This evening, John chapter 11. John chapter 11. And when you find your place, stand if you would. John chapter 11. I'll give you a verse here in just a minute. John chapter 11. John chapter 11. Let's begin there in verse 35. John chapter 11. In verse 35, Jesus wept. Let's pray. Father, we come to you tonight. We thank you, God, for your goodness. Lord, we are just thankful that we have a God in heaven that can relate to creation. Lord, I'm thankful tonight that we have a God in heaven that loves his people. Lord, I pray this evening you'd help us encourage our hearts as we look over this very short but very powerful verse. Lord, I pray that it would help us to see that you are a savior that cares about our cares. Lord, we love you and thank you for your goodness. Lord, I pray that you'd bless the night and this we ask in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Here in this situation, one of the things that we see, as we would, I think most people probably know this by now, that's the shortest verse that we would see in the Bible. But just because it's the shortest verse doesn't mean that it doesn't have a lot to say. And there in the text, in the understanding of these passages, we see that Lazarus has passed away. and they have put him there in the tomb, rolled a stone across it. The Lord Jesus there on the fourth day comes in, and as he walks in, he sees everyone upset, and everyone's crying. Of course, he knows what has taken place. And as he looks around and sees what's going on, and understands, of course, understanding what has taken place, we see that the Bible says just two words about our Savior. And there in verse 35, the Bible says Jesus wept. As I said already, I'm thankful that we have a God in heaven that can relate to us. Who being, taking on the form of a man himself, and knowing the infirmities of our hearts, and knowing that what we think and what we go through and how we feel, that there's a God in heaven that cares about what we care about. Doesn't the Bible say, cast all your care upon him for he careth for you. And so it doesn't matter what kind of care that is. I mean, there's all kinds of cares that we have. Even as we was at the nursing home today and preaching to those folks and speaking about specific needs that God knows that we have, specific things, whether it's physical, whether it's whether it's spiritual, whether it's financial, whether it's emotional. Listen, there's all kinds of needs that we all have and there's all kinds of things that we come before the Lord about, all kinds of cares that we have in our life. And knowing that we have a God in heaven that is able to understand and know and feel exactly how we do. A God that knows us better than we know ourselves. A God in heaven that knows our prayers before we pray, that knows what we have need of before we ask. A God in heaven that knows exactly everything, how everything needs to be and take place. The Bible shows us here in just these two short verses, the Bible says Jesus wept. This Jesus who we understand and know is the word of God. This Jesus that we know in the very first part of the book of John, as the Bible calls him, the word, tells us that he was there, of course, in creation, that he was there creating the things that were there, all the things that we see. We see them in the book of Colossians. The Bible says that by him all things consist and that all things were created by him and all things were created for him. and that by him all things consist. This very same God, this very same Jesus that we see here in the text, the word of God himself who was there in creation, creating all that there is, who, as we've said before, who spun the stars out into existence and gave every single one a name, that Jesus. That, he wept. the very same God that raised up the mountains out of the waters, and as we've said before, told the oceans they could only go but so far, that Jesus wept. The one that has been there with us along life's journey, in every single difficult situation, and not just in every valley, but on every mountaintop, that Jesus wept. the one that has been there with us and been there for us when we've been the sickest in our life or been in the darkest moments of our life, that Jesus wept. The very same God that was willing to send his own son to die for our souls, that Jesus wept. The one that went on to the cross and said it is finished and died for the sins of man who bled himself out for his creation. For us here tonight. That Jesus wept. The Jesus that was here in our text. The same one that has been with us as I said in our dark times. The same one that has been with us and been with others in the hospitals. in their dying times. The same one that was with them and the same one that was with us comforting our hearts. the same God of grace and the God of mercy and the God of long-suffering and the God of peace and the God of love, that very same God, the one that says, the God that says I change not, that I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever, the one that put his finger on the sun and told it to stand still, the one that divided the Red Sea and millions of people went across, the one that helped Joshua and Moses fight the battles that we see in the scriptures. that very same one wept. And so what we see here tonight is a God that is all-powerful, a God that is all-knowing, a God that is all-present had a moment in his life where he wept. in his humanity, here with these folks that he loved and cared about, there was a moment, there was a time when we see the Lord Jesus and we understand him in all power, but we also see him in his humanity. Feeling how we feel and knowing what we're going through and knowing what's going on in our minds. We see him understanding that he's a God that can do all things. that he tells the rain drops where to fall, tells the winds where to blow, tells the birds what to sing and how to sing, and gives them the song to sing. The one who by his own hand carved out the very mountains that we see today and planted the flowers on the hillside. The one that scattered the painted pictures across the sky, declaring his handiwork, that very same one. The very same one that everybody throughout this week has been talking about the great sight of the Arroyo Borealis that everybody has seen but me. A little short story on that. I didn't know you had to look through your cell phone to see that. You know what I did on Tuesday night? Everybody was pitching a fit about it. Oh, it's gonna be good. So I left out that night, Tuesday night. I said, I'm going to get me some ice cream. Drove up the road, went to go get me some ice cream. And I was going to get me some ice cream. I said, no, I'll just wait. So I went up to the top of, I went up where it's snow-flexed. And I said, I'll probably get a good view of up here. No, trees are up in the way. Lights is all along. I said, I'm going to go down to that parking garage down there. So I went down there to that public parking garage. Got all the way up top. I was the only one there. And I stood there. for an hour and a half. Walking from this side to this side to this side to this side, there must be some mistake. I'm looking at my cell phone. Everybody's seeing something I'm not seeing. Everybody's talking about, oh, look at God's handiwork, look at God's creation. I'm like, what in the world? Of course, I get home The next day, you know, it was late when I got back, about 10.30. I was going to stop at McDonald's, get some ice cream. Their ice cream machine was broken, so I couldn't get nothing. So I didn't get nothing that night. So I get to the house, you know, next morning. We're talking, talking to Amy about it, you know. And she says, well, you got to see it through your phone. I said, what? She said, yeah, you can't see it with the naked eye. You got to see it through your phone. I was like, what are you talking about? I didn't know that. You have to see it through your phone. Does anybody else know that? Yeah, other people knew that. Had no clue. No clue. I spent an hour and a half of my day, or my night, walking around on top of a garage trying to find the Arroyo Borealis. I didn't think it existed. But everybody else was telling me it was there. So, anyhow. But everybody was throwing it all out, God's creation. The same God that was responsible for the beautiful light display that you could only see through a cell phone. Is the one that cried right here. Bible says, shows us in verse 32, Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. And when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. We see that the Lord Jesus, all God, all powerful, almighty, we see him clothed in humanity. Feeling like we feel. Hearing the hurt. Hearing the pain. Visually seeing what's going on in people's eyes. There they are, they're weeping, they're crying. We see Him as humanity weeping with others as they wept. The all-powerful God, we see him weeping with others as they were going through a very trying time in their life. And even there, Lazarus, whom he loved himself, even the very next verse, the Bible says, I believe, and the Jews said, look, behold, look how he loved him. Jesus loved Lazarus. and he loved the people that were there. And he saw them weeping, he saw them crying, and when he saw them weeping and crying, it was something that not just in humanity, but as God himself, we see that it was hurting him. And I'm thankful tonight that we have a God that hurts when we hurt, I believe. That he is touched, he is touched by the same things that touch us. The Bible shows us here that when he looked around and saw all the Jews weeping and he heard what was being said and of course he knew what was going on, we see that Jesus had a hurt in his heart. And I think perhaps for several reasons. Number one, because I think whenever he saw this, I think death was something of course that pained the Lord because it was just a reminder of what sin brings. because the wages of sin, the Bible says, is death. And so I think it was a reminder of, I think it was a reminder of what sin brings and how sin destroys and sin taints everything that it comes across. but I think it was also something that touched him not as God but also as a man that we see in his humanity and in his humility that he cried with those that were around him. The God that was all powerful, the God that created everything that there is, even the little creeping things that creep upon the earth and every single one of us here today had a moment in his life where he cried with the people. because he understood how they felt. He understood their hurt. We know there's a lot of people in the world today, when we even said it ourselves, people just don't understand. You know, maybe we've said it ourselves, well, they just don't understand it, they just don't, nobody understand me. And oftentimes, people, they'll recite that, you know, they just don't, nobody get it, they don't, nobody understand how I feel. Listen, there may be a lot of people that don't, but there's one that does, who understands exactly how you feel. exactly how you think and exactly how you feel. And even though there are other people around you, people that you may love and people that you may care about that don't understand exactly your weeping and don't understand exactly your situation and the scenario that you're in in your life, but Jesus does. And here we see that when Christ came onto the scene, that he saw these people that were crying and they were weeping, and of course he knew that Lazarus was dead, but as he looked around, he saw all these people, he wept with them. Because seeing them weep over someone they love, whom they had lost to death, not lost altogether, but just lost to death, hurt. But I'm thankful for verses that we have in Corinthians that says, oh, death, where is thy sting? And oh, grave, where is thy victory? Because we have a God in heaven who demonstrated his love and went to an old rugged cross and died for the sins of the world and made a way for us to get to heaven where we can say today that when folks do pass on from us, that we can say, well, I sorrow not as others which have no hope. because we as God's people know that it's not the end. Just the end of this sinful flesh, but it's not the end of us meeting together again. but here we see that there was something that these people were, they were hurt, and the Bible says in verse 35 that Jesus wept, and I think this weeping was a show of love. Now, we talked about it the other day, how weeping and crying were two different things, that when you cry, that you have the tears coming down out of your face, but the weeping, was a little different. The weeping was in the aspect going beyond that where you're crying, but you're crying uncontrollably. You can't quite get the words out. You've been hurt so bad or you got something that's going on in your heart so much that you can't quite get the words out. How many have ever heard maybe that story or maybe the meme that's been out many years that have said, that have kind of made the relation to this is whenever we can't get our words out to God about the person that wrote a letter to God to describe to God how they felt, and it was a letter they wrote out and it said God, and then there was nothing left but just teardrops on the letter. God understood every single tear that was on that letter. We may not be able to get it out in our own words, and we may not be able to illustrate to God exactly how we feel in those moments, but thankful that the Holy Spirit of God knows how we feel. And even though we may not be able to put together into words how we're feeling in that very moment because of our brokenness, but that there is a Holy Spirit that lives and dwells inside of us that is able to carry that brokenness in essence up to heaven and every single teardrop that falls, God knows the meaning of every single one. Does not the Bible even tell us, what is it there in the book of Psalms, that a record of every tear is in the bottle? God knows every tear that falls. And here we see the Bible says that Jesus wept. He wept with these people because it was a show of love that he had for them. He wept for them because it was a show of compassion that he had for them. The Bible shows us in the text, it says in verse 33, when Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. When he saw those that were hurt by death, when he saw those that were in essence hurt by the wages of sin, when he saw those that had been touched by death itself, he groaned in his spirit. It hurt him on the inside, he was touched by it. The Bible says here, shows us that he wept with others, does not the Bible also tell us in the book of Romans to weep with those that do weep? Weep with those that do weep. And rejoice with those that rejoice, but weep with those that do weep. And we see Jesus here doing that very same thing out of his love for his people. The Bible says in verse 35 that Jesus wept. There's a couple of other times we see the Lord Jesus. One time was in the book of Luke, chapter 19 and verses 41 to 44. And Jesus come upon the city, the Bible tells us, and when he got to the city, he began to weep over the city. And the reason why he weeped over the city is because the Bible tells us that they did not regard, in essence, the time of his visitation. and they paid no mind. God had come, and the time of his visitation was in essence kind of set off to the side. And Jesus began to weep over the city because he knew in his heart and mind what was gonna ultimately be the result of the place. So we see that Jesus weeps with those that have been touched by death, those that have been affected by the wages of sin, which is death. We also see that Jesus wept over the idea that whenever he'd come into a town and that he was rejected and people did not regard the time of his visitation and that they turned away from God, that that was something that hurt him. So we think to ourselves, what are some things that make Jesus cry tonight? What are some things that burden the heart of God? We see right here that the Bible says that the spirit of Jesus, that he was troubled in his spirit. So what are some things that troubled God? The fact that death was a separator, right here. And that people were injured and that people were hurt because of this. But I'm thankful that we know that, of course, he raised Lazarus from the dead. He told him to come out from the grave there, from the tomb there, and we're thankful that he gave victory. Listen, just like he's given us victory here tonight. And we understand that because of the completed work on the cross of the Lord Jesus, that death will no longer be the great separator between us and God. but because he completed that finished work on the cross, anybody that has a desire to be saved can be saved. The Bible shows us here that Jesus wept. He wept over, he wept for these people, he wept with these people over death, but he also wept in Luke 19 when people rejected him and turned away from him. It was something that burdened his heart. In Matthew 26 and verse 38 we see Jesus once again, the Bible says, crying out in sorrow when he was there in the garden of Gethsemane. And as he was there in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Bible says that the stress that he was under, that his body, in essence, were as is, and he started to sweat, and as he started to sweat, the capillaries, in essence, really what was taking place scientifically, he was under so much stress that the capillaries were, in essence, bursting underneath his skin. The smallest veins that we got, little capillaries there, were bursting and filling up with blood and mixing in with his sweat that was falling. The Bible says there's great drops of blood falling to the ground. And he wept. The God of heaven had things that affected his heart. The God of heaven knows That's how we feel. Does not the creator know his creation? The creator of all that there is knows the ins and outs of his creation. That's why the Bible says in Colossians that by him all things consist. When God created every single one of you here tonight, he created you in a unique way, special, every single one of us. different talents, different abilities, different things that we can do, different shapes and sizes, heights. Every single one of us here tonight. God created every single one of us unique and he knows us better than we know our own selves. The Bible even tells us to be careful that you don't deceive your own self. Here we see the Bible says that Jesus wept. When we leave out of here this evening, we think to ourselves, does God know how I feel? Does God know what's going on in my life? Does the clay say to the potter, how have you formed me? Why have you formed me? Why did you make me thus and thus? The creator of the world, who designed you specifically, made you personally, knows everything about you. So when we leave out of here tonight and we say, well, God, do you know how I feel? Yes, he does. He actually knows how you feel more than you know how you feel. The Bible shows us here that Jesus wept and he wept in his humanity, he wept in his humility, In verse 36, the Bible says, then said the Jews, behold, how he loved him. Jesus in all of his love wept with those who wept because he loved them. And here tonight you may find yourself in a place where you may be weeping or wondering, does God know how I feel in my spirit? And we can walk around and smile on our face, and we can walk around and pretend like everything's fine. And we can be very good at that. And nobody will know what's going on right here. And you can reach out and shake somebody's hand, have a smile on your face, and feel like you're about to die on the inside. You can sing up in the choir. You can preach from the pulpit, you can teach Sunday school. Just whatever. Just fellowship together. And we can hide it from everybody. And nobody will ever know. But on the inside, we feel like we're dying. And God knows how you feel. Nobody else may, but God does. And when you weep, I believe God weeps too. The Bible says, cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you. So when you lift up your voice to God and you cry out to the Lord, And those private times and special times that you spend with God and maybe it's in the car or driving down the road or maybe it's in the house when you get all by yourself or wherever it could be and you're just spending that alone time with God and you're crying out to the Lord and nobody knows what you're praying about, nobody knows what you're talking to God about, nobody knows how you feel on the inside. There's one that does. Who created you and knows more about you I'm gonna stop with this. Did you know that science, even today, cannot even understand how the cells, as the baby begins to form inside the mother's womb, they still don't understand how all the cells know where to go to form the baby that's there. Now, they see it happen. They can watch it, they can watch the process, they still don't know how it is that these cells know exactly where to go to form certain things. You know that there's a molecule in your body, a cell in your body, maybe I should call it that, I'm not a scientist here tonight, don't proclaim to be. But there is a cell in your body, I think it's called laminin, maybe? It looks just like a cross. You can look it up. Looks just like a cross. It's glue, in essence, really, for your body. It looks just like a perfect cross. And the interesting thing about that is they say without that, you would just fall completely down to the floor in a puddle of mess. But because of that sail, you're all completely formed together. Now that didn't happen by chance. That didn't happen by chance. There's a divine creator behind that. And God knows us down to a cellular level because he created us. He knows who we are. Jesus wept. Let's pray. Father, we come to you tonight and we thank you, Lord, for your blessings. Lord, we are thankful we have a God in heaven that cries with us, that cries for us. We even see in John chapter 17 how the Lord Jesus was praying for folks who had never on this side of heaven in our earthly bodies had ever seen him. But he was praying for those who had not seen him that they would believe. Lord, I pray here tonight And God, as we get ready to leave, that you would just help us this evening to understand that the God of heaven knows all about us. And that we can give ourselves and devote ourselves fully over to him. As the piano plays here tonight, we'll open up the altar here for just a moment. If you have a desire to come and pray, I encourage you to come. If you're not saved here tonight and you'd like to get saved, you don't know, without a shadow of a doubt, that if you died today, you'd go to heaven. And there is no greater moment than right now. And before this service is over, you can know that when you leave out of here today, that you're saved. Your name is written down in the Lamb's book of life. And you just come up here and take this preacher by the hand and say, preacher, I wanna get saved tonight. I wanna know without a shadow of a doubt that I'm on my way to heaven. And could be here this evening and we have weary hearts. Could be here tonight that we just broken on the inside. and other people may not get it, and other people may not understand. God of heaven does. And maybe these things, wherever they are, we're just lifting up to him tonight, asking for God's help, asking for God's strength. But understand in this moment, in this trying time, that there's a God in heaven that cares. about what you're saying tonight. That your prayers aren't falling on deaf ears or to a God that is too busy, has too much to do. Or doesn't care about what you have to say. Or is hindered by anything. but a God in heaven that sincerely cares about you. And I believe in my heart when we weep, I believe we got a God in heaven that weeps along with us. The Bible shows us here that whenever Jesus was there with these other folks, that when he saw them weeping and how they were troubled in their hearts and their life, that it troubled him and his spirit. Huh. Amen, amen.