Thank you for taking the time to listen to one of the recent sermons preached at Wilton Baptist Church. It is our desire as a church to strive together in building a faith, family, and future that honors and glorifies our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we can be a help to you in any way, please visit our website at wiltonbaptistchurch.com. Good morning. Good to be at Wilton Baptist Church this morning. all the way from Washington State. I don't know if you, not Washington DC, Washington State, way on the West Coast. So it's a blessing to be here. I am the military ministry coordinator for Rock of Ages Prison Ministry. And so we serve the Lord full time with military correctional facilities and with also the active duty guys that support that. And so I work with the MPs and that kind of stuff on post as well. This is our 16th year in the ministry. It's our 14th year there at Fort Lewis, Joint Base Lewis-McChord there in the Seattle, Washington area. And we also travel to the other military correctional facilities around the country, and I'll be speaking more of that this evening. Most people know about Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, and then there's a naval brig in San Diego, California in Miramar. And then the Naval Brig, Chesapeake and Naval Brig, Charleston. Those are the five main correctional systems for our correctional facilities for the military. And so we travel to those preaching the word of God to those military members that were incarcerated. I'm a veteran. And again, I'll speak more of that tonight. But we thank you so much for being here. Pastor Harness, thank you for having us. And let me just have Christie stand real quickly and sit right back down. This is my wife, Christie. And Christine, Chris, sweetheart. I've been married 25 years. Anybody who can put up with me has got to be a gracious person. So I thank the Lord for my wife and her faithfulness. I'm also blessed this morning to have one of my soldiers that I met years ago. It's probably been 11 years ago at Fort Lewis. And so Brother John Smith is here with us. Got to see him trust Christ and watch God work in his life. He lives here in the area, and he drove over to be with us. So just wave at us, Brother John. Good to have Brother John with us. And thank you so much for being here. It's really a privilege to watch, to see fruit that remains. Amen? John chapter 15. People that are still serving God and doing things when God gets a hold of them. Lord willing, we see lots of fruit that remains, and that's what it's all about. It's all about the Lord's work. I do have two beautiful daughters, and they are not available. Boys, if there's any boys in here. I don't know if there's any boys in here or not, but they're down at Pensacola Christian College. One of them's engaged and the other one has a pursuer. I don't know if I approve yet. I'm gonna meet him. That's one reason we're flying down there, brother. to find out if he makes the cut. But anyway, make sure, and my family makes, I don't look like much, but my family makes me look better. So make sure and get one of these from us. We sure need your prayers as we minister in the military correctional facilities. God really is doing impossible things with the military. I recently had a military officer come and tell me, in fact, he was the installation chaplain 06. Anybody in the military knows what that means. And he says, you know, Chaplain Lance, he says, what you're doing here is really impossible. I said, I know, but we serve an impossible God. He was a chaplain. He's the installation chaplain there. And but to be a civilian missionary chaplain, I do not get paid by the government, supported only by churches and individuals to have free access, a staff badge and keys to the prison. That's unheard of. And so God has just done great things, been there for, this is our 14th year there. And so we just thank the Lord. And, uh, but anyway, thank you for allowing us to be here. And, uh, it's just a great blessing to be here with you. We look forward to being here tonight as well. And then again for the men's meeting tomorrow. So I expect to see all you men there tomorrow night. Amen. If you don't like the preaching this morning, it'll be better tomorrow. Amen. at least that's what I can say, so make sure and get a prayer card. Take your Bibles with me this morning and look at John 11, a very, very common passage of Scripture. John 11, if you could stand for the reading of God's Word with me when you find your place. We all know Hebrews 11.6, without faith it is impossible to please Him. We are very familiar with that text. I'll give you the title here in just a moment when we read the verse, We've got to have faith. And if we want to, you know, pastor spoke of your building and faith promise, faith promise. It's God's promises, but we've got to trust him. Spoke a little bit about that this morning. And so I believe that you'll see this as well. And I'll give you the title again in testimony. I skipped all the way down to verse number 40. We're going to end up reading most of the chapter, but I won't make you stand for all that. But John chapter 11, verse number 40, Jesus is speaking to Martha, and this is what he says in verse 40. John chapter 11, verse number 40. Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. Let me read it one more time. Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou should seest the glory of God. The title for this morning is simply this, if thou wouldest believe. Join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for today. I thank you for Pastor Harness, and we thank you for Wilton Baptist Church. Lord, we thank you for just the hospitality that's already been extended to us, and thank you for the great privilege it is to stand, Lord, in the pulpit this morning. Lord, I take that Lord, very seriously, and I just ask you to speak this morning through me, that you'd put me aside. Lord, that your word would go forth with power and authority. I pray that you would use your word in the hearts of, Lord, every believer. Lord, if there's one that's not a believer, Lord, I pray that you would convict them and draw them even now. Lord, if maybe there's one that's having difficulty trusting, and oftentimes when faced with difficulties and overcoming difficult obstacles, we lose faith. Lord, sometimes the situations seem impossible, but Lord, I sure pray that we would just believe, that we would trust you today. Lord, just as we trusted you to save us, that you certainly can work in our hearts and lives and our church. Lord, as we know you can. We love you today. We thank you for your goodness and grace. Ask all these things in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you for standing. Again, if thou wouldest believe. I know that we all trust God. We say we trust God. I spoke of that this morning. It's easy to say that we trust God, and I know going to a good, independent Baptist church where the Bible's preached, that, of course, that's kind of an automatic answer, and we spoke of that this morning in Sunday school. By the way, if you don't come for Sunday school, you ought to. Amen? I believe it'll be a blessing to you. And, uh, I'm not saying that for my benefit. I won't be here next Sunday, but you ought to come. You ought to come. Let, let God speak to you. You know, I could have spoken this morning on that. If we, there's so much in the scripture, if we were just where God tells us to be, then we would see some blessings that normally we wouldn't. Maybe that's why you missed out on a blessing. Maybe that's why we get frustrated. Sometimes it's because we're not where God wants us to be. I believe God wants you to be in Sunday school. Amen. By the way, Pastor did not ask me to say that. I just think it's important. I really do. I think that we need to be there. And let God speak to us as many ways as possible, unless you're super spiritual, much more so than I. I think we need to be in Sunday school. So let God talk to you. Amen. I pray this morning that you just take a moment and ask the Lord to speak to your heart as we look at this very common passage. We all probably know the story of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and sometimes when a preacher has you turn to a text that you've heard many times, you kind of automatically just kind of tune them out and say, well, I've heard this preached before, you know, there's not going to be anything new. But I pray that the Lord will give you something this morning that will be a help and a blessing to you, especially as you are looking forward to building. What a great step of faith for a church. And as you're at this mid-year missions emphasis, it takes great faith to trust in the Lord for missions and to extend the reach of Wilton Baptist Church around the world. And I pray that you would step out on faith this morning. That being said, I want you to go all the way back to the beginning of the chapter. and where we will read most of it. I like to preach. Expository messages are my favorite anyway. I just like proper context. I just like preaching through the word. So many times there are little small things that we don't think are important. They seem insignificant, but sometimes I think there's a lot of important things there. And so just join me as we look back at John 11, verse number 1. The Bible says, Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany. The town of Mary and her sister Martha It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sister sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. I'm going to stop right there for just a minute. You know, sometimes we call on God and we expect a McDonald's drive through response, don't we? We pull up to our prayer closet, if you have one, Lord willing, or maybe it's in church or maybe whatever the time is. And we go to God and we ask, we send a message to the Lord saying, hey, Lord, I've got a need and this is what I expect you to do. And sometimes we get an answer kind of like this. Jeremiah 33 says, call upon me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things. That's not the end of the verse, though, is it? Which thou knowest not. So many times we call on the Lord and we ask Him to do seemingly impossible things sometimes, especially when you're going through a tough time or when you have a sick family member. In fact, I got a text. One of my other soldiers was supposed to be here this morning. His mom had an aneurysm this morning and so he's in the hospital. I pray for Corey and his family. Sometimes we get a call like that, and we, Lord, I don't understand, and we call on the Lord, and we know God can heal, and we know God can, we really do trust. But we only trust Him if He does what we want Him to do when we want Him to do it. You know, if we pull into that drive-thru at McDonald's and they don't have service done in 30 seconds or a minute, then we get frustrated, and we do this, we have the same kind of idea with God sometimes, and even though we know that we ought not, we still do. And we know we shouldn't have that. But Mary and Martha, here they are, they're calling to the Lord, and the Bible said very, very plainly, He whom thou lovest. We know that Jesus loves them. In fact, it reiterates that in just a moment. But in verse number four, Jesus' response says, This sickness is not unto death. This is what Jesus... I'm not trying to minimize or rearrange scripture, but Jesus was basically saying this. He's not going to die. Don't worry. He's not going to die. Don't worry about it. I mean, that's kind of the Lord's response. You're like, well, Brother Lance, that kind of seems uncaring. Come on now, doesn't that seem uncaring? You ever called on the Lord? And the response, it seems like the response is, well, Lord, I thought you cared about me. I mean, and boy, the devil will use that. He'll come up and he'll talk to you. He'll whisper in your ear. I thought, if Jesus loved you, then how come you're going through this? If you're really a Christian, then how come you're facing these things? And sometimes the devil, sometimes it's on our own flesh. So Jesus says, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. They called. Verse 5, we see that He cared. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Elizabeth. So in spite of the fact that it looks like His answer was uncaring, the Bible very, very clearly states that the Lord loves them and that He loves us. Sometimes we don't see that. Sometimes we doubt that. Maybe even this morning, even though you're here faithful on a Sunday morning at Wilton Baptist Church, maybe you're going through something at home, or maybe you're facing some kind of insurmountable task or obstacle and you see something. Maybe you're a building project. Lord, there is no way. And you call on God and it just doesn't seem to be happening the way you thought it should be. But we know, the Bible very, very clearly says, we know that He loves us and He loves them. Verse 6, "...when he had heard, therefore, that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. And then after that, he said to his disciples, let us go into Judea again." So they called. We obviously see that he cared, and we obviously know that he was conscious of what was going on. It's sometimes like, God, do you even know that I'm here? God knows more about you than you know about you. God's more than conscious of what's going on. Well, brother Lance, you know, Wait a minute. The answer seemed uncaring. And then in verse number 6, it says, not only did he say, you're not going to die. It just seems like Jesus was like, well, hey, he's not going to die. It's no big deal. In fact, I'm just going to chill out for two more days. I've had people come up and say that to me. Really? I mean, how could you say you care and then you don't go? I mean, Jesus stayed for two more days. And sometimes we allow those things cause questions and doubts in our mind. And I know nobody in here wants to say they doubt God, but I would reason with probably anyone in here that we've all doubted God at times. Maybe even you're doubting Him this morning. And I'm not trying to say that you're not saved or you're not truly a born-again individual, but we all come to those times where we doubt God and we're not trusting God the way we ought to because of circumstances rather than Christ. Verse number 8, his disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and thou goest thither again? Jesus answered, O there are not twelve hours in the day. If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. Walk in when it's daylight, you can see where you're going. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. Wait a minute, Lord. What does that have to do with going through Judea again, and they want to stone us? Listen to me. I don't know this area very well. I've only been to New York just a few times. I've never been to this area. But you know, we have today. And we can see right now. And right now you have the opportunity to go forward in missions. You have the opportunity to go forward with a building project. You have an opportunity to go forward in your faith and to watch Christ do. Remember what the title is. Are we really trusting God? Are we really believing? Because if we do, we might just see the glory of God today while it's still light. But there is coming a time. And if you watch the news any time today, you'll see it's getting dark. I believe the sun is setting. I don't know when the Lord's going to come back, but I believe the stage is set. But we have today. So the disciples, I'm not sure if they understood exactly what Christ was talking about. He says, hey, we've got right now. Let's not wait till it's dark. These things said he, and after that he saith unto them, in verse number 11, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. And then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit, Jesus spake of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest and sleep. Then Jesus said unto them plainly, in verse 14, Lazarus is dead. I've heard a lot of people preach through this, and I'm not saying that you've never heard this preached, but some people like to skip over these things, but when you're in a military correctional facility, when you're in a prison, and you've got guys that have nothing better to do than look at their Bibles, they pin you down on this kind of stuff. Wait a minute, wait a minute, Brother Lance, wait a minute. Jesus just said, just a few verses ago, this sickness is not unto death. This is a clear controversy. This is a clear contradiction of Scripture. Come on now. Clearly, Jesus said He wasn't just not unto death, but yet now He's saying very plainly just the opposite. He articulates without any question. Oh, He's dead. Can you imagine? Sometimes we set the disciples, the apostles, up on a platform, but they're men, just like we are. They're human beings, and they questioned, and they had doubts, and again, I referred to that this morning. Sometimes we get in the same kind of situation. Lord, you told me this, and this is what I'm looking at. But how many times did the Lord say, I'm speaking unto you spiritual things, but you're yet carnal. How many times did the Lord say, you don't even understand, great and mighty things which thou knowest not, in Jeremiah 33. I submit this to you that when Jesus saw Lazarus, we need to understand that God doesn't see like we do. Man is very linear, aren't we? How many of y'all have Google Calendar? How many of y'all have Pocket Outlook? Or how many of y'all have a daily planner? And you look out and we see time in a very linear pattern. But you know, here's Christ. Christ looks at the situation and He says, Here's Lazarus's birthday. This is the day when I'm going to Bethany to resurrect him. And here he is, and he's still alive with me. He sees all eternity. He knows Lazarus isn't dead. He knows that Lazarus is with him eternally. He knows this is not the end. Amen. But sometimes we only see the temporal, the physical right in front of us, and we don't see that life. We don't see that good part. It's not obvious. But to Jesus, this is not a contradiction. Jesus said, the end result, this sickness is not unto death. The end of this whole ordeal is not with Lazarus being dead. Nod your heads up and down. Jesus made it very clear. But right now, yeah. Oh, Lazarus is dead. But this sickness is not unto death. This is not the end. How many of you ever thought you started a project, or maybe at work, or maybe you're here at the church, and you start something, and you just think, man, this thing is just dying. There is no hope for this. There is no hope. There is nothing that can resurrect this. And you kind of give up hope, and you lose steam, and you just kind of don't even know where you stand anymore, and then the Lord just breathes new life into it. Maybe you get a new church member. Maybe you get a new staff member. Maybe you get a brand new believer. Maybe in the secular world, a new project, you get someone that comes in and all of a sudden what seemed impossible now is right there, obviously coming to fruition in front of you. And sometimes we see those things happen, but the disciples were obviously confused and we would have been as well. Sometimes we can look back with hindsight and we know what the end of the story is. But put yourself in the situation. Furthermore, look what he says in verse 15. I don't know about you, I like reading the text like this just because I've been there. And for the length, you don't know what the apostles were thinking. Yeah, but I'm a man just like they were. Look what Jesus says. I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there. Not only does Jesus say, this sickness is not unto death, not only does he hang out for two days, but he looks right at the apostles and says, I'm glad I wasn't there. Now, come on. Let's just be honest this morning. We're in church, right? Let's just be honest. We would all be saying, what? What do you mean you're glad that you weren't there? Lord, you said he wasn't going to die. Now he's dead. How can you be glad that you weren't there? But you've got to read the rest of it. The Bible says this. To the intent ye may what? Believe. Nevertheless, Let us go unto them. Oh, unto him. I don't know what the apostles were thinking, but I know what I'd be thinking. What do you mean? Lord, if you wanted me to believe, Lord, if you wanted me to believe, why don't you just say when you got the message from Mary and Martha about Lazarus being... God, if you wanted us to believe, come on, Jesus. Lord, if you wanted me to believe, why don't you just say, hey, he's healed. And then we get a message back saying, he's healed! Wow, I wouldn't believe! But this, I don't understand. And we get frustrated, and we get discouraged, and we shut down, and we tune out God, and we say, well, I don't understand, and I don't know what's going on. And as I said in Sunday school this morning, that's usually when we quit, when we need Him the most. I want you to look at what the response is. It's kind of humorous. And we like to pick on Brother Thomas, but the reality is this, we're all Thomases. We've all doubted God. Doubting Thomas. Can you imagine going through history doubting Thomas? Doubting Lance. Oh yeah, I'm the one. I'm the one that never has faith. I mean, come on now. Poor Brother Thomas. But look what he says. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus unto his fellow disciples, Let us go also... Hey, let us go also... Let's just all die. May as well. I mean, that's his attitude. And that's old Thomas. We like to pick on Thomas, but we've all been the same. Hey, what the heck? You know what? He's dead. We may well, hey, maybe we'll get killed too. You ever had that attitude? Come on now, y'all. Come on, nod your heads up now. You know, it's true. We've all been there before. We could just kind of give up that way. You know what, Pastor? Whatever. Whatever you want to do, you know, whatever pipe dream you got, you know, hey, what the heck? What can go... and we just have that... come on now, we have that attitude sometimes. And old Thomas, we like to pick on Thomas, but it's not just Thomas. It doesn't say that the other apostles rebuked him. Come on now. They were all right there too. Verse number 17, when Jesus came, He found that He had lain in the grave four days already. Three things this morning will be done. First thing I want you to see is this. It's not too late. I would say that we serve the God of second chances, but I think that is a very undervalued statement. How many chances has God given you? I can't tell you how many chances the Lord's given me. I don't even know. And the men that I've preached to, and young women sometimes, Sometimes they feel like it is too late, and everything's dead, their hopes and dreams, and there's nothing left to look for, and they don't even know what to do. But the Lord says it's not too late. And although it looks dead and it looks over, it looks like there's no hope. Listen, we serve a Lord that is, not that was, amen? This church ought to serve and worship a Christ that lives and actively works in your life. And the second He becomes dead, or our situation or our hope becomes dead, is our faith real? Can we truly say we trust God? It's not too late in spite of difficult days, in spite of grievous days, sad days, rotten days, bad times, hurting times. Four days. Bethany was not in Jerusalem about 15 furlongs off. That's arguably about a mile and a half or so. So it's not that far. It would have been really easy for Jesus just to go over there. He hung out for two days and said, Hey, we're going to go, but just in my time. And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. And then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary sat still in the house and then said, Martha, unto Jesus, Lord, if thou had been here, my brother had not died. Do you believe she said it like that? Come on now. Do you think Martha... Sometimes we just read through Scripture and we don't really pay any attention. Do you think Martha just went up to the Lord and said, Lord, if Thou had been here, my brother had not died? I don't. She was waiting for Him. She was watching for Him. And she saw Him coming through those doors. And she ran to Him and said, Lord, if Thou had been here, my brother had not died. The Lord said, how do you know she said it like that? Because that's how I'd say it. Come on now, be real. If you had gone through that loss, and the one that you had faith and hope and trust in, and you knew He could solve the problem, and you saw Him. You know it was full of passion, it was full of emotion, it was full of grievance. It was full of disheartening sadness and grief and not understanding. She met Jesus and was very emphatic. I just believe that because I believe that's how people are. I guarantee your pastors know that as they have gone to the hospital and seen times of grief and heartache and disappointment. That's the normal response. I'm not trying to be mean to Martha. Verse 22, But I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt and ask of God, God will give it thee. She still had faith. She still believed that it was Jesus and He's still the Christ and He's still the Messiah that promised one. Jesus said unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. And Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection of the last day. Lord, I know that. And sometimes we get, maybe when we go through a bad time or a disheartening time, and maybe the pastor or the deacon or a brother in Christ or a sister in Christ gives us some word of counsel. And so we have hope in Christ. I know that. And you know that's how she is, and she's giving him the same answers. And Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection and the life, and he that believeth in me, though he were dead yet, shall he live. I can just see her nodding her head. I know, I know, I know, I know. But then Jesus asks a question. In verse 26 he says, And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Y'all look up here, it ain't time to pray yet. She was looking directly in the eyes of God. Come on now. Can you imagine? Just the overwhelming thought of that overflows my soul. And Jesus looked at her square in the eyeball and said, Believest thou this? I'm not a mind reader, but I'm a human. This is what I believe she was thinking. Are you kidding me? He's dead! He's dead! How can you say that? Otherwise, how do you know she was thinking that? Because look at her answer. She said unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ. She didn't answer his question. Look what it says, come on now. I'm not reading things into Scripture that's right in front of you. Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into this world. Martha, you didn't answer the question. Do you know why she didn't answer the question? Remember the title of the message in verse number 40? If thou wouldest believe. You know why she wasn't getting it? She wasn't trusting. Y'all hearing me this morning? I really believe the reason that some Christians don't see the glory of God is because we really aren't trusting Him. It's easy to come to church on Sunday morning and say you believe it. I'm not trying to question your salvation. I'm not trying to question your faithfulness. I'm not trying to question your devotion to the Lord. But sometimes in the midst of difficulties, in the midst of big things, in the midst of things that just seem impossible, we just don't trust Him. I could be wrong. Maybe there's someone that does. And I'm sure, Lord willing, there are people that do. But the common response is not. That's why I shouldn't answer his question. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? I can't answer that question, Lord, because if I did, I would say what I'm thinking, which is, my brother is dead. How can you say that to me? And if you would have come when I asked you to, and when I pulled up to that McDonald's drive-thru and I said, Lord, my brother is sick, if you'd just heal him, he wouldn't be there, and I don't understand. And sometimes we get that, we get heartbroken and disheartened and discouraged and frustrated, but God's not done. Number one, it's not too late. Number two, Jesus has not lost touch. What kind of heartless, I had a guy ask me that one time, what kind of heartless God would allow people to go through such misery? We bring most of that misery. Death exists because of us. Not just heads up and down. Sin and death exist because of us. It was our decision. And the reason we have a Savior is because of that. The reason we have hope is because of Him. The reason we face all that we face is because of us. It wasn't my sin that caused this trouble, but it was probably someone else's. I have a lot of people say, well, Taplin Lynch, I can do what I want. My sin only affects me. Really? Do you know how many families and loved ones and family members I've had to counsel over the years? I guarantee your pastor has too. We think what we can do, what we want, and it doesn't matter. It does matter, and it affects everyone around us. Not just because they're related to us, and not just because they're family or they're church members, but all the people around us. I said this morning, Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Remember the other text I gave you? I can't remember the reference, but... Hebrews 12, 14. Follow peace with all men without which no man shall see the Lord. The only Jesus the Lord will see is in us, and that's if we're submitted to Him. The Lord has not lost touch. He knows exactly what's going on. And He means what He says in Jeremiah 33. I always say that's God's phone number. I tell the guys, J-E-R-333. God's phone number. Call me. I will answer you. But I'm going to show you stuff that you have no clue. So when you don't get what you want, don't think I have an answer. By the way, sometimes His answer is no. He didn't answer my prayer. No, He just told you no. But he also says, wait, now anybody who's a parent in here, I know, I know, brother, you're fond of dad. Just wait. You ever done that, brother? Just wait. My dad, he didn't even have to say anything. He was just like, and you knew, don't even ask. Hey, did you get an answer? Come on now. The only answer is we like to, oh, praise it. I got a praise preacher. God gave me exactly what I want. But that's the only time we think we got an answered prayer, but we get a lot of answered prayers, but usually it's not what we want. The Lord has not lost touch, I'll prove it. Verse 27. She saith unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe. Well, where am I at? Verse number 28. And when she had so said, she went her way. I know I'm playing with words a little bit here, but you know how we usually go when we're mad at God? We don't go His way. You know which way we go? Our way. Guess which way she went? Just a little extra. I don't charge you for that one. She went her way. This even proves it. And called Mary her sister secretly. Secretly, not in public, because she knew it wasn't true. The master is come and calleth for thee. Now, the choir just sang when the master calleth or something. I probably misquoted the title. Did you not just sing that? That's just confirmation. I had this outline in my Bible. I knew that's what God wanted and that was just confirmation. Did you hear Jesus say to Martha, hey, I want to talk to your sister? I didn't either. But come on, how many of you have siblings? Come on, let's participate. Who has siblings? All right. So you know what you do when you when you just had an encounter with your parent that didn't go too well? How often do you go to your your sibling? You're like, hey, dad wants to talk to you. How often do we do that? I didn't have any luck. Maybe he'll have luck. So Martha goes to Mary. Hey, Jesus is here. He wants to talk to you. I don't know, maybe he did. But the scripture doesn't say. But I can see that because it's very human. Verse 29, as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, verse number 30, but was in that place where Martha met him. And the Jews which were with her in her house and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out and followed her. Mary had a whole bunch of witnesses. "...saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him. She fell down at His feet, saying unto Him..." I want you to compare what Mary says in verse 32 to what Martha said in verse number 21. Did you know that the phrase is almost identical, if not identical? Did you notice that? But look what Mary says. If God had been here, my brother had not died. You say, Bro. Lance, how do you think she said it? Well, this is another extra thing. It's not in the outline, but Martha, when she saw Jesus, ran to meet him in the street, confronted him. You ever confronted God? You went out to confront him? I just believe that Mary or Martha was in his face. You ever been in God's face? I don't mean on a good, I'm not, I don't mean on a good side. I'm like, you're in God's face. You know, when you get into someone's face, how many, come on now, I used to be a police officer. When you get in someone's face, what's the context there? I just believe Martha was in his face. But wait a minute, we see something different here because Mary was not in his face. She said the same thing, she was feeling the same thing, she was going through the same trials, probably the same doubts. But where was she? Did you know that position affects a whole lot of things? The Bible says in verse 32, she fell down, say it with me, these three words, at his feet. Here's my question this morning. Again, this is one of those extra things. Are you in the Lord's face today? Are you at His feet? We're all going through the same thing. We all have the same president, in spite of what people say. We all are going through the same trials, in spite of what people say. Come on now. In spite of politics, and I'm not taking a stand either way, I'm just saying, no matter where you stand, no matter where you are, we're all going through the same thing. But it makes an absolute difference whether you're in God's face or at his feet. You say, Brother Lance, why? We know what Jesus did. We know that Lazarus gets resurrected. We know that. What difference does it make? Well, I'm fixing to show you. Mary was at his feet and said, Lord, if thou had been, my brother had not died. I believe it was heartfelt. I believe it was broken just like her sister. When Jesus, listen to this. Oh man, it touches my heart. You know, I can prove that Jesus has not lost touch. Verse 33 and 34 and 35. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. He wasn't troubled because Lazarus was dead. He wasn't troubled because of what was going on around him. He was troubled because his child was hurting. The Lord sees us when we're going through times, even when we don't understand, when we see things that we can't overcome. Did you know the Lord hurts with us? Man, what a blessing. He knows exactly what Wilton Baptist Church is going through. He knows what each and every one of you, my buddy that's got his mom in the hospital right now, I know that the Lord's right there, and that He weeps too. John 11.35, Jesus, Do you know why Jesus wept? Because of you. I don't know if that means anything to you, but you know, you say that to a man that I've met on death row, and you look him square in the eye, and you say, brother, those guys on death row, they deserve to burn in hell. Absolutely. But so do you, Jack. I'm not trying to be mean. But when the Lord looks down and sees us hurting, I tell you, here's the blessing that Mary got that Martha didn't. Can you imagine as Jesus stood over her, as she set his feet weeping, and his tears run down and hit her, the tears of Jesus overflowing her? I can't imagine that kind of compassion. Well, yeah, I can, because I've been saved, amen? That's just it. Mary got a blessing that Martha didn't get. Yes, the Lord still did what the Lord's gonna do, and I believe the Lord's gonna do great things here at Wilton Baptist Church. The question is, are you gonna get the extra blessing because you believe and because you're positionally where you need to be? Is your heart at Jesus' feet this morning? All right, maybe you're mad. My pastor's always talking about raising money and missions and building projects. We have a nice facility. We don't need all that. What's our attitude? Is our attitude what God wants, or is our attitude what we want? I'm not trying to mess with people. I'm not trying to coerce anything. I'm just asking a simple question. Last thing this morning. It's not too late. He's not lost touch. Did you know that the Lord is still the Lord? I'm still the Lord. If thou wouldest believe, he's still the Lord. The light says it's hard to believe, you know, seeing what's going on down range. That's what the military calls it down, you know, overseas. It's just hard to believe. Yeah. But if thou wouldst believe, remember verse 40, our title, if you just believe, Well, Bro. Lance already trusted Christ. I'm already saved. I already believe God. You know what? The devil believes in God, too. I get tired of those automatic answers. Well, I believe in God. Well, so does the devil. Well, yeah, but I went to church. So does the devil. I guarantee he's in there right now. We think we're impressing God. I said this to a pastor last night. I said, we think we impress God because we're in church. It doesn't impress God that you're in church. It pleases him. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad you're here. And I think the Lord's glad you're here, but it doesn't impress him anymore. And I mentioned the veterans earlier today. Sometimes we, any more than it would impress a drill sergeant or a commander or a lieutenant or your platoon sergeant that you were in formation. It doesn't impress them. You're where you're supposed to be. They're glad you're there. You have a job to do. But it doesn't impress them. You know what impresses God? Through faith in Christ. God's righteousness in you. Verse number 33, When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have you laid him? And they said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, look what was witnessed here. Behold how he loved him. They missed it. They thought he was crying over Lazarus. Did you know there's a whole world out there that misses the love of God? They don't even understand the context. Oh, you church people, man, you're all a bunch of weird people. Oh, you Baptist folks. You know, I don't even get it. Listen, they don't understand. I know that Jesus missed Lazarus, but he knew it wasn't done. And we saw that from the text earlier. Verse number 37, but the world recognized. And some of them said, could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind could have caused that even this man should not have died? Absolutely! A lot of times when someone confronts me and says, well, Chaplain Lance, couldn't God do this? Sure. He could. But are you God? Maybe he's got a reason that you don't understand. Well, but Lance, you know, you've been studying the Bible. You know, you went to Bible college. You did all this stuff. You should understand those things. I'm glad I don't understand everything because that tells me God is higher than me. My ways are higher than your ways. If I could understand everything God did, that means he's on my level, which means we're all in trouble. Come on now. I mean, it's just simple. Verse 38, And therefore Jesus, again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. And it was a cave, and a stone laid upon it. And Jesus said, Take away the stone. And Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh. Man, I'm glad the Lord takes care of stink. He hath been dead four days. Lord, this thing really stinks that I'm involved with. You know what? The Lord can handle it. Verse 40, our main text. Jesus said, "...or said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe..." I want you to, if you circle in your Bible, write in your Bible, circle that word, if. By the way, it didn't say, it's not talking about the existence of God's glory. It's not talking about the reality of what He's going to do. What it talks about, it's in relation to you. Are you getting this? If. If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus looked up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that thou hast heard me, and I knew that thou had hurtest me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. Then he had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes. Y'all ever see those flannel graph lessons? Y'all know what? They don't even do that anymore. When I was a kid, they had flannel graph, you know, a little picture Jesus put on the felt board. They don't even do that anymore. I remember when I was a kid, they showed Lazarus. Wait a minute. The Bible says he was bound hand and foot. I don't know if he levitated. I don't know if he came flying out. I don't know if he hopped. I don't know. But can you imagine the look on their faces? I wish I could have been there. Man, that would have been priceless. His face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said to them, Loose him and let him go. Look at the result. By the way, this is also the result. Here's the application this morning. It's not too late. He's not lost touch. He's still the Lord. And if this church would believe, if thou wouldst believe, here's the result. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary had seen the things of which Jesus did, believed on How is a dying world supposed to believe if we don't? I pray this church is a true lighthouse in this community. I want you to look at... I'm done. I want you to go fast forward all the way to verse number 49 through 53. One of them named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. Almost like they didn't read the Old Testament. You know they did. And he spake not of himself, but being the high priest of the year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad..." Listen to this. "...then from that day..." What day? The day that Lazarus was risen from the dead. From that day forth they took counsel together to put him to death. Listen, I'm done. Do you think Mary and Martha had any clue when they called on Jesus and said, our brother is sick, that that is when the Lord would set the platform for you and I to be saved? They just wanted their brother healed. But they didn't see like God sees. And they didn't see that that very day, that when the Lord went and rose Lazarus, that is when the Sanhedrin said, we've got to kill this guy. And that is when Calvary was set. I wonder what God has in store for this church. If thou wouldest believe. I wonder what you're going to see God do. I wonder what you're going to see the Lord if you just trust Him. Regardless of what you're going through this morning, regardless of what difficulties and hardships and pain and suffering and maybe everything's going great, but are you at His feet? Are you in His face this morning? Let's have every head bowed, every eye closed. Heavenly Father, thank You for today. Lord, I thank You for this church. I pray that You'd just meet with us in this time of invitation. Lord, if there's someone here that's never trusted You, Lord, I pray that they might. realize their need for a Savior today. Lord, we thank you for your goodness and grace. We thank you for all that you are. We ask you to do the work that only you can. Even now, we ask this in Jesus' name. Keep your heads bowed, your eyes closed. Nobody looking around. If the pianist could just play for a moment. How many of you would say this this morning? Nobody's looking around. I promise I don't embarrass people. Would there be someone that say, Brother Lance, please? Just pray for me. I'm just going through some things. I'm really having a hard time regardless of what the context. Please just pray for me. I'm just having a hard time trusting God right now. I see that hand. Just lift up your hand real quick. I promise I won't call you out. I see those hands. Anyone else? Just lift your hand up. I see that hand back there. Anyone else? I see that hand right there. Anyone else? What's keeping you in your seat? Why don't you come, as we said this morning, come to the feet of Jesus. How long will you stay in His face? I'm asking, I'm inviting you. Why don't you come and get resolution at the feet of Christ today? Get that blessing. How many of you say this? Bro Lance, I'm not upset with the Lord, but stepping out on faith is a tough thing. Just pray for me. Anybody else? I see those hands all around the room. I see those hands. Last question, is there someone this morning... I know it wasn't truly a salvation message, If you don't have a relationship with Christ whatsoever, you're not going to have any faith. There'll be someone here, say, but Lance, I don't even know. If I died today, I'm not even sure that I would go to heaven. I'm not even sure if I know Christ personally as my savior. Would you just pray for me? Is there anyone like that? I promise I won't embarrass anyone at all. I see that hand. Thank you for your honesty. Anyone else? Heavenly Father, you saw the hands. Lord, I pray as we have this invitation, Lord, that people would just respond. I don't know if they come forward normally or if they pray in their seats, but Lord, I just pray that your will would be done. Help them to respond to you accordingly. We love you. We ask this all in Jesus name. Pastor. Lord, let's kneel at his feet. That position makes a big difference. in our approach to the Lord. Some are responding, are there others? Kneel at the feet of Jesus. What burden do you have? Let's give it to God. What request? It's not the drive-through. Let's get on our feet, on our knees before the Lord. Lord, we thank you for this message and what a powerful truth we've learned about how we approach you. And Lord, let us not be in your face, but come before you with humility and a disposition of kneeling before you. There are great needs in our lives, and we pray that you would meet those according to your will, that your plan would happen. And we don't see the bigger picture, but Lord, when we get glimpses, Lord, help us to Hold on to those things that you show us. And as we hear your answer to prayer, that we would be thankful, whether that's a yes or no or a later. We do pause right now and we pray that you take these decisions and we commit them to you all for your glory. We thank you for the story of Lazarus and how you rose him from the dead. And what a miracle that happened for us one day as well. And so Lord, we rejoice in these amazing truths. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well, amen. Terrific message. Thank you for delivering that today. If you would just have a seat for just a moment, and I'd like to talk to you for just a moment about our faith promise and also our special goal of saving money up for the next building. And I'll try to click through. Do we have the screen working? There we go. All right. Philippians chapter four teaches about faith promise and grace giving is what that's called sometimes. And Paul was writing to these believers and he was thankful for them because they gave finances. They gave their prayers, they gave financially so that he could go into many parts of the world and deliver the gospel. And so just like Brother Lance, he came here, we pay for travel for that. Whenever missionaries come to visit us, to tell us about their work, we pay for them to come. That costs something. In addition, monthly, on a monthly basis, we support missionaries. We have about 33 missionaries that we support. And last year, six months ago, our theme was around the world, around the corner, around the world, and we had the goal of $60,000. I think we wound up being about 55, which we send out about 55 each year. So financially speaking with missions, it is very close. And so today we're given an opportunity to partner with missionaries, just like Paul in this passage, and it'd be a six month commitment. Now, what he said to those believers was, notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica, ye sent once and again to my necessity. They were faithful to send support to him. He said, not many other churches were helping me like you were helping me. But you were helping me, and he was thankful for that. The next verse says, in verse 17, Philippians 4, 17, Not because I desire a gift. It's not always about the money. It's not about the money. I don't just desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. When we partner with missionaries in prayer and with finances, it's not so that, well, they get a gift and they live a cushy life or they don't have to work. They're working hard where they're at. And many times in very, very dangerous situations, but it actually adds something to our account. God marks off something in your account in heaven. I don't know how that would look like, how God renumerates that blessings, but God keeps track of it. And so today, you can partner with us to help support other missionaries. We have had several that have come through that we'd love to help out to get where they're going. And so today, if you did not participate the last time in Faith Promise, or if you were not here to participate, then we invite you to take that card. Now it's written in such a way that it says 12 months or 26 every other week or 52 weeks. Just think of it as the next six months. If God would have you to make a commitment, to make a promise, this is purely between you and God. It's between you and what does God want me to do by way of participating in Faith Promise. So let's advance the screen here a little bit. Here's another picture. Here we go. Current faith promise, okay, I did look it up. It's just under 55, so just 54,000. And we're thankful for that. We're thankful that God provided it. That means we can maintain, maintain. But it'd be great to be able to support other missionaries. So we would need around 60,000 for that. That's why the promoter is just shy of the goal. And so today, if God would have you to give, you can give a one-time gift, you can say the next 26 weeks I'll give, the next six months, or however you would like to give, just mark it on that card, and then you can keep the bottom portion, or put the bottom portion of it, or put the whole top, rather, in the box, and then you keep the bottom portion to remind yourself. The reason we do Faith Promise is because we find it in the Bible. We make a promise to God. God supplies all of our need according to His riches in Christ Jesus. There's other passages we could teach through and preach about today, but we invite you to make a six-month commitment if you have not done so already. And if you did not get a card, they'll be out on the lobby table there, just under the large clock between the double doors. Some young people handed those out earlier. Next, then, we have, that's a picture, that's what the Faith Promise card looks like. And so, put that in a box, that way the men can better know how much you're making a promise to the Lord. And that has no spot for your name. You don't know what you promised. They don't come and ask you, hey, did you give the money or not? Something like that, between you and God. And then you can put what your impact would be total so that you can remember that yourself. And then our building. Check out that land. Isn't that a great photo? I've always loved that photo of the land that's right adjacent. God gave us that land three, almost four years ago now. And so we're saving and praying, and we can build a building right there that would be a gymnasium and more classrooms. We have lockers under the back porch. We're running out of space. And a lot of our Sunday school rooms, even this morning, were really maxed out or at capacity or over capacity. So we do need to pray. And I ask you to give towards this. This is an offering that we'll receive on the way out at the offering box table between the double doors. You can give however much you'd like to give towards that. We have about 21,000. already saved towards it. Blueprints and stuff cost a lot, probably $50,000. And foundation, around $300,000. Whenever you pour foundation, you put all the pipes in ahead of time and things like that. So that's the first two things that we'll need to do. And it'll take a lot. Here's a picture of what it could look like with a walking track around the top. And again, these buildings will be connected together. So you won't have to take your coat off in between going between each of the buildings during the winter time. It'll also be very safe for kids being able to go between the buildings. There's no traffic that will interrupt that is the way we have it currently planned and what we're thinking about. I think there may be another photo or two and let's see. Okay, it could look something like that as well. And is there any other photos to show? Is that it? All right, I took some photos recently. I was at a church conference It was a counseling conference in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. And this church had a terrific facility. I mean, really a good blueprint for us to look at and consider. And they modeled a great New Testament church ministry. I was very encouraged by being there. But they had a gymnasium, and they had one half where they were feeding 100, 200 people, just like that. We cap off our events at around 100 because our lobby, it gets very tight. It gets very tight over 100. So it would enhance ministry and give new opportunities for us, for new ministry to reach out to people, to host meetings, to evangelize folks. It'd be, of course, we could play games and things on it as well, have big meals and fellowships, and also reach out into the community by offering dinners and special events and things like that. So I'm gonna lead us in prayer. And while I do, you just ask the Lord, what should I do about faith promise? And then in a secondary prayer, Lord, what would you have me to do with helping with the building project? And let's ask God's blessing as we look to these things. Father, we do come before you asking that you would increase our faith. We just had a terrific message about faith. And Lord, help us to know that Our belief impacts what we see you do in our lives. And so with faith in our hearts, we pray that you would increase our faith and enable us as a church to support new missionaries, people who are trying to get to the field to desperately give out the gospel with whatever time we have left on this earth. If it's 10, 20, 100, $1,000, whatever it is, Lord, impress upon us what you would have us to give. We do rejoice and say thank you for all of those who made their commitments in the missions conference. And for any new commitments and any additional giving that people may want to give, Lord, we thank you for that ahead of time. And we pray that we could support some other missionaries not just maintain, but help others get to their place of service. And now, Lord, we pause with great expectation concerning ministry right here, that you would help us when it comes to giving towards this building project. Lord, increase our faith. There's a lot of ideas. We know of what a great impact it could make. And Lord, ultimately, it's you working through us and providing through us your people. And so Lord, I pray that, and we pray together, that you would challenge each of us to do our part. And Lord, give us patience. Let us wait on you for this next building. We know many people can be saved. We know young people and adults can be encouraged and discipled in this place. We know it can be used for many amazing church functions in the gospel work that you've called us to. And so Lord, we commit this need to you. We know that for both missions and for this next building project, you can supply all of your needs. We pray that your will be done. Lord, thank you for each one who's gathered here in this place, and together we lift up this prayer all in the name of Jesus for his glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, thank you, you can stand. We'll have a couple of announcements while we are being dismissed. Pastor Betsy, come on and lead us in the song. Please take these cards and participate if you can help us. What a blessing that'll be. Thank you. And if you haven't gotten your ticket yet and you'd like to join us tomorrow night, please see brother Petrie. He's over here on the piano side and the tickets are $5 for our men's conference tomorrow night. Invite others to come out with you as well. And we'll have a good time tomorrow night at six o'clock. I think that might be the only announcement up there. Let's sing our closing song. What a day, glorious day that will be. ♪ What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see ♪ ♪ And I look upon his face, the one who saved me by his grace ♪ ♪ When he takes me by then and leads me through the promised land ♪ ♪ What a day, glorious day that will be ♪