There you go. All right. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Again, a joy to be here at Antioch Baptist Church in Bristol, Virginia. I want to get it right, in Bristol, Virginia. And delighted to be here with the Davis family. What good friends. And what a good church, what a good church. I'm delighted to see you and delighted to be here with you one more time. Very good. I mentioned something about this in February when I was here for your jubilee and I've We've really been going wide open with this thing called the Gospel Film Project. The project is a project to get the gospel film to as many people as possible throughout the world. We use a number of things. Here in the United States, we use a thing called witnessing cards, which are little cards that you can carry with you very easily in any pocket. and just hand this to someone and ask them to put their phone, scan that code with their phone, and it'll take them to a 15-minute presentation of the gospel. Clear, simple, yet thorough. And I think it's attractive enough to keep their attention and keep them watching all the way through. We have a number of people. Last Christmas, last Christmas, a lady said, she wrote and said, I had a sister we've been praying for for years, and over Christmas, I asked her if she would sit down with me and watch a 15-minute video. She agreed to do that, sat down, we watched the video together, and she trusted Christ as her Savior. Now if you know YouTube, and you can work your way around it pretty well, you can get to 55 different languages on this. And that's a wonderful thing. Our primary emphasis is through churches and people who do this in this country. In other countries, we primarily buy advertising on Facebook. In countries around the world. We've been in 50 different countries. We have the languages. We're developing more over time. As I said in Sunday School, last Sunday the film began running in Croatia. in that language. And a lot of times we're working with missionaries like in Croatia. There's a missionary there and we buy the advertising in the area where that missionary is and whenever people respond to the gospel we send those names back to that missionary so that he can contact them. Other than that we just send them to mission boards who send them out to their missionaries. But I'd like you to stop by, pick up a flyer about the ministry If you would like to pick up some of these witnessing cards, give them out, pass them out, give them to people, ask them to scan the code, watch the video. I hope you'll do that. Free of charge, just pick up what you'll use and get them out. Put them at a cash register in a restaurant or wherever people do things like that. You know, a lot of places they do things like that. And then to be reminded of that, there's a prayer card out there for me and my wife. If you would pick that up and remember to pray for us and for the outreach of the gospel. The command has not changed. unto the end of the earth. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. I've always kind of been able to get my hand around Jerusalem. You know, how to reach your area. Somewhat Judea, the surrounding areas. And I've even been able to get somewhat out of my comfort zone and get over to Samaria. But somehow the uttermost part of the earth has just baffled me. This year the population of the earth goes to 8 billion people. We probably have of our kind of people that believe this book the way we believe it, that believe the gospel, salvation through Jesus Christ's death, burial and resurrection. We may have in this world of 8 billion people we may have 50,000. And it's hard to scratch the surface. It's hard for me to get my mind wrapped around that. But God opens doors, and now we have social media, and we have the internet, and that's what we're riding, and that's how we're taking the gospel. And we buy advertising on social media, and it shows up on people's phones, on their computer, on their iPad or whatever device they use. And it's just a matter of, I think we're going to skip this today because we're down in time. I would like for you to, though, before you give out these cards, I'd like for you to scan that code and watch the video yourself. You say, well, I don't know nothing about that code and how to do it. Ask your grandkids. They'll get it for you. They'll do it. They'll do it. They know how to do that. But let people, you need to know what you're getting people to watch. You need to watch that yourself. Maybe you have somebody you can sit down with and say, hey, I want to share this with you. Maybe you're not particularly proficient, you don't feel, at giving out the gospel. But you could get the gospel up on the screen and sit with them and walk through it with them. 15 minutes, not a long time, but a good thorough presentation with helping people to trust Christ as their Savior, explaining it to them. I don't know whether you're here today and you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, but if you haven't, you probably know the gospel better than many people you are around. And I hope that today you would trust Christ as your very own Savior. What beautiful music, what a good time in the Lord's house already. I want you to open your Bibles, if you will, to the book of John chapter 11, not an unfamiliar passage of Scripture. If you know your book, when I say John chapter 11, there should come to your mind, ah, the resurrection of Lazarus. The resurrection of Lazarus. I want to talk not about the resurrection of Lazarus particularly. That's not the message. But the message centers around the resurrection of Lazarus. I'm going to read the first five verses and then we're going to walk through the chapter. And I want you to see What may be God's purpose in not answering your prayer? Now a certain man, verse 1, John chapter 11. Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. Oh, we know this home. We know this home. We've been there before. We've been there before. Jesus has been there before. They obviously were close friends. Verse 2, it was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto him, unto whom? Unto Jesus, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest. Isn't that a wonderful way to be identified? He whom thou lovest. I'm glad that I am one he loves. I'm glad that I'm one he loves. I'm glad you're one he loves. You know, I might look at you and say, I don't know whether everybody likes that guy or not. But I know one thing, God loves you. God loves people we don't love. I used to say, I wish I could convince God to get mad at the same people I get mad at. But somehow it doesn't work, you know. God just loves them all. And He loves me too. And He loves me even when I don't love them, but He works on getting me to love others. Amazing. Sent to him saying, Lord, Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Now, when Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death. Well, that's a strange thing. Because Lazarus died. But Jesus said this sickness is not unto death. Someone said, well, Jesus made a mistake right there. He made a mistake. I think you're going to see it a little different, OK? This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. He loved them all. He loved them all. Now, a lot of people like to identify with Mary. Sweet Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus, worshiping the Lord, listening to Him teach. Martha. Martha's a little different. Martha's a little different. Martha is busy. And she's not real happy with Mary. And everybody kind of likes Mary, but they say, Martha, she's kind of a, you know, she's kind of carnal, she's not too spiritual, not too interested in spiritual things. But you know and I know, somebody's got to cook supper. I mean, that's just the way it is. And somebody's got to clean up after the meal. Okay? That's Martha. That's Martha. Now I'm not saying, now Jesus obviously said Mary has chosen the better part, but he didn't say the part that Martha had was not important too. It's just, this was better, but this is important. It's all important. Now, he's been there, he's been in their home. Martha, Martha knew Jesus' favorite food. Can you imagine? She knew his favorite place to sit in the house. I mean she knew what made him smile. She knew what made him laugh. She knew the Lord as far as the things about his life. And now I want you to see this home which was an unusual home. Not a traditional family. It seems to be from the scripture that Martha owned the home. And Mary and Lazarus lived there with her. Now it would be expected that Lazarus was the breadwinner. He would be the one that would go out and work, and he would be the one that provided the finances for the household. But here they are, three siblings living together. That in itself could be a very difficult situation, but it seemed that it worked well for them. And Jesus enjoyed being in the home. And now they have a problem. Now that's a common thing. Everybody has a problem. Every home has a problem. My home has problems. Your home has problems. You know, my faucets leak like everyone else. At my house you have to rattle the the flush mechanism on the commode and make it stop running, you know? Drives my wife nuts, and she drives me nuts about it. Everybody's got a problem. This problem was a little more serious. Lazarus is sick, and whenever Lazarus became sick, Mary or Martha, one looked at the other and said, what are we going to do? And they said, well, we're going to tell Jesus? It seems as if Jesus was not the court of last resort, He was the court of first resort. And that's the way it ought to be in our lives. Whenever there's a problem, He ought to be the first one we think about. He ought to be the one we're looking to. And they said, all we have to do is let Jesus know, we don't even have to call his name. We just need to say, him whom thou lovest is sick, and he'll be right here. He'll take care of it. Now, is that not what the preacher said to do? Didn't the preacher say to pray? Didn't he say to pray in faith? Yeah, that's what the book says. That's what the preacher says. And they prayed in faith. They said the only thing we have to know is let Jesus know that he's sick and Jesus will be here and heal him. They believed that. It's obvious they believed that. When Martha saw him, the first thing she said was, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died. When Mary saw him, she said, if you'd have been here, my brother wouldn't have died. The Jews that were there with them all said about him, could not this man that made the lame to walk in the blinds of sea have healed this man? Well, of course he could. Was this out of the realm of Jesus' power? Not at all. Not at all. And yet, Lazarus died. Now I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. But has anybody ever prayed a prayer Jesus didn't answer? That's one of the hardest things as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. In our personal walk with God, that's one of the hardest things to deal with. It's whenever we go to church, And somebody gets up and praises the Lord, and says, praise the Lord, the Lord just stepped in the situation. And it seems as if he guided the doctors and everything worked out, and mama is home, she's doing well, and everything is going great. And the devil hops up on your shoulder and whispers in your ear, your mama died. God doesn't love you. God loves that other person. But God doesn't love you. Why should you serve God? Why should you do what you do around the church? Why should you give? And why should you have any concern about being faithful whenever God doesn't answer your prayer when you need it? Now if you've never had those thoughts, you've never walked far with God. Because those things come upon us. And we think those things. And I mean, they've sent to Jesus, and as soon as Jesus hears about it, I mean, boom! He'll be right here, and He'll come in, He'll lay His hand on Lazarus, Lazarus will get up and go to work the next day. It'll be taken care of, just like that. But it wasn't. The thing they prayed would not happen, happened. The thing they believed would not happen, happened. And they didn't understand it. It's obvious, whenever Jesus comes to the house, that they didn't understand it. Now Martha and Mary approach this thing a little different ways. Jesus is coming. He has come up from the Jordan Valley. He has come up the east side of the Mount of Olives. On that side of the Mount is Bethany. Just before you get to the top of the Mount. Looks down over Jerusalem. And they come to the house and word is spreading, Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming. Now Jesus is known in the town. He's known as their friend in that town. And the word spreads, Jesus is coming. Whenever Martha hears that Jesus is coming, she gets up. She's going out to see him. Mary, Stays at the house, sweet, dear, kind, gentle Mary. Stays in the house. But Martha says, I want to talk to him. I want to talk to him. Now, this is Mary. But this is Martha. You know, you need a little, in order to really let the scripture grab you. You need a little Bible-based, Holy Spirit-led imagination, okay? Don't get wild about it. Keep it Bible-based and Holy Spirit-led, okay? But I can just see Jesus is coming up the road and He's coming to the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. And here comes Mary. Martha, excuse me, here comes Martha. She comes out, and whenever she sees him, she says, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Now she doesn't say this, but it's in her question, why didn't you come when we asked you? She doesn't say that, but she does say it. If you had been here, my brother would not have died. And Jesus answers with a very scriptural, spiritual answer. Your brother will rise again. Well, let's look at it. Come down to verse 21. Martha said unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother would not have died. Is that true? Well, certainly that's true. If Jesus had been there, he'd have healed him just like that. He'd have healed him if he'd been there. And she says, but I know Now get that word, I know. I know. I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. God will give you whatever you ask. Now I don't know what she had in mind. I know one thing she didn't have in mind. She didn't have in mind that Lazarus was coming out of that grave. That was the furthest thing from her mind. She may have had the faith to believe that Jesus would have healed him, but she didn't have the faith to believe that Jesus was going to bring him out of that tomb. That's beyond her faith. That's beyond her faith. She never believed that until she saw it. And I don't know what she had in mind. Maybe she had in mind the care, the financial provision for the family, the comfort of the family for all the things that were going on. She said, if you'll pray for us, even though you didn't come and do what we asked, would you pray for us? Would you pray for us? I know whatever you ask of God, God will give it you. So I know that. I know that. Jesus said, thy brother shall rise again. Now if you look at the next verse, look what she said. I know that. Generally as believers, particularly mature believers as you are, your problem is not lack of knowledge. You know it all. There was a time in your life whenever John 3.16 was fresh to you. But now, you know it. There was a time, the truth of the second coming, when you first heard the truth of the second coming, that Jesus is coming back, you said, oh wow, wow, maybe today. But now you say, yeah, maybe today. I know that. I know that. Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with knowledge. We ought to know, but we ought to keep a freshness about the truth that we do know. And sometimes it just becomes old hat with us. We've heard it, and we've heard it, and we've heard it. Especially whenever the time comes when the devil says, God doesn't love you. He didn't answer your prayer. He loves other people. And sometimes we get dull to the truth and we don't go out and get drunk, start cussing and telling dirty jokes. We don't do that. We just don't serve the Lord. We just kind of quit on God. We just kind of sit down and become comfortable and sometimes we say, yeah, I know the preacher said that, I know. You know, I've seen other people that worked for me, but that didn't work for me. That didn't work for me. You know, I had a problem. I had a child. Difficult, difficult situation. I prayed, I prayed, I prayed and prayed to God about it. He didn't answer my prayer. Oh, I know everybody says God answers prayer one of three ways. God answers every prayer, either yes, no, or wait a while. Okay? I know, I understand that, but ordinarily we say answers to prayer is when I get what I ask God for. Dr. Rice, Dr. John R. Rice wrote the book Prayer, Asking and Receiving. He says prayer is asking, the answer to prayer is receiving. I understand that. But we tend to quit on God whenever we don't get what we asked for. Verse 23, Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha said unto him, I know that. I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. It's hard to help somebody who knows everything. And people come to pastor. People come to one another with burdened hearts and heavy hearts and not understanding things and you give them a spiritual, scriptural answer and they say, yeah, I know that. I know that. Again, I'm not knocking knowledge. I'm not against that. I'm just saying don't let it become stale to you. Now I want you to notice what Jesus said. Verse 25. He said, Martha, now He didn't call this, this will be a little paraphrase, okay? Let me say it. I'm not taking anything from it. He said, Martha, look at me. Look at me. Look at me. You believe your brother will rise again in the resurrection? I know that. Look at me. I am the resurrection. Ooh. She thought the resurrection was an event. But the resurrection is a person. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. And the last phrase of the verse, the last phrase of the verse, Jesus said, did you know that? No, that's not what he said. He knew she didn't know that. He said, I'm not interested particularly in what you know. I want to know what you believe. What do you believe? And she said, Lord, whoo, I believe that thou art the Christ. the Son of God, which should come into the world. And as much as she knew His favorite food, as much as she knew His favorite color, as much as she knew His favorite chair in the house, she did not really grasp that He was God in human flesh. The same confession Peter made up in the north in Galilee whenever he said, Thou art the Christ. Jesus said, Whom do ye say that I am? Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which shall come into the world. Here is Martha making that same confession. What a wonderful testimony. He said, where's Mary? Oh, Mary, yeah. Where's Mary? Somebody goes, Mary, the Lord's out here, and he wants you. He wants you to come out. She comes out. She says, oh, Lord, it's good to see you. If you'd been here, Lazarus wouldn't have died. Now, he doesn't go through this with her, but he takes Martha. Now, I want you to watch this. He takes Martha through an unanswered prayer to a relationship with himself. that she has never known before. She comes from a level of knowledge to a level of faith. I wish you could grasp that. I wish I could say it in such a way that somehow it would get a hold of your heart. Not that you wouldn't know, but that you would trust. That you would trust Him when you cannot trace Him. That you would trust Him when you don't understand Him. That you would still believe Him when He doesn't answer your prayer. You would believe that He loves you. That He cares about you. That He desires only the best for you. And that even in unanswered prayer, He is leading you to a deeper relationship with Himself. Because see, if you ever come to really believe who He is, There is no limit to what He can do. Where have you laid Him? With mourning and with weeping. They go and we pass that verse that little kids always like to say. Whenever who has a favorite verse. Jesus wept. We pass that on the way to the tomb. And we get to the tomb and Jesus says, roll away the stone. Oh no. No. No. No. No. One thing we don't want to do is we don't want to do that. That would be offensive. Nobody wants that to happen, Lord. Jesus said, roll away the stone. Why didn't he roll away? I mean, he could have spoken and the stone would have rolled away. Why didn't he do that? He wanted their movement of faith. You see, faith is not just a feeling. Faith is not just a knowledge. Faith is acting upon the truth that God has given to us. Hebrews chapter 11, that great hall of faith. does not tell how Abraham felt in faith, it says what he did in faith. It doesn't say what Moses felt in faith, it says what he did in faith. All the way through that chapter. By faith, Abraham did this. By faith, Moses did this. By faith, Noah did this. What are you doing in faith? Where is your faith? Have you moved from knowledge to faith? There may be some here this morning who you've heard about the Lord Jesus Christ. You've heard that he died on the cross for you. You can tell the story as well as I can, but you've never put your faith in him and trusted him to save you. They roll away the stone. Jesus prays to the Father, Father, I'm glad you hear me. I know you always hear me. And I pray now, not because I don't think you hear me, but because I want these people around me to hear you. And to know that I'm asking you. Lazarus. Wouldn't he have liked to have heard it? I would love to have heard that. Did he say Lazarus? Or did he say Lazarus? Lazarus. I don't know how he said it, but I'd love to have heard it. I'd love to have heard it. I love the word of God, but I want to hear it. I want to turn the audio up. Lazarus, come forth. And here he comes. I don't know whether he floated out or whether he was in them grave clothes. I don't know how it was. I don't know how it worked. But he came forth bound in grave clothes. And he said, loosen and let him go. Now the Bible doesn't say this, but can you imagine everybody there? He's been dead four days. Can you imagine Mary? Mary is blubbering, oh Lazarus, Lazarus. I can't believe it, Lazarus. Oh, it's wonderful. Oh, Lazarus. Martha's saying, Lazarus, how about that? Here you are, man. We need you going to work tomorrow. And all the Jewish friends they had are all there, round about. They're all saying, wow, what happened? Can you believe that? Look at this. Look at this. Look at this. Now, I want you to look at something, and I'm through. I want you to see what happened to Martha because of an unanswered prayer. First of all, there was the unexpected miracle. Whenever you come to that place of moving from knowledge to faith, that's an emotional thing. It's an active thing. It's all of those things. It's all of your life involved in that. But you're going to see an unexpected miracle. I was driving up yesterday. On the highway, I was thinking about the gospel film and this mission that God sent me on trying to raise the money to buy advertising. And I asked the Lord about something, and it wasn't five minutes, somebody called me with an answer to that prayer. It wasn't an amount of money, it was about something else that was involved. And I thought, Now, I want you to know, not only is it an unexpected miracle, look at this, look at the wonderful results. First of all, Lazarus is back home. But something happened to Martha. Do you remember back in Luke chapter 10, whenever she's cooking supper, Mary's at the feet of Jesus, and Mary is cumbered about much serving? Remember that? Okay. Now, things don't change. People still do the same thing. Look in chapter 12. If you have your book open, it's in chapter 12. Then came Jesus six days before the Passover to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and what are the next two words? What is it? Martha served. Look at verse 3. And Mary took a pound of ointment and a spiker, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. Where are they? They're at the same place. Martha's cooking dinner. Except there's a bigger crowd this time. If you study it, there's a much larger crowd than back in Luke chapter 10. Where's Mary? She's the same place. She's at the feet of Jesus. She's at the feet of Jesus. But there's one word that does not appear in John chapter 12, and that's this word encumbered. Cumbered about. Cumbered about. It simply says Martha serves, but she's not cumbered about much serving. What happened? Whenever she came into this close relationship with the Lord, He did something in her life that took the frustration out of her service. Glory! Whenever you come into that close relationship with God, it doesn't mean you quit teaching Sunday school. It doesn't mean you quit working around the church. It doesn't mean you quit serving. It doesn't mean you quit cooking. It doesn't mean you quit visiting. It doesn't mean you quit giving out tracts. He just takes the frustration out of it. Makes you want to throw your hat over the windmill. If I had a hat and I had a windmill, I'd throw it over. Martha was changed forever. Now, I don't think that's where she got saved, but she came to a deeper relationship with Jesus. How? Through unanswered prayer. Don't miss the purpose. Look at verse 45. In verse 45 it says, Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believe on him. So Lazarus is back home, Martha is changed, and a bunch of their friends get saved. Woo! Because they did not what they asked for. Dearly beloved, the consequences of giving up on God are too great. Don't quit. Don't quit. You may have to say, Lord, I don't understand it. But do you know that the only time you trust the is when you don't understand. When you understand it, you don't have to trust. But when you don't understand, when I don't understand his actions, I trust his heart. That's the sermon on what God can do for you through unanswered prayer. Let's bow our heads and close our eyes. I wonder how many here today would say, Preacher, I have trusted Christ as my Savior. I'm a born again child of God. I got saved, maybe you can sing the song. The choir sang this morning. I remember the day when the Lord saved me. I remember that time. If you're a born again child of God, if you've trusted Christ as your savior, would you raise your hand in testimony to that? Amen. Amen. I wonder how many are here this morning. You may put them down. And you say, Preacher, I'm not sure that I'm saved. I don't know that I'm going to heaven when I die. But I know, I know I want to. I know I don't want to go to hell. I would like to be saved. Would you raise your hand? Just slip it up and put it back down. You say, you're going to point me out, call my name? No, I don't know your name. I can't point you out. I won't do that. But if you're here and you're not sure you're saved, won't you in just a moment when we stand, just move out into the aisle and walk down here to the front. You say, does that save somebody? No. That gives us an opportunity to open the Bible with you and show you how to trust Christ as your Savior. So I invite you to do that. How many of you here this morning said, Preacher, I need, I need to let the Lord work in my heart to draw me close to Him. And I need to trust Him with situations in my life right now that I don't understand what He's doing. But I'm going to trust Him with it. And I'm going to believe Him. And I'm going to let Him reveal Himself to me. Would you raise your hands and say, that's me. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. You may put them down. If you would like, whenever we stand in a moment, seal that decision by walking down here. Tell God what you told me. Tell God what you told me. Just kneel before Him and say, Lord, I do surrender this to you. I do trust you. I do trust you. Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. They're going to play or sing or whatever we have here. If God's spoken to your heart and you want to come and spend a little time with Him, I invite you to come right now. Their heads are bowed and eyes are closed, but let's stand together. If you need to come, come right now. Come right now as we stand together. Find your way down here to the cross. Find your way to the altar. Talk to Him. Tell Him. Tell Him you'll trust Him. and for me. Amen. See on the portals He's waiting. And He's watching. He's waiting. He's watching. Watching for you. Watching for me. Watching for you and for me. Oh, come home, come home, come home. Yeah. Let God do something for you today. Let God do something for you. earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come