Turn to John 11:43, as today we delve into the subject of coming alive. Say that with me, "Come alive". Again. There may be a number of things dead or comatose in your life, in our nation and in the world that desperately need to come alive. Your hopes and your future can come alive. Jesus never allowed what other people said about Him to change His opinion about Himself. Get that thought in your mind. Consider this for a moment, almost everyone in your life is more preoccupied with their life than they are your life. Therefore, what you think about yourself is more important than what the other people, who meet you, think about you.
Never forget this, it's not what people say about you that really matters in life. It's what you believe about yourself. Let me read the text in John 11:43, concerning Lazarus and his coming alive. "Now when He said these things, He cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth!' and he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said, 'loose him and let him go'".
Father God today, we want to release the potential in our lives to be all that we can be for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the terror of every demon in hell. In Jesus' name, we pray. And all of God's children said, amen.
This is about comebacks. Comebacks are necessary because of setbacks. You can choose faith over fear. You can choose hope over despair. You can choose love over hate. You can choose forgiveness over revenge. You can choose joy over worry. There's a five-sermon series right there. The Bible says, "Rejoice in the Lord, and again, I say, rejoice". The Bible says, "The joy of the Lord is your strength". You can poison yourself watching fake news. I recommend you turn it off, and rejoice in the Lord, and feel the nearness of His presence.
Moses let anger so control his life: he killed an Egyptian. He spent forty years on the backside of the wilderness in God's anger management program. And yet, God used him to crush Pharaoh and lead Israel out of Egypt. That's a real comeback. He went from a shepherd to a leader of more than a million people in just a few days. Think of the enormity of that adjustment. But 40 years of following God equipped him for the journey. Rahab was a prostitute, but she served Joshua and Caleb. Rahab is listed in the Bible's who's who. She is recognized in the lineage of King David and Jesus Christ. That's a comeback. Stop beating yourself up over your past failures. See yourself like God sees you, beautiful.
That's how the mercy of God sees every person here, beautiful. That's how mercy sees you. The mercies of God are renewed every morning. God gives you a blank sheet, every day, for a new start. We are all scarred vessels in the hand of the master potter, Who can transform our imperfections into matchless beauty and unlimited potential, anointed with power to terrorize every demon in hell. No one is perfect. We can live our life without regret. We can live our life without limitation by the power of the Holy Spirit, without the frustration of what might have been if only! You need to walk out of your emotional, financial, marital grave. You need to live, love, laugh, and be happy. It's time for your comeback! Your life can be an exciting, victorious, triumphant life, in Jesus' name!
When your back is to is wall, you will have three points of view from which you can choose: the pessimist, the idealist, or the realist. And every one of you are one of those three things. Consider the idealist. The idealist can be in the middle of a hell hole that he or she created and believe that things are going to change without confrontation. Did you hear that last word? You cannot change what you will not confront, not in your marriage, not in your business, not in your children, not in your church, and not in America. Right now, America is in a battle for its survival. I assure you that's a fact. Our leadership is becoming socialist. And socialists are trying to initiate socialism, which is a Godless system of government that removes God and makes man God. Our public schools are teaching the critical race theory, which is communism 101. It's racial hatred. Your children do not belong to the teacher's union. They belong to you! You need to confront your school board, change your curriculum, fire the socialist educated. Let God be God and every man a liar! Take America back and do it now, because this nation belongs to you too!
Consider the pessimist. The pessimist, he's chicken little running through the forest. "The sky is falling. The sky is falling. The sky is falling". Shut up. The pessimist is always saying, "Yes, but"... You're going to the beach. The sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky. The pessimist is in the back saying, "Yes, but it's supposed to rain". When life becomes a battlefield, choose to fight until the victory comes. Don't cower. Fight. Don't whimper. Fight. The Bible says, "Fight the good fight of faith". Say that with me. "Fight the good fight of faith". Ephesians 6, "Put on the whole armor of God and fight". Light conquers darkness. truth conquers deception. Hope conquers doubt. Faith conquers fear. Love conquers hate. Action conquers indecision. Life conquers death. Come alive! Come alive and live an exciting life by the power of God's Word and the anointing of the Holy Spirit!
The problem with America's Christians, we've forgotten how to fight. We've forgotten the will to fight, we, as a church body. There are 65 million alleged Bible-believing Christians in America. If we would unify and start obeying the Word of God, stand on the principles of righteousness in this precious text, we could take this nation back in 12-months' time. God help us to do it. Here are three battle techniques for your personal comeback. Wage war through prayer. As powerful as God is, He cannot answer prayer until you pray it. You control the power of God. Until you release Him in prayer to the thing that's bothering you, His hands are shackled. My Pastor often says, "Some prayer, some power: more prayer, more power: much prayer, much power". How much do you pray?
People say, "When is God going to do something"? The initiative rests with you, not with God. The Bible says, "What you bind on earth, I will bind in heaven". Where does the initiative come from on earth? From you! You can bind what's happening in your house. You can bind what's happening in your life, in your church. You can bind what's happening in the U.S. Government in Washington, D.C. And let me tell you, if the church in America would start doing that, the demon powers over that city would have a migraine headache. You need to learn to terrorize the devil with your prayer. When you start to pray, the devil says, "Oh no! Here she come. Here he comes".
You need to learn to fight the devil. Kick him out of your life and kick him out of your family. How does it go? It doesn't go by praying a memorized prayer. It goes like something like this: "Satan, I command you, in the mighty name of Jesus, by the power of His shed Blood, and the power of the Word of God, you are a defeated foe. Get your hands off my marriage. Get your hands off my children. Get your hands off my physical health. Get your hands off my finances. Get your hands off my business! I am the property of the living God. Jesus Christ has purchased me at the cross. The victory is mine over you! In the authority of Jesus' name, get lost"!
Secondly, run to the fight. You see a fight, don't cower. Run to it! Get in it! Whoa! When David saw Goliath on the battlefield, he knew it would be a fight to the finish. It was a fight against impossible odds. The Bible says, "David ran toward Goliath". He didn't sneak up on him. He ran to him! He was aggressive. He was fearless. He was confident. Why? Because God Almighty had demonstrated, in elementary school, he could kill a lion: and then in graduate school, he could kill a bear: and now in post-graduate work, he's going to take this atheist down because God Almighty was with him. That same God is with you. Act like it. Talk like it. Think like it. Live like it. Fight like it. God is on your side! You have the authority of His Name! You have the power of His Word! You're His child! Do it, in Jesus' name! The Book of Revelation says seven times, "To him that overcomes". God is not looking for a Cadbury of whimps! He's looking for people who are willing to engage the forces of darkness and to overcome. God loves a winner!
God is looking for people who will risk everything that He has given them to accomplish the greatness for which they are destined. Every one of you has a divine destiny. And you can destroy it running from problems. What would you try to do for God if you knew you could not fail? "Nothing is impossible to those that believe". I assure you, if our church hadn't practiced that principle when we were meeting in a house, we'd still be in that house. Quit running from your problem. Take charge of your life or someone else will. You can either be the victor or the victim! The choice is yours.
The third is to endure the fight. You don't have to look like a winner to be a winner. Lazarus, dead for four days, didn't look like a winner. David versus Goliath, David didn't look like the winner. But when he cut Goliath's head off, the Philistine said he's the winner. That guy won, the kid, the one that has his head on the end of his spear, him. Christ is on the cross. He didn't look like a winner. It looked like Rome had won again. The disciples were running in terror. The demons of hell were laughing with joy. For three days, it existed in that manner until He, Who is the conqueror of death, hell and the grave, rose triumphant on the third day victorious, victorious over death, hell, and the grave!
Comebacks happen even when you're reduced to nothing, EVEN when you're reduced to nothing. Mary and Martha said to Jesus at the death of their brother, "Our brother is sick". Jesus didn't go on purpose. He knew how Lazarus was. He didn't send a messenger to explain. He didn't send any flowers. He didn't send a card. He deliberately waited until Lazarus was dead, reduced to nothing, because God can get glory out of nothing. God's delays are not God's denials. Write that down and put that on your refrigerator. "Well, I've been praying about it for two weeks and nothing has happened". Sheesh! God's not watching YOUR stopwatch. God will do everything on HIS time. And it will be THE perfect time. The promotion that's been delayed is not denied. The answer to prayer that's been delayed, it's still coming. It's not denied.
Jesus waited until Lazarus died, because when he was dead, God could get glory out of nothing. Have you been reduced to nothing? Expect a miracle. When you're down to nothing, God is up to something. It is the crushed olive that produces the pure virgin olive oil. It is the crushed pedal of a rose that produces the rarest perfume. It is the crushed heart that cries out to God that wins total victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. In the Genesis of time, God took nothing, dirt, and breathed into it, and you came out of that! That's all you really are is anointed dirt walking around with the breath of God in you. John the Baptist said, "He must increase, and I must decrease". Say that with me. "He must increase, and I must decrease".
John was saying, as soon as I empty myself of my will, my ego, my pride, my vanity, God can use me for His glory! As long as I'm full of me, God sees me as something corrupt and unusable. Many are willing to serve God, but only in the capacity of an advisor. God doesn't need your advice. He doesn't need your help. All He needs is your submission to His perfect will. Perhaps you're reminding God of how lucky He is to have you, your talents and your abilities. I've had people talk this way. "God can really use me. You know, I graduated from X, and my IQ is... and I'm wealthy, and my accomplishments". Partner, you're just a wad of dirt in shoe leather compared to what God is! That knocks the pomposity out of people. But it's a reality of what you are, what we are.
"If any man will come after Me," Jesus said, "Let him deny himself". The real translation is let him become nothing. "Let him take up his cross and follow Me". I repeat, God can get glory out of nothing. He spoke through a donkey to Balaam. He used nothing to get His message across. Clay in the hands of the Master Potter is nothing. He takes worthless clay and makes it a vessel of beauty and honor. David took a slingshot and changed world history. Jesus Christ was nailed to an old-rugged cross to defeat the prince of darkness and the powers of hell at Calvary. It was nothing. What does God look for when He wants to do a miracle? He looks for nothing. Nothing brings Him glory. Nothing demonstrates His power. Nothing proves His Lordship. Little is much when God is in it!
Comebacks begin with a proclamation. Jesus shouted, "Lazarus, come forth"! Why did He call Lazarus by name? Because if He hadn't have called him by name, every dead person on the earth would have gotten up. Proclamations release the power of God's Word. There's a miracle in your mouth. The word to proclaim comes from the Latin word which means to shout forth. The New Testament word means to confess. Jesus is the High Priest of our confession. It's very important that you understand that statement. It means that whatever we say with our mouths, that's a confession, that's what the Bible says... Did you hear that phrase? That the Bible says Jesus is our High Priest in Heaven. He releases His authority for everything on earth to be controlled by that statement.
I want to do several proclamations to help you start your supernatural comeback. Let's make this first proclamation. It's not for everyone. I'm just asking you. If you are a person that tends to have a negative thought life about most things, some people would call you pessimistic. But let's say that doubt is your constant companion in your personal life, in your spiritual life, in your business life: and you would like for there to be an explosion of divine power in your life, I want you to lift your hands right where you are. And I want you to repeat this proclamation after me. Say this after me:
"I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord of hosts. "They are plans for good and not for evil, plans to prosper you and not to harm you". And all of these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. The Lord of Heaven will now open the windows of Heaven and bless you with blessings that you cannot contain. Give Him praise, glory, honor, power. Amen. Amen.
The second proclamation is for health and strength. You or someone in your family is sick, and you want God to heal them. If that was the only message the church had, we would have the greatest message on earth. But if there's someone, you, or someone in your family that you would like to have supernatural health and strength, I want you to make this proclamation. Isaiah 40:28, say this with me:
Have you not known? Have you not heard? He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, He increases their strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
For the Lord their God. Is their Great Physician! Give the Lord praise! Bless His Holy Name. Now I want everybody to make this last proclamation. It's my favorite. Why? It's the atomic bomb in the day of battle. It's the grand-slam home run in the combat scheme. We overcome Satan when we testify personally what the Word of God says the Blood of Jesus does for us. Say this with me:
Through the Blood of Jesus, I am redeemed out of the hand of the devil. Through the Blood of Jesus Christ, all my sins are forgiven. Through the Blood of Jesus, I am constantly being cleansed from all sin. Through the Blood of Jesus, I am justified, made righteous just as if I'd never sinned. Through the Blood of Jesus, I am sanctified, made holy, set apart. Through the Blood of Jesus, I have boldness to enter into the presence of God. Through the Blood of Jesus, I am free, I am saved, I am healed, I am victorious. Hallelujah!
Give the Lord a shout of praise! Bless His Name! Come on, church! Give the Lord highest praise! Bless the Lord! Bless His Holy name! Amen.
