TONY EVANS HOUSE
Tony Evans - Praying through a Crisis
What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading, accounting, consulting, and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance. Uncover opportunity and move upward at MossAtoms.com. Looking for a financial institution that has fewer fees, better rates, and gives back to the local community? As one of Colorado's largest credit unions, Belco offers great rates on products like our free-boost interest checking and lower rates on loans, including our home equity choice line. Bank virtually any time, anywhere, through online banking and our mobile app. Becoming a member has never been easier. Visit belco.org or stop by any Belco branch. Membership eligibility required equal housing opportunity all-own subject to approval insured by NCUA. Belco, banking for everyone. Faith must always precede sight. Once you put sight in front of faith, you've negated faith. Faith is based on what you do not see. If you've got to see it first, you want to see it. The euphemism of walking in the Bible means to live according to because you're moving with the mind of Christ. You're not just doing that on Sunday morning when it's church time because he wants to know that you want him. So if you're in distress, don't let that drive you away. Draw you near. Closer so that you're like Jacob and say, I'm not going to let you go until you answer me. So welcome to the fire. When you get close and want to live for him, want to please him, want to honor him, want to exalt him, want to draw near to him, then heaven opens up and he lets you find him. He lets you find him. Welcome to the fire. A crisis is when you are overwhelmed by negative events or situations or circumstances causing you to feel helpless or hopeless. It is where the events that are overwhelming you are beating at your well-being. Whether it's a health crisis, family crisis, monetary crisis, mental crisis, it's beating you down. And there isn't a solution clearly in sight. Where do you go when your life is in a crisis? In other words, none of the places you look to resolve it can help you. That's our situation in John 11. Now let's set the stage. Lazarus is sick. And we know from the story, he's sick unto death because it would only be a few days later he would die. So he's not just sick, he's seriously sick. And whatever medical help there was insufficient to resolve the problem of his medical crisis. So what Martha and Mary did, the sisters of Lazarus, is they went to Jesus. They sent word to Jesus. You and I would call that today, they prayed. They sent word to Jesus. Jesus, our family member, has a crisis. It's a life and death crisis. And we're crying to you to resolve the crisis. Now I want you to observe something. We're told in verse three, some of their prayer requests, the one whom you love is sick. We're told in verse five, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So evidently, spiritual people get sick. They had a love relationship. Jesus loved them and they loved Jesus yet he still got sick. So don't ever let anybody tell you just because you have trouble means God is far away or you're not in fellowship with God. They're in fellowship with God but he got sick. So they prayed. They sent word to Jesus. The one whom you love is sick and it's serious. Jesus sends back a word. This sickness, verse four, is not to end in death but for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified. That's pregnant with theology. He says, first of all, I've got good news for you. Bad as it is, this sickness is not unto death but God wants to get something out of it. So let me give you and me and us theology and whatever the sickness is you're facing, the scenario of the crisis that you will face, God will allow things in our lives that are not preferential to us but are glorifying to him. This sickness is not unto death but it is for the glory of God. So one of the questions you must ask and answer in prayer when you're in, when I'm in, when we're in a crisis, is you must answer the question, God, what glory do you want from my crisis? But I got a problem. My problem is verse six. When he heard he was sick, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Come on, Jesus. I just told you, my brother is sick and you even know it's not unto death because you told me he's not going to die and you're not going to hurry up. Has God ever delayed on you when you in a crisis? You need him right now and he hanging back for two more days. He's not moving like you need him to move, one in the move, feeling he should move, cry for him to move. He's not moving. He stays two days but it gets worse. Where Jesus was and where Martha and Mary were two miles apart. So not only does he delay, he delays and he close. Now, I can understand if you cross town and he sent you to Son of God, I probably won't even understand that. But, but at least in your humanity, if you're on the other side of town, you got to take a donkey. I got you. It's going to take a minute to get, but you're down the street, Jesus. If you don't want to walk, get a ride, but you can, you can, you can get a horse or don't get carried or say, get your 12 disciples to carry you, you two miles away. What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading, accounting, consulting and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity and move upward at MossAtoms.com. Looking for a financial institution that has fewer fees, better rates and gives back to the local community? As one of Colorado's largest credit unions, Belco offers great rates on products like our free boost interest checking and lower rates on loans, including our home equity choice line. Bank virtually any time, anywhere, through online banking and our mobile app. Becoming a member has never been easier. Visit belco.org or stop by any Belco branch. Membership eligibility required equal housing opportunity all own subject to approval insured by NCUA. Belco, banking for everyone. You close and you don't come and you delay two days after I pray because they've already talked to Jesus. They've already put up their prayer requests. The story gets more interesting. After two days, Jesus tells his disciples, "Let's go to Judea and let's go, guys." Then he says something else, a new term for Christians, verse 11. He said to them, "Our friend," because remember Lazarus is close to Jesus, "Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I go so that I may awake him out of his sleep." Verse 13. Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but he doesn't say he died. He said he's sleeping. This is a different terminology. This is new. The word sleep is only used of Christians in the Bible. It's not used as general public, only used of Christians. So Christians sleep. Whether God brings you back in this life or takes you to the next life, you're only transferring consciousness. You're not losing existence and you're transferring that consciousness in the will of God. This is new terminology. But here's what messes me up. Can I tell you what messes me up? One thing messes me up be two days. Come on, Jesus, hurry up. Second thing messes me up is two miles. You close. But the next thing that messes me up in verse 15 is, "And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there." Come on now. How are you going to be happy about it? There are two sisters, Martha and Mary. And both sisters have the same question, but they approach the question differently. Martha raises the question in verse 21. Martha said that Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Verse 32, "Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw him, fell in his feet, saying, 'Lord, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died.'" Those are the exact same words. Both sisters, which means they have discussed Jesus. Wait a minute. Let me make sure I'm being relevant. Anybody here ever been felt, "God has let you down? God, where were you, God? Don't you care? How could you be this close? Stay two days longer and be glad." That makes sense. She lets her emotions appropriately, respectfully, but clearly be enunciated in her prayer because she's talking to Jesus, just like you and I. She has him physically. We have him spiritually, but it's a conversation with Jesus in the midst of a crisis. But she does something else. And I don't want you to miss this. Remember, I'm trying to walk you through this passage theologically, because after she expresses her disappointment, she goes on to say in verse 22, "Even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give to you." Whoa, I don't want you to miss this. Jesus, verse 21, I'm hurting because I needed you and you didn't come. But, however, in spite of my pain, I know my beliefs. And if you call on the Father now, as bad as this situation is, he will still honor your requests. So she marries, watch this, she marries her emotions with her theology. Jesus says to her, "Your brother will rise again." She says to Jesus, yeah, I know, I learned theology, went to eschatology class. On the last day, he going to rise. I know, I know about that. Then Jesus hits her with another theology. Can I talk some theology here? Because I want to ground you. I want to root you. He says, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies." Doctrine is critical, but doctrine is always to lead to a person. If all you get is doctrine, you may be heavy in the head with information, but light on the experience. You may know about the resurrection, but never experience one. Because he says the resurrection that's doctrinal is tied to a person. So here at this point, the written word must always lead you to the living word. You need the doctrine to know what to believe. You need the person to make it experiential in your belief. I'm the resurrection. He says, at the end of verse 26, do you believe this? This is going to be critical. This is going to be, this will change your life. Do you believe this? She says, "Yes, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God who comes into the world." Now, it's Mary's turn. Mary not coming to Jesus. She's too disappointed. And let's tell the truth. Sometimes you're so disappointed with Jesus, you don't want to talk to him. The game I raised in the end, you don't want to pray no more, okay? Because he's not moving. He came too late. Should have been here yesterday. That kind of thing. So she had one thought. So Jesus calls her. He says, "Mary, come on, come talk to me now. He bids us come." She gets up quickly because he invited her. And then she tells in verse 32, if you would have been him, my brother would not have died. Now, in verse 33, everybody's crying. We've got a weeping time because when you're in pain, you go. What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting, consulting, and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity, and move upward at MossAtoms.com. Looking for a financial institution that has fewer fees, better rates, and gives back to the local community? As one of Colorado's largest credit unions, Belco offers great rates on products like our free boost interest checking and lower rates on loans, including our home equity choice line. Bank virtually anytime, anywhere, through online banking and our mobile app. Becoming a member has never been easier. Visit belco.org or stop by any Belco branch. Membership eligibility required equal housing opportunity, all-own subject to approval, insured by NCUA. Belco, banking for everyone. I'm going to cry if it hurts bad enough. So now, Jesus raises the question, "Where have you laid him? Where is he buried?" So they come to take Jesus to where he was buried, and he stirred up, verse 38 says, "He's deeply moved within. He's moved at the sin and the pain that the world offers that creates sickness in the first place. Without sin, there would be no sickness, without not personal sin necessarily, but atmospheric sin, the germs, the viruses, the bacterias that infiltrate our body, the toxins. All of that is the environmental repercussions of sin, and he was stirred up at what the crisis that they were in, and the reasons for it." And so, he says, stay with me here, verse 39, Jesus looks at Martha, and says, "Martha, move the stone." Martha's response, Martha said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead for days." You remember that delay? By this time, he stinks. Jesus said, "Move the stone." She says, "Let me give you a lesson in mortuary science." He's been dead for days. Rickamortis has set in, which means the cells have collapsed. When Rickamortis sets in and the cells collapse, it releases a green substance. When this green substance is released, because Rickamortis has set in, because the cells has collapsed, that produces a stench because of the decay. He says to her, "Did not I say to you?" He said, "Remove the stone." And what did he tell her? He said, "Did not I say to you if you believe you would see the glory of God?" In other words, here it is, faith must always precede sight. Once you put sight in front of faith, because you were from Missouri, once you put sight in front of faith, you've negated faith. Faith is based on what you do not see. If you've got to see it first, you won't see it. No. And how would she demonstrate faith? Not by a feeling, but by removing the stone, because faith is not a feeling, it's an action. As you've heard me say many times, faith is acting like God is telling the truth. It is acting like it is so, even when it's not so, in order that it might be so, simply because God said so. So you move in faith, even when you don't feel it. Sometimes you're going to feel faithish. You've got faith all over you. You just feel it. Sometimes you won't ever feel faithish, but you can know you're operating in faith because you move in the stone. So some of us have situations that have not changed because we still have conversations and have not touched the stone. The thing that God told us to do, that we refuse to do, which keeps the stone there, which means there's no faith, no matter how much church you have. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me." Oh, oh, oh, that's theology there. You're praying through a crisis. You're talking to God, but here's what you want. You want Jesus talking to God for you. See, you've got to talk to him first, but what you want is Jesus to ditto the request. Then, not until there was an act of faith. Jesus says to his father, "I thank you that you have heard me." He didn't say, "I thank you that you hear me. I thank you that you heard me," which means we've already discussed this crisis that Lazarus is in. When they prayed the first time at the beginning of chapter 11, you and our father had a conversation. Oh, Martha and Mary, they have a sick brother. They want us to do something, Daddy. Martha and Mary just came to me and they had a conversation. They want us to do something about their brother Lazarus. So, let's talk about how we're going to handle this. Well, son, you know what, we can actually use this crisis as an opportunity for me to have greater glory. So, son, so here's what we're going to do. As soon as they demonstrate faith, then we're going to let this thing roll out. Because they have, did you know, when you first talked to God a year ago about that problem, he and the son have already discussed that. They've already discussed that. But the son is not praying for the implementation until faith has been demonstrated. Until faith has been demonstrated. So, now Jesus prays, "I thank you who've heard me. I know that you always hear me, but because of the people standing around, I said it so that they might believe that you sent me." Ah, now we've got a clue. Jesus holds off on answering the prayer because he wants to use the crisis to bring a lot of people to salvation. Oh, so now there is a spiritual reason for a crisis delay in spite of a prayer being prayed. Because there's a bigger kingdom purpose at work than just the healing of Lazarus. If you're in a crisis and God has not moved and you're operating by faith, all that means is the delay is tied to a bigger point that God wants to accomplish for his glory at the amplification of the name of his son and the advancement of his kingdom. So, you keep praying to a crisis. If you've not heard no, then you keep praying. So, Jesus prays. It's called intercession. Hebrews 7, 24, and 25, where Jesus intercedes as our counselor. He goes before us and he delivers us out of a stinky situation. Because guess what he says? Verse 43, "Lazarus, come forth." So, Lazarus walks out of the tomb. Kinda. Kinda. Here's my final point. As he's exiting the tomb, the man who had died came forth bound hand and foot with wrappings. His face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him and let him go." Wait a minute. Lazarus has life. But what he doesn't have is freedom. Because he's bound. His hands were bound. His feet was bound. He's wrapped like a mummy. He's wrapped from hand all the way to the toe. So, he has life, but no liberty. Everybody here who's a Christian, that means you have life, but not everybody who's a Christian has liberty. You may be bound by an addiction, bound by an emotional struggle, bound by a health situation. Something may be holding you hostage even though you have life. Now, watch this. Jesus gave him life, but Jesus did not directly give him liberty. He said, "He told them to un-loose him and let him go." Let me explain something. Jesus Christ wants to give every sinful person eternal life. He offers life through his blood, but he sets folk free through his people. He still does it, but he does it through his people. That's why God wants every Christian to be an active part of a local church so that you can be unwrapped if you're trapped or so you can unwrap somebody else if you have been unwrapped yourself. God never meant for you to come once a week to hear somebody preach the Bible alone. He wants you part of a family so you can be unwrapping, untying, and deliverance business so that you can be helping somebody else as somebody helps you. That's what the church is supposed to be. It's not a weekly event. It is a family relationship where folk are being loosed and set free. I know there are many crises here, but I want you to pray through it even if it's gotten worse and not better because I want to let you know right now that God can turn things around for his own purpose. I'm sure that you would agree with me with the statement "Life Hurts." Many times circumstances in our lives bring tears to our eyes, hurt to our hearts, sadness to our emotions. In fact, sometimes you feel like God has missed it and he's made a mistake by allowing the travail, the trials, the circumstances and the pain that life brings our way. But when life has thrown a curveball at you, that's not the time to run from the Lord, that's the time to run to Him. That's the time to ask Him the questions without questioning Him, but ask Him, "Lord, why are You allowing me to hurt like this, this law, this bad and this need?" The good news is that Jesus, our great high priest, knows how to cry with us. He knows how to shed tears because He's felt the weaknesses, He's felt the loneliness, He's felt the hurt, the pain, the rejection and the crucifixion that life brings our way. But He also knows how to join us in prayer to the Father. He is an intercessor. When we talk to the Father, He joins us, He partners with us to intercede alongside of us, to ask for help from heaven to the hurts of earth. I want you to know you don't hurt alone. You have a Savior who loves you, who cares for you, who cries with you, who walks with you, and who prays with you. When you remember that as tears roll down your eyes because life hurts, you just remember you're never hurting alone. Go to God in prayer with your pain, with your honesty. Just know you're not going to Him alone. When you're in the Spirit, but the Bible calls the Spirit a wind. A wind blows. My opinion, nobody's opinion, when it conflicts with God is to be considered as truth. The Bible says let God be true and every man a liar. Mother nature doesn't work without daddy God. That's because truth doesn't adjust. Because if it comes from God, it's truth. Because God has absolute standard by which reality is measured. I'm standing here in Alaska, one of the most glorious places in God's great creation. And I want to invite you to join me and our urban alternative family for the Alaskan Cruz. We're going to have a magnificent time in God's Word and in God's creation. We're going to enjoy great fellowship, great fun, great food. And I'm looking forward to meeting and greeting you on our TUA Alaskan Cruz. Register to be there. Can't wait to be with you. [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]