FBCPS
Sermons, teachings, and podcasts from First Baptist Church in Powder Springs, Georgia.
FBCPS
When A Miracle Seems Impossible | Matthew 9:18-26
Resurrection power isn't limited to physical bodies being raised from the dead – it's actively available to transform every spiritually dead area in our lives today. Through powerful personal testimonies and biblical accounts of Jesus raising the dead, this message explores how Christ's resurrection power works in us to revitalize our spiritual condition.
When Jairus, a synagogue ruler who would have opposed Jesus' claims of divinity, found himself desperate after his daughter's death, he set aside everything – his reputation, career, and religious standing – to seek the only one who could help. Similarly, when a woman who had exhausted all medical treatments for twelve years of bleeding reached out to touch Jesus' garment, she discovered healing that science couldn't provide. These stories reveal a profound truth: while religion, science, and human reasoning all fail us eventually, Jesus never does.
The message challenges us to identify those areas in our spiritual lives that feel lifeless – whether it's our joy in worship, devotion to prayer, love for Scripture, peace in difficulties, or passion for sharing the gospel. Whatever seems spiritually dead within us can be resurrected through the same power that raised Christ from the dead, which now dwells in every believer.
What makes this teaching especially moving is the reminder that when Jesus approaches our spiritual deadness, He doesn't come with disgust, shame, or judgment. Instead, He is "deeply moved" with compassion, speaking words of life over what seems beyond hope. Just as He commanded "Lazarus, come out!" Jesus speaks resurrection over our spiritual condition when we draw near to Him.
What spiritual area in your life needs Jesus to bring back to life? The power that conquered death itself is available to you today.
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Well, good morning, put your hands together. If you're excited to be in church today, it is good to see all of your smiling in online as we're just all going on this journey together called life, as we're all just figuring it out together, all following Jesus together because he is the only one worth living for. Can I get an amen? Amen, it is great to see you here, and we are here together in this series that we are calling I Need a Miracle. Look at somebody right now and say I need a miracle. I know that's true of you, that is true of me, that is true of every single person on the planet, right? Because we are people who need. We're natural people who need supernatural things to happen in our lives. That's why we are in this series together all about how Jesus did miracles during his earthly ministry, to give us an idea of how Jesus continues to do miracles in our lives today. We've already talked about how Jesus stopped the storm. Jesus casted out demons, he fed the 5,000. He healed the sick. Today he raised the dead and even next week, the Lord's just really laid it on my heart. Just to give you a bonus message it was supposed to stop today, but next week we're going to talk about how Jesus transfigured, exactly what that means before them, in other words, what Jesus wants to do in your life spiritually. So I just want to say thank you. Thank you for the way that you have submitted stories. You've already gotten to hear a lot of different stories of people from our church and today I've got more stories for you. And if you're still wondering, well, how can I submit my story? You can email it in, and next week I'm really just gonna be talking about how Jesus comes into our life in terms of salvation, in terms of salvation. So if you wanna write in your salvation testimony story, this is your opportunity. Just a reminder out in our lobby.
Speaker 1:Out there, we have our I Need a Miracle wall Already. So many tags have been hung, so many miracles have been written down, and you have another opportunity today to do that. In fact, there are tags all around these chairs that I want you to go ahead and grab one around you and you can go. If you've not had an opportunity. Write down a miracle that you would love to see God do. Go ahead and write that down during the service and you'll either be able to hang it on the wall or just turn it into our Next Step station.
Speaker 1:Because tonight is our night of worship and prayer, and in our night of worship and prayer together at 5 o'clock tonight in here, we're going to have the opportunity to pray over all of these prayer tags for God's miracles to be done according to his will. Tonight we're going to worship Jesus together, we're going to spend time in prayer together, and tonight we're going to do something that we don't typically do as Baptists we're going to have an anointing with oil segment of our service as well. The Bible says in James 5, anybody that is sick, let the elders of the church anoint them with oil. I heard someone say this week I didn't grow up anointing with oil in the Baptist church. They said we anointed biscuits with gravy, but we didn't annoy people who were sick and I love that. And so what an opportunity tonight, 5 pm. I want to invite you to come back and it's just a time that we get to pursue Jesus together in this night of worship and prayer.
Speaker 1:Pastor Mike Woods is gonna be here tonight, pastor Alan Davis, pastor Buddy Reeves, our new senior adult pastor, all of your staff pastors, and we want just the honor to be able to pray over you tonight. Let's pray right now, heavenly Father, we pray that you would just bless our time together in your word, god. We just want to say it's all about your son, jesus, it's all about the power of your Holy Spirit. God, it's all from the truth of your scriptures and God, it's all for the glory and the work that you do in our lives. For you, in Jesus' name, we pray, and all God's people said amen, amen. So this morning I want you to go and open your Bible with me to Matthew, chapter 9. Matthew, chapter 9, is we're going to talk about how Jesus raised the dead? Such an interesting topic. The answer, the question that I want to answer this morning, is what does that mean for you today? What does Jesus raising people then in his earthly ministry have to do with you today?
Speaker 1:Just this past week I heard a story of a man and his wife who went to the Holy Land, who went to Israel to go and check where Jesus lived and where he walked, and all that. And the man actually invited and brought along his mother-in-law cantankerous mother-in-law, right, I mean, she complained the whole time. Right, she complained about how hot it was, she complained about how dry it was, she complained about how long the walks were, all that type stuff. And don't you know it, there in the middle of the trip, his mother-in-law died. So the undertaker came and said well, here's the deal For $5,000, you can get her body shipped back to the United States where you can bury her, or we can bury her here for $150. He said, well, I'll take the $5,000. He said, sir, are you sure For just $150, you can bury your mother-in-law here, right in Israel, and it can all be done. What a special burial place, he said.
Speaker 1:From what I understand, two years ago, 2,000 years ago, a man died. He was buried here. He rose from the dead. I cannot take that chance. So he decided to get her shit back. That was terrible, forgive me, forgive me, I had to tell you all that. I had to tell you that. All right, so here we go.
Speaker 1:I want you to know this morning, as we are talking about how Jesus raised people from the dead, I want to remind you. I want to remind you of what we learned from the miracles of Jesus. Guys, if you can go to that next slide for me to the miracles of Jesus, what we learned from the miracles of Jesus. Jesus did the physical miracles in the past. Jesus did these physical miracles.
Speaker 1:Number two we learn Jesus can do physical miracles in the present. Number three we learn that Jesus will do physical miracles at eternity. And number four we learn that Jesus will do spiritual miracles at eternity. And number four we learned that Jesus will do spiritual miracles today. So in other words, such as we talked about last week, the miracle of healing, and we see all throughout the gospels how Jesus healed the blind, the deaf, the lame, right. So what does that mean for us today? That means that, yes, jesus did it in the past. We can believe that. That is historically true. We believe that Jesus can do the physical miracle today. Jesus does still heal people today. Number three we believe that Jesus will do this physical miracle at eternity. In other words, if you're a believer and you die and you needed healing in your life, then Jesus does it at eternity. In other words, when you enter into heaven, the Bible says that you are fully healed.
Speaker 1:And number four Jesus will do the spiritual miracle today. In other words, the physical miracles also point us to the spiritual miracles. Like he healed the blind to see, and so today he gives spiritual sight so that we can see him. He healed the deaf to hear, so he gives us spiritual hearing so that we can see him. He healed the deaf to hear, so he gives us spiritual hearing so that we can spiritually hear his voice, or he gives us the ability to walk with him spiritually. He does the spiritual miracles today.
Speaker 1:So this morning, as we're talking about Jesus raising from the dead, let's apply it. Jesus did raise people from the dead. In the Bible, in fact, we see that he raised three people from the dead. Let's apply it. Jesus did raise people from the dead in the Bible. In fact, we see that he raised three people from the dead in the Gospels. Jesus can raise people from the dead. We don't see that a whole lot in America today, for whatever reason. It does happen more overseas, miraculously. Number three Jesus will do physical, will raise people from the dead at eternity. If you are saved right, if you believe in Jesus, then he will raise you from the dead and you get to go to heaven forever. And number four Jesus will do spiritual miracles.
Speaker 1:Today and this is where I wanna camp out what does it mean to spiritually be raised from the dead? What does it mean to spiritually be raised from the dead. Well, on one hand, what that means is salvation. Everyone say salvation, salvation. What that means is that Jesus as fully God. He stepped down out of heaven, he came to earth. He remained fully God. He became fully man. He took on human flesh.
Speaker 1:The Bible says that he lived a perfectly sinless life, fully righteous to the law, to the word of God, and everything he did was right and nothing he did was wrong. He fulfilled the law of God. On your behalf and my behalf, the Bible says that at the end of his life, that he went through all of the suffering, that he went through the torment, the punishment, all of that for your sin and for my sin. The Bible says that he went to the cross and he bore your sin, he bore my sin, that he literally died for our sin. They took his dead body, they put it in the tomb, they put it in the grave and the Bible says on the third day that his dead body, his lungs filled with air, his eyes opened up, he sat up, he rolled the tomb away, rolled the stone away, he walked out of the tomb and Jesus is our resurrected.
Speaker 1:Lord and King, put your hands together for the gospel of Jesus Christ, because that is what gives you salvation. So when you get saved, that is the first and most important step of your spiritual resurrection, of your spiritual resurrection. The Bible says in Romans 6, 4, that you were buried with Jesus by baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, you too might walk in newness of life. For if you have been united with him in a death like his, then you shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. That's why we talk about the gospel every Sunday. We never know which Sunday is someone's salvation Sunday or someone's day to be saved. So we preach the gospel every Sunday. You can bring someone who's unsaved any Sunday, because they'll hear the gospel every single Sunday here at First Baptist Church Powder Springs.
Speaker 1:That's why that we make a big deal out of our Easter season. That's why we invite you to come for Good Friday. We have a service at 5.30 up in the sanctuary and seven o'clock here on that evening, on Good Friday, and we're just going to talk about the death, the suffering, the crucifixion of Jesus. So many people said last year that was their favorite service of the entire year, and then Easter Sunday, 9.30 in the sanctuary, 11 o'clock, down here we're going to be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus and we believe it's so important that we're going to have an event for all of our kids in our kids ministry that morning party with my peeps, so that we can invite as many young families and kids as possible, not so that just they can get hocked up on sugary peeps and send them home in a coma and take a nap right, but so that we can preach the gospel to them and they would hear about Jesus, they would give their lives to Jesus. For our teenagers or student ministry they're going to be playing like a scavenger hunt all around the church on that morning. Why? Because we want them to come and to have fun in church, but also to experience Jesus and to hear the gospel preached in their language, because we believe that salvation is the most important part of a person's life.
Speaker 1:Everyone says salvation, but not only salvation, but also here's where I want to camp out this morning is sanctification. Everyone say sanctification. It's a little harder, isn't it? It's not a word that we use a lot. It's not in our common everyday conversation vocabulary. That simply means the Holy Spirit is working in your life to transform you, to become more like Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Ephesians, chapter two, verse four, says but God, I'm gonna make it personal being rich in mercy to you because of his great love for you, with which he loves you Even when you were dead in your trespasses, he made you alive together with Jesus Christ. So, by God's grace, you have been saved and you have been raised up with Jesus and you. He seated you with Jesus in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Here's what he's doing is he has made Jesus alive in you and he's made you alive in Jesus. He is at salvation. He has raised you from the dead, spiritually speaking, and here's your sanctification from the dead, spiritually speaking. And here's your sanctification. Your sanctification is making dead areas in your life come to life in Jesus Christ. Making areas in your life that are not alive, making them come to life in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:So here's my big question for you this morning what spiritual area of your life do you want to see Jesus bring to life within you? What spiritual area of your life do you wanna see Jesus bring to life within you? Here are just some options. Maybe it's your joy for Jesus, your worship of Jesus. Maybe you've never experienced one of these things, or maybe you've experienced one of these before, but yet it's died and you feel like it needs to come back to life again.
Speaker 1:Your devotion, your conviction of sin, the love in your marriage, the patience in your parenting, your sexual purity, your peace in Christ, your love for him, your sexual purity, your peace in Christ, your love for him, your obedience towards him, your contentment in him, your calling for him, your generosity to him, your tithing for him, your thankfulness in him, your humility in Jesus. You glorifying Jesus with your life, prioritizing community of believers around you, serving other people with the gifts that God has given you, witnessing the gospel to the lost around you, your life of prayer to Jesus, your life of fasting, getting in the word of God or devoting your life to the church of Jesus Christ, repentance from sin, the love for your family and the way that you leverage your relationships for Jesus. What is it in you that maybe it was there before, maybe it's never been there that you would love to see Jesus bring to life within you? This morning, I would title this message when a Miracle Seems Impossible, when a miracle within you seems impossible, from Matthew, chapter 9,. Let's dig in very quickly. Here we go. Number one when a miracle seems impossible, what do you do? Number one you put Jesus over religion. Everyone say Jesus. You put Jesus over religion. Why? Because it's so easy for me and it's so easy for you to choose religion, because that's the way that we're sinfully wired.
Speaker 1:Matthew, chapter 9, verse 18, says this while Jesus was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before Jesus, saying my daughter has just died, so come and lay your hand on her and she will live. May not seem like a big deal at first glance, but first of all let's check out who this is. This man's name is Jairus. Jairus was known as a ruler of the local Jewish synagogue. In other words, jairus did not believe in Jesus. Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, the one who came from heaven, the son of God who would bring salvation to the world. But the Jews didn't buy it. The Jews didn't believe him. And so here's Jairus. He is not just a Jew, he's not just practicing Judaism. Jairus is literally antagonistic against Jesus being the very son of God.
Speaker 1:But now Jairus has found himself in this life scenario where his 12-year-old girl has died and religion has failed him, because there's no power for her, there's no hope for her, there's no life for her. And so he risks it all. He risks all the education he went through, he risks all the friendships that are around him. He risks his very career. He risks all of his friends. He risks his very reputation. And what does he do? The Bible says that he ran to Jesus and he knelt before Jesus because he was desperate for only the one who could do what only Jesus could do. And he said Jesus, as he's kneeling, my daughter has died. Jesus, all you need to do listen to his faith. All you need to do is lay your hand on her and she will live. I want to remind you this morning that religion says if you obey, then God will love you and then he will save you, but the gospel says that since Jesus obeyed, therefore, god loves you and God saves you.
Speaker 1:One of you wrote this story in this week said I grew up in church. I've always loved Jesus, but life brought some deep storms. In 2016, after a healthy pregnancy, our baby boy, mer, was born during an emergency C-section, but he didn't survive. Our world crashed. We asked why over and over, but God kept showing up through our church, our family and the small signs that reminded us that God was still near. A year later, after the sudden loss of my grandfather, I started to feel God again, this time in the form of new life.
Speaker 1:She said I found out I was pregnant and in 2018, our son, john Ryland, was born on the same day, at the same time as Merrick. Two years earlier, god turned mourning into joy. Then, in 2019, she said, I suddenly lost vision in my right eye. I was diagnosed with MS at just 25. It was terrifying, but again, god surrounded me with support and eventually restored my sight. She said one Sunday morning in worship, tears fell as I realized God had been speaking to me all along. She said in March 2020, I surrendered my life to Jesus and that August, she said, I was baptized with my son in the front row. She said I may never listen to this. She said I may never have all the answers. She said, but I know this. God is faithful and his story through my life is still unfolding.
Speaker 1:I want to remind you that Jesus over religion in your life means that you have been saved by grace through faith. It is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. But guess what? Just like you aren't saved by your works, you're also not sanctified by your works. God doesn't save you by grace and save you by faith. And then he says now work as hard as you can to make your life like Jesus. No, he says you trust in Jesus to get saved and you trust in Jesus to get sanctified. In other words, what he's saying is religion. Your works will never work. It's powerless, it's dead and it will fail you. What is the way in which that you begin to experience what you want within you, to come alive spiritually? Just like Jairus, you run to Jesus, the only one who can do it in you.
Speaker 1:Number two not only do we see Jesus over religion, we see Jesus over science. It says in Matthew, chapter nine, verse 19,. So Jesus rose and he followed Jairus with his disciples. And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 straight years came up behind him. Other gospel writers tell us that she had seen all the doctors, she had probably had all the procedures, she had tried all the medicine. It even seems to insinuate that she had emptied out all of her bank account. She tried everything that she possibly could and nothing worked. And she comes up behind Jesus and she touches the fringe of his garment. She touches the fringe of Jesus' garment for she said to herself, if I only touch his garment, I will be made well. Jesus turned and, seeing her, he said take heart, daughter. Your faith has made you well. And instantly the woman was made well. This was a woman because she had tried everything. Hear me, science failed her.
Speaker 1:What is the word of God telling you? The word of God is telling you that, while God made science, god gives wisdom to doctors and nurses and therapists and psychologists and psychiatrists and hospitals, and we thank God for our hospital system. We thank God for the doctors, the nurses, the medical community. I believe in surgeries and I believe in therapies and I believe in procedures and I believe in therapies and I believe in procedures and I believe in medicines and all these things. I may believe that they work, but they only work because God uses them in order to heal people. Can I get an amen? It is God who is behind it all. And while we believe in them, we don't trust in them. While we believe in them. We don't put all of our hope in them, because here's the deal Science says man and his methods can fix what is broken in you, but faith says only Jesus can bring to life what has spiritually died in me.
Speaker 1:One of you wrote in and said I have many miracles to share, but my most recent one was a year and a half ago when I went for an early colonoscopy. I was only 35 years old. My sister passed away from colon cancer. In that colonoscopy they found a cancerous mass surrounding my appendix. Normally this type of cancer isn't found until it is either burst or until it is completely taken over your abdominal cavity. At this point your chance of survival is less than 2%. But because I went for an early colonoscopy, they were able to remove the mass and cancer with a much higher chance that it had not spread further into my abdominal cavity. The Lord chose to save me from this cancer that I would have most likely died from in the next 10 years.
Speaker 1:What is this person saying? That while God uses science to help us, it is only God who can heal us. Can I get an amen? Because we see in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 25, what the world would call the gospel, what the world would call Jesus, the foolishness of God. God says, okay, you wanna call all of these things of me foolishness. He said guess what? My foolishness is wiser than all of you. He says you wanna call everything about me weak, fine, but even all of my weakness is stronger than anything that you've got you know in life. Sometimes we can not even thinking about it. We can trust in religion that that religion can do things within us, that we can do these things in ourselves, or science, that someone else can do something in me and make me whole. And the scriptures are reminding you it is only Jesus who can do a work in you to bring things to life spiritually that have died or that have never been to life within you before. And so what does this lady do? She reaches out and she touches Jesus. And that's our call to reach out and to say Jesus, I need you. Number three is Jesus over reason, verse 23,. So the lady touches Jesus and she's healed.
Speaker 1:And so Jesus continues to go to Jairus' house. And Jesus came to the ruler's house and he saw flute players and a crowd making a large commotion. Basically, back then they would literally hire professional mourners, professional flute players, professional wailers at the funeral. Because the louder the professional wailers would wail, it made people more comfortable to express their grief. Jesus said to all of them as he's walking up on the scene, jesus looks at them and he says go away. He says go away. He says, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping. They laughed at him. Why did they laugh at him? Because Jesus hadn't even seen her yet. They had already been inside of her house. They had seen her dead. They had seen her stop breathing. The doctors had already pronounced it. And here comes this man walking on the scene and he said she's not dead, she's sleeping.
Speaker 1:You ever notice how often God calls death sleep? Why? Because we call death death. Because death means that it's final. Death means that it's over. Death means that there's nothing next right, but sleep means that they're going to wake up. Sleep means that they're just death. To Jesus is like somebody taking a nap, but yet their life is going to continue and what he's saying is. What he's saying is that when you die, you're going to wake up somewhere. When you die and you have Jesus Christ in your life, you're gonna wake up in heaven. When you die and you're without Jesus. The Bible says that you wake up in hell. She said. Jesus said that the girl's not dead but she's sleeping. They laughed at him. And so when the crowd, when he put all of the crowd outside, jesus went into the house. I love that. Jesus is not about popularity, he's not about fame, he's not about people just completely watching everything that he's doing. Jesus sends them all out, he goes in the house and he just takes the girl by the hand and the Bible says and the girl arose, she came back to life, she rose from the dead. And the report went through all that district about what Jesus has done. See the reason. Their reason told them she's dead, but Jesus comes on the scene and says she's not dead, she's sleeping. In other words, I can't trust me and you can't trust you. Reason says I can do this myself. Faith says only Jesus can do this for me.
Speaker 1:One of you shared your story and said on February 26, 1998, I became a mom to my sweet son, trevor. From birth, doctors knew something was wrong. He was pale. By two days old, he was in the NICU, needing blood transfusions. Tests showed his bone marrow wasn't producing red blood cells and at nine months our church laid hands on him and prayed for his healing. Miraculously his count stabilized and he never needed another transfusion. But later his body developed severe muscle inflammation and on January 22nd of 2000, after many hospital stays, trevor went home to be with Jesus. He was diagnosed posthumously with Pearson syndrome, a rare mitochondrial disease. Doctors said he should have never survived birth or ever lived normally. But we told them it wasn't a somehow that he did that, it was a someone who did it for him. It was God, she said.
Speaker 1:Years later I lost my husband unexpectedly to a heart attack, followed by my father-in-law and then my brother. And here's what she says. But through it all, god has provided for me and my three daughters. We have found peace, strength, even joy, in Christ, she said. I am not strong on my own. She said Christ is my strength, his grace is what carries me every single day. I want to remind you that it is Jesus in you who makes the difference within you. It is his power within you. It is not your reason, it's not you, it's not science, it's not religion. Because Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 19, says and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward you? What is his immeasurable power towards you who believe it's the working of his great might in you, that he has worked in Christ when he raised Jesus from the dead and he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. In other words, here's what God is saying. The same power that rose Jesus from the dead, that same resurrection power is in you if you believe in Jesus. And whatever it is that is within you, whatever it is that you feel like has died, whatever it is that you feel like needs to come to life within you, it's not going to be religion and it's not going to be science and it's not going to be reason and it's not going to be you and it's not going to be someone else and it's not going to be a spouse and it's not going to be a child and it's not going to be a drug and it's not going to be alcohol and it's not going to be a career, and it's not gonna be a career and it's not gonna be a salary, it's not gonna be a vacation, it's gonna be Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can bring back to life within you what needs to be brought back to life. So let's watch what happens.
Speaker 1:In Luke 7, there was a young man who died. His mom was a widow. She had just lost her husband. He was probably somewhere between the ages of 18 to 25. He was his own mother's provider, her only provider. In Luke 7, verse 14 says Jesus came up and he touched the bier, that's the board that the young man was dead laying on. It says the bearers stood still and Jesus said to the young man young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak and Jesus gave him to his mother. In other words, what do we need? We just need Jesus to be close to us.
Speaker 1:The Bible says in James 4, 8, that if you draw near unto him, he will draw near unto you. And lastly, I think about Lazarus, the last thing I'll say. Read and listen to this passage with me. Jesus said to Martha and Mary he said I'm the resurrection and the life. In other words, jesus is the only way that you're gonna be resurrected from the dead. But he's not just your resurrection, he's your life too. He's the one that gives you abundant life. He's the one that makes you come alive. He's the one that gives you spiritual life, the spiritual life that is better than any physical life that you could ever experience. He says I am your resurrection and I am your life. He says whoever believes in me, you wanna come alive in Christ. What do you do? You believe in Jesus, yet he though. He die, yet he shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. What do I want you to focus on this week is just living and believing in Jesus. Living for him, believing in him.
Speaker 1:In verse 38, it says Jesus was deeply moved. You know, when Jesus looks at that area of your life that you want to come to life, he doesn't look at it with disgust. He doesn't look at you with shame. He doesn't cast guilt upon you. He doesn't say what's taken so long. He doesn't say what's wrong with you. He doesn't say why have you never done this before? He's deeply moved. He deeply loves you.
Speaker 1:It says Jesus was deeply moved and he came to the tomb. He goes to that which needs to come to life within us. It says it was a cave, a stone laid against it. Jesus said take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead for four days. Or maybe you're thinking, pastor Chip, my miracle seems impossible. What's dead within me has been dead a long time. I think it's too late. It's never happened before.
Speaker 1:It says in verse 40,. And Jesus said to her did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? Why do you want your miracle? Is it for you or is it for the glory of God? So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes. What do we do when your miracle seems impossible? When you need Jesus to bring to life that which is dead within you, you pray, you lift your eyes to heaven. You go to the one who can do it. Jesus lifted up his eyes and he said Father, I thank you, you have heard me. What a reminder that, through Jesus, god the Father hears you. He invites you to pray to him. He said and I knew that you always hear me, verse 43.
Speaker 1:And when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice. Lazarus said these things. He cried out with a loud voice Lazarus, lazarus, come out. And that's what I need Jesus to do over these things in my life, and that's what you need Jesus to do is for Jesus to speak over the dead things in our life and bring them back to life. And the man who had died came out, his hands and his feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus said to them unbind him and let him go. And that's what Jesus says to my sin. And let him go. And that's what Jesus says to my sin, and that's what Jesus says to your sin. Unbind him, unbind her and let them go so they can experience all of these things spiritually within them that I have created them, for All of these blessings, all of these feelings, all of this power, all of this abundance, all of this joy, everything that I want to do within them. And if you look up on that screen and you see something you struggle with, I just wanna remind you of one thing I just put up there different things that I have struggled with throughout my life, that I've needed Jesus to bring back to life in me, because it's not religion, it's not science, it's not religion, it's not science, it's not reason, it's not self, it's Jesus over everything. Can I ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes? With every head bowed and every eye closed. What is it in your life? Just pick one thing that you would love Jesus to bring back to life in you.
Speaker 1:Like Jairus, run to Jesus Like the woman with the issue for 12 years. Reach out and touch him Like the little girl. Allow Jesus just to reach out and touch your hand Like the young man who died. Allow Jesus just to come near you by the way in which that you come near to him and, like Lazarus, let Jesus speak over that area of your life. Go to him in his word, have a trusted spiritual mentor. Speak into that area of your life and watch Jesus bring it to life again. And maybe you're here and you can't experience that yet, because you haven't given your life to Jesus yet.
Speaker 1:And I pray that right here, right now, today, in this moment, is your moment of salvation in Jesus, because the Bible says that if you believe that he died for your sin, he rose from the dead. You call on him to be the Lord of your life. He'll save you now and you will be saved forever. So right here, right now, from your own heart and your own words, you can pray and you can say Jesus, I believe in you, jesus, I need you and you can pray and you can say Jesus, I believe in you. Jesus, I need you and you can tell him Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sin, so I'm asking you to forgive me of all my sin. You can tell him Jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead, so I turn from my sin and I live my life for you. And the Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that he is Lord, believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So confess right now, say Jesus, be the Lord of my life. Jesus, you are Lord, so Jesus be my Lord. And Jesus, we believe that. We thank you for that truth. We pray that in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1:And all God's people said would you put your hands together for anybody that gave their life to Jesus? Here in this moment, we are so thankful. We just want to say welcome to the family. We're so grateful for what God has done in you. I want to ask us all to stand right now, with everybody standing. We're gonna worship Jesus. We're gonna worship the one who rose from the dead for you. We're gonna worship the one that you can trust and you can believe that when you die one day in him, if you are saved, you're gonna rise from the dead too. But you don't have to wait till then, because you can spiritually experience this in this life now, as he brings you to life at salvation and he continues to bring things to life in you from your salvation. So you can experience him all the more. Let's sing to that Jesus, let's give him all the more. Let's sing to that Jesus. Let's give him all the glory. Let's lift our voices right now and let's worship him together.