
come let’s go see him this messed me up
he’s talking to his disciples okay
let me remind you these are people that
eat with jesus
sleep with jesus walked with jesus talk
with jesus
they were around jesus all the time
they saw miracles signs and wonders they
heard the parables that jesus taught
they heard jesus they saw him do all
these different things that
that only jesus could do and yet he
said to them i’m glad this happened
because now you’ll
really believe how can you be around
jesus and not really believe
because the truth is believing that god
exists
is not the same thing as trusting in the
god that does exist
just because you believe that he’s real
doesn’t mean that to actually trust him
and i did not know that until my loss
many years in a relationship with god
and when that happened i realized i
don’t
actually trust you
my faith was built on a lack of
affliction
my faith was built on the absence of
suffering
my faith was built on our god is good
because my life is good
that’s what my faith was built on it
wasn’t until
loss happened until i got desperate
until failure happened that i realized i
don’t actually trust the god i think i
believe in
it it’s when it puts it face to face
when you’re
face to face with loss you have to
decide
do i actually trust the god i believe in
because what loss teaches us is that
control
is always an illusion you’re never as
in control as you think you are when
loss happens
and it goes against what you thought was
going to happen it’s not until that loss
happens that you realize
oh i’m not actually in control here
so point number four is the gift of
trauma
is trust that oftentimes
is not until trauma happens in our life
that we realize
oh man i need to trust him more
i don’t trust as well as i thought it’s
not until
trauma hits not so your front door
that you have to come face to face with
the reality of if
you trust god or not
i believe that even as jesus was in the
garden of gethsemane he was uh
they were coming to get him and take him
uh to go be crucified
the first thing that peter did when the
soldiers came to get him was cut off
somebody’s ear
and he’s like what are you doing you’re
not gonna take my savior and jesus
jesus said to peter he says shall i not
drink from this cup of suffering
that the lord has given me that even in
the midst of
trauma even in the midst of suffering
even in the midst of loss jesus still
trusted god he knew that god
was still in control
i know what it feels like in loss
it feels like the loss is in control
it feels like the trauma is in control
feels like the devastation is in control
but see when we fix our eyes on jesus we
realize
that we have already gotten the victory
we realized that even though that thing
seems like it is surrounding
us that our god is surrounding it
that no matter what it is that you are
going through right now
that even though it feels like that
trouble that trauma that loss is in
control
of your life it is not our god is bigger
and stronger and greater and he is the
one
that is in control it’s not us so jesus
said to his disciples
even though y’all been around me all
this time
it’s not until this happens that you’re
going to really believe
in me the gift of trauma
is trust let’s keep going in the in the
scriptures here we’re going to jump down
to verse 33. jesus has gotten there he
see mary and martha all those different
things
and uh we get to the point where jesus
is about to go
see lazarus and in verse
33 through 35 it says when jesus saw her
weeping
and saw the other people wailing with
her talking about mary here
a deep anger welled up within him
and he was deeply troubled where have
you put him
he asked them they told him lord come
and see and this is a scripture that
mostly everybody remembers
then jesus wept
now i have heard this story
a lot of times i want to say thousands
of times but i’m very literal so i want
to say a lot of times
i’ve heard this story a lot of times and
i have heard
the scripture jesus wept in my little
bible bowl scholarship
class in uh at church we ought to
remember the short of scripture jesus
swept was the easiest one i always got
that point okay
so jesus wept is the shortest scripture
in the bible but
what was jesus weeping about
the scriptures prior to this it says
that
jesus was angry and then it goes down to
35 and it says
then jesus wept
i had an idea of what this scripture
meant
but i want to ask you a question could
jesus have been crying because
he had to separate lazarus from heaven
could jesus had been crying
because the people that were in pain
couldn’t see
the game they couldn’t see
that although he was no longer with them
he was now in heaven where there was no
weeping
no mourning no sickness no crying
no loss only gain the presence of god
could he have been crying
because the people couldn’t see that
there was
gain in the pain
i believe that jesus
wanted a perspective change
point number five the gift of pain
is perspective that i don’t care
what pain you are going through in your
life there is a game
there is something that you can gain
from the pain that you are experiencing
right now
could jesus have been angry because
their eyes were blinded from the game
that they couldn’t see that even though
it was a loss to them
it was a game to lazarus and ultimately
a game for them
could it be that jesus wants us to have
a different perspective of our pain
and experiencing loss has helped me to
see
that the perspective is i am more than a
conqueror
you know what that means a regular
conqueror
just defeats their enemy and and that’s
the victory you defeated your enemy but
the truth is
we are more than conquerors that means
that not only have we defeated
the enemy that enemy is now serving us
and let me say this my pain
served me it deepened me
it grew me it matured me it made me have
a different definition of god
and his love and his goodness it made me
search the scriptures
it made me pray more it made me fast it
made me really go
into my relationship with god it taught
me how to love it taught me how to
forgive
it taught me what compassion is it
taught me what empathy is
god gives gifts in pain
but we have to change our perspective we
have to see how the pain
is serving us how the pain has
gifts that it’s giving us see i would
have never
known what it felt like to be forgiven
by god
if i didn’t have to forgive somebody
else
i would have never known what it felt
like to empathize with someone else’s
pain
someone even that has hurt you their
pain
until i went through my loss
i wouldn’t have known what it was like
to be on my last leg and god come in
sweep through
and pick me up every single day and put
me in the next
that my vision was so foggy y’all i was
so depressed at the time
i literally have no idea how i made it
from day to day
there was a gift in the pain
i got to see who god really was i got to
see
how infinite he was and how powerful he
was
and how he could take something that
looks impossible and create beauty out
of
it there is a gain in the pain it
served me
i wouldn’t wish the pain on my worst
enemy honestly
but that was before i realized that
there’s a gain in it
that there is a gift in the pain if i
change my
perspective jesus goes on
after he weeps he goes on
and he’s talking to the people and
we go down here to verse 38 it says he’s
still
angry when he gets to the tomb
a cave that a stone was rolled against
the entrance he said roll the stone away
jesus told them
but martha the dead man’s sister
protested lord
he’s been dead for four days the smell
will be terrible
jesus responded didn’t i tell you you
would see god’s glory if you believe
so they rolled the stone aside then
jesus looked up to heaven and said
father
thank you for hearing me you always hear
me but i say it out loud for the sake of
all these people standing here
so that they will believe that you sent
me then jesus
shouted lazarus come out and the dead
man came out
and his hands and feet bound and grave
closed his face
wrapped in a head cloth jesus told them
unwrap him
and let him go point number six
the gift of loss is life
i wanna i wanna give you some very
practical things here
i believe that i have experienced
through lost
a new life in christ a brand new life a
brand new
view on things and a view of god and
even a view of myself
because of loss but i want to give you
some practical steps
on how we experience that life
after loss if we look at this scripture
jesus went to them he said roll the
stone aside but
martha protested she said jesus
he’s been dead for four days it’s gonna
smell terrible
what we have to do to experience life
after loss is number one we have to be
vulnerable
martha didn’t want jesus to roll the
stone away because
he said it stinks and oftentimes because
we won’t be vulnerable we won’t be
vulnerable because we know it stinks it
don’t smell good it don’t look good
i don’t really want you to know my pain
or weakness because it’s not something
that
is something i can put on the stage and
shine in front of people but
vulnerability
opens us up to healing god cannot bless
who we pretend to be
he wants to bless where we really are so
we have to
open ourselves up and be vulnerable and
say god
right here where the snail is coming
from
that’s why i need you where the stink is
coming from god right there
that’s where i need you we have to be
vulnerable
and jesus looked back at martha after
she tried to protest
and he said didn’t i tell you you will
see god’s glory if you believe
the second thing we have to do is we
have to be
in the word of god we have to remind
ourselves of god’s word i am not kidding
to you
there was a point where me and my
husband were separated and i had sticky
notes with scripture
all around my house every single corner
that i
turned in my house i had a sticky note
of god’s word on that wall
why because i had to remind myself
i had to remind myself jesus said to
martha didn’t i already tell you
remind yourself of what i said to you
and we do that through the word
of god let me tell you you don’t
experience life after loss without the
word of god
we need that truth to defeat all the
lies that
lost has told us we need that truth to
fight
on our behalf the third thing
after he says to martha he says didn’t i
already tell you then he looks up to
heaven
and prays you have to have a prayer life
we have to have a prayer life what we
get in prayer
is that we are able to talk to god and
commune with him as we would with an old
friend
we’re able to tell god what we need
we’re able to to to give god what it is
that we desire from him prayer is so
important for us to experience
life after loss after that
he spoke directly to lazarus and he said
lazarus come out you
have to declare declaration
is so important it’s more important it’s
important for us to get the scripture
and get word and to
to digest that but it’s even more
important for us to say it
out loud it says that faith come by
hearing and hearing by the word of god
we must say out loud what it is that god
said over us
jesus declared over lazarus come out
and there are some situations in your
life right now that you are experiencing
loss you’re experiencing failure your
experience is suffering right now and
all you got to do is say over that
come out lost you do not have the
victory over me
our god is our victory and you can
declare
over that thing just as jesus did
and this last thing i love it so much
for us to experience
life after loss we need
community i never i i didn’t realize
this when i read the scripture before
but jesus the last scripture here 43 44
it says the dead man came out but his
hands
and feet were bound in grave clothes and
his face was wrapped with a head cloth
jesus told them
unwrap him and let him go
in other words jesus is the only one
with resurrection power
but god puts the power of healing within
our community
that although you may be alive in christ
you may not really be
living the life abundantly you know why
because we have to get a community
where somebody can say hold on girl let
me untie that real quick
i see you still you’re still bound by
that a little bit let me unwrap that for
you
i see that’s a issue still let me unwrap
that for community helps to unwrap us so
that we can live in the freedom
in which god has called us to live
we can experience life after loss
i believe that i
honestly i i don’t even know where i
would be without god right now
coming and being close to me in a time
of loss
i’m so grateful for that i’m so grateful
for that experience
it has deepened and widened my
relationship with god
it has deepened and widened my identity
in him
and my prayer is that that same thing
happens to you
what jesus was doing in this story of
lazarus
is he was foreshadowing what was going
to happen with him
jesus this is the first time where jesus
actually raised
someone from the dead and what he was
doing was
showing everyone what he was going to do
with himself
in the time to come our god
has experienced sorrow he has
experienced loss
you don’t think our god experienced
frustration when his own friends
betrayed him
you don’t think our god experienced
devastation from the physical abuse that
he went through before he went on that
cross
you don’t think our god experienced
trauma physically and emotionally
from people turning their backs on him
when he needed them the most
we don’t have a savior that can’t
empathize with us
he’s experienced it all he knows what
it’s like
to suffer through loss he knows what
it’s like
to feel like and make it look like in
front of everybody else like it’s a
failure
but what our god did is he defeated
death hell and the grave on our behalf
and in first corinthians it says death
where is your sting you know why
because jesus took the sting out of loss
because
through christ jesus we
get to experience the new life we get to
experience his resurrection power
even in the midst of loss
today i don’t know what it is that you
have lost
that could be a family member we’re
going to cover 19 right now you could
have lost a loved one
you could have lost your job you could
have lost
relationships i don’t know what it is
that you have experienced as a loss
but i want you to know you may have
known god as a healer
today i want you to know him as a
resurrector as a god
who that who can bring life out
of loss that when it seems like all
hope is gone and nowhere to be found
that our god king of kings and lord of
lord
our god that’s close to the
brokenhearted our god who cares about
the details
of our life is right there with you
right now
and he wants to give you a new life
you’ve experienced the loss you grieved
it
you’re grieving it today
why don’t you accept life i think and i
want to say this
very clearly i feel the holy spirit is
saying to me there are people that
this loss is not a 20 20 thing you feel
like you lost from the day that you were
born
you felt like the parents that god gave
you was automatically an ill
that it automatically felt like a loss
you feel like the childhood
was a loss for you maybe you experienced
some type of abuse or
some type of neglect and god is saying
to you today
i have gifts for you i have a new life
for you
you have coddled the loss
for too long today why don’t you trade
him
why don’t you trade your loss for his
life
his new life in him let’s pray
god we thank you so much we thank you so
much god that you are a god
that can create beauty from ashes
that no matter what life has handed us
good bad or
ugly but god you can create good out of
it
the father god we are so grateful
for your healing power and your
resurrecting power god
that you can bring life from loss right
now i pray for every person
that feels like they’re in a season of
loss every person that feels like
they don’t know up from down right now
they don’t have a solution
they don’t have a plan god but i thank
you so much
that you have a purpose that even in the
midst of
loss you have a plan for them god
that you’re close to them that you have
gifts and treasures for them god
god just as you healed my marriage
and as you healed my identity and as you
heal my heart
you want to do that for somebody else
today
god i will forever share this story
to talk about your goodness how you have
brought in good
from what the enemy meant for evil and
today
you are doing that for someone else
we focus our attention on you we ask you
god
give us a new life show us the gifts
that have come from loss come from pain
come from suffering
help us to are things that are for
us and not against us
it’s in the name of jesus we pray amen
maybe today you’re watching and you need
to take another step
that step is to receive the gift of
salvation
from our lord and savior jesus christ i
talked about at the end there
that jesus went to the cross for us that
he died and three days later he rose
from the grave
and that is so that we could have
victory
over death hell in the grave just as he
has given us that victory today
somebody wants to receive that you want
to receive the gift of salvation
and enter into a relationship with jesus
christ if that is you today i want you
to go ahead and put
the the hand emoji in the comments right
now and i want you to repeat
this prayer after me and tc y’all know
we don’t pray alone so let’s all pray
this prayer
together say dear god thank you for
loving me
thank you for sending your son
to die for me jesus thank you for laying
down
your life
to save mine i admit i made mistakes
i pray you would save me change me
and transform me it’s in jesus name
amen amen if you made that decision
today
all of heaven is throwing a party for
you today
we are so excited for you listen this is
the best decision
that i ever made in my life was to give
my life over to jesus and accept
the free gift of salvation today
i don’t know what it is that you may be
experiencing in your life but what i
want you to know
is that one day one day
you can say i’m glad i lost
that no matter what has happened in your
life that you can see the gifts
that god has given you because of it
we love you so much transformation
church thank you so much for joining in
today
go out and live a transformed life
thank you so much for watching this
message if this has impacted you in any
way
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next week