This May Be The Death Of Me, But It Won't Be The End Of Me! Series

This may be the death of me, but it won’t be the end of me.

Day3

John 11:11,34-44

You shall rise again

For the past two nights we have been examining this text in the book of John. We have discovered on the first night how that we are ever evolving and changing into what God would have us to be.

We later found out on day 2 that many times God may choose to delay in coming to our aid as He did here in the text and as a result, allow tragic things to occur in our lives in order that our faith might be strengthened in Him. Whether He has decided to let us reap consequences for our actions or allow us to be persecuted for his name sake. All of these things He incorporates in His task of helping us grow and transform into mature believers and does all of this in the way He does it because He loves us so much. Then we talked a little bit about that “Tough Love”.

Tonight, I want to talk to you from the subtopic “Hope Resurrected”.

Read: Turn with me to the book of John 11:11

In our text Jesus turns to His disciples after an interval of time. Look at your neighbor and tell them:

At the appointed time, my change will come.

Jesus had waited the proper length of time and not a minute later did He wait. But not a minute sooner did He act. It is important for us to know and to believe that when God acts on our behalf He always does so at the right time. When we are suffering it appears that God has delayed too long because the pain and the wait seems so unbearable. But someone once said it best “He might not come when you want Him but He’s always on time.”

Jesus said enough is enough. It’s time now to go and wake up Lazarus. Turn to your neighbor and ask them

“Have you fallen asleep?

See sometimes while we are undergoing changes in our lives, we can become weary in well doing. Weary in our service for the Lord, weary in our commitment to Him. We start to make excuses and we start to convince ourselves that we, (that is our contributions) are minor and insignificant anyway and no one will ever miss me. Oh but forgetting about someone else. That may be true to some people in the church. Those that have not grown up yet to know and understand and appreciate everyone’s worth, but God knows how valuable you are. God does not create or allow anybody to be, that He does not see to be profitable and meaningful to His divine purpose or plan. You have a purpose. There are dreams and hope for those dreams that He has planted inside of you that He wants to see fulfilled in your life.

I know the thoughts I have toward you. Good and excellent plans, Plans to prosper you and to bring you to an expected end.

Yes, but sometimes when we are reaping consequences for our actions and/or suffering persecution we can loose sight of those dreams and completely abandon our hopes of ever seeing those things come to pass in our lives.

A. We committed a crime and were incarcerated.

B. We have been unfaithful and our marriage has been destroyed.

C. We have been negligent parents and our children despise us.

D. We have abused our bodies with substances.

E. We have hurt many people.

And because of these things, Because of the labels that people have put on us we feel that we are useless to God now and have no value or testimony. The devil is a liar! What the devil meant for your evil God will turn it around for your good.

Fred Hammond sings a song in which the chorus says “Late in the midnight hour, God’s going to turn it around it’s going to work in your favor”.

Remember what I told you 2 nights ago about those labels. Nobody knows who you really are but God. You are undergoing a metamorphosis. You are constantly going through changes. One minute you look like this and another you will look completely different than what you were before. Hence, the reason why we have sang such songs with words that say “The things I used to do, I don’t do no more, the things I used to say, I don’t say no more, places I used to go, I don’t go no more.”

Somebody else who was going through their changes said “I looked at my hands and my hands looked new, I looked at my feet and they did too”. You are not what people see on the outside of you. Turn to your neighbor and tell them: