This may mean the death of me! But it’s not the end of me!
John 11:1-4
Give honor to God, Pastor, Clergy and all the People of God present and those who are here because you’re curious. I greet you all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I want to thank you for this privilege to stand before you tonight. My wife sends her blessings and regards as she could not be here tonight. I also want to thank all of Mt Zion who came out to not only support their pastor but to participate in this worship experience.
Read Scripture text:
In our text Jesus gets word that Lazarus, a brother He was especially fond of was very sick. Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha. Now Mary (the one who anointed Jesus’s feet with expensive perfume from what the Bible referred to as an alabaster box) She was the one that washed Jesus feet with her tears and dried the with her hair. The Bible teaches us that long hair to a woman is her glory. Therefore, it could be said of Mary that she yielded and surrendered her glory and everything she had that was of value to her to honor Jesus with these things.
I wonder how many of us it could be said, were willing to trade in what we believed were our glorious achievements and all of those things for which we are extremely proud that we have obtained in this life so that Jesus may get the glory out of those things.
Do we use them in such ways that (like Mary) it is obvious to all others that these things are totally surrendered to Jesus for His use and for his glory and not our own.
When we earn a degree, does God get the glory, When we get a promotion does God get the glory, When we’re blessed with a new house, car, clothing etc. Does God get the glory? please, by all means don’t give it if you don’t really want to. It’s just a waste of your time. God loves cheerful givers. Like Mary, He’s looking for people who He doesn’t have to beg to render themselves and all they have to Him. Mary freely gave of what she had without reservation inspite of the criticism and the jeering. In spite of the cost she was willing to give all she had to honor Him who had been so gracious unto her.
Believe it or not these things are the easiest to give unto the Lord. To give of our earthly possessions and our time, talents and gifts. These should really be like second nature to us. Our Love for Jesus really begins to show when He asks us for something more than these things. Something like ourselves.
Romans 12:1-2
I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice Holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you might prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God for you.
Maybe there are those of you who are here today and you have done well to give unto the Lord of the material things for which He has blessed you with. Maybe you have even given of your time, talent and spiritual gifts. However you have probably reached a point in your life where you have hit a desolate place. A very dry and deserted place. It’s uncomfortable and it’s painful and it’s not by any means a place you want to stay. It seems as if you can’t hear from God. It seems as if you are miles away from Him.
Not even coming to church Sunday after Sunday seems to be able to empower and invigorate you the way it once did in years past. I’ve come to let you know that the reason is because you are ill. God has allowed a spiritual sickness to come into you’re life. But don’t you worry He is in full control of the situation. You see in spite of what it looks like and what it feels like, this sickness is not to end in a physical death. It’s just so that He can get the Glory out of you’re life. Look at you’re neighbor and tell them
“This may mean the death of me, but it won’t be the end of me.”
You see many times throughout the Bible God has illustrated to us that sometimes He creates things from nothing Genesis (the World) or miracles, Sometimes He creates things from something Genesis (woman) meaning He chooses to use resources which He has already created to bring something else into being.
Now there is a process that is commonly known to us as metamorphosis. It is a word that describes the process by which living things undergo to then evolve into full maturity. In other words it is the process that they undergo to become what they have originally been created for but have not yet obtained. In other words it means that before they reach full maturation they are what scientists call in the earlier stages of development. Many times you can’t even tell what the thing is going to be because it looks nothing like what you know the fully developed form looks like. Look at your neighbor and tell them
“You don’t know me”
Many times we see caterpillars but we don’t know if it’s a moth or a butterfly until it finally hatches from its cocoon. Just like these and other things around us in nature we too are undergoing a metamorphosis. Others may think they know who you are, what you are, and what you are going to be but tell them
“You Don’t Know Me”
Let me tell you something else you don’t even know yourself. The bible says that man’s heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things, who can know it. I’m reminded that David even asked the Lord on many occasion Lord search me, or try me and see if I can be faithful, see if I really do love you. Yes you see because we don’t really know ourselves what we are capable of. Whether we have really overcome some things in our lives or whether that thing has just gone into a dormant stage.
Peter was a mighty disciple and follower of Christ and probably never knew that he would deny Jesus 3 times, Moses disobeyed God and missed out on the Promised Land. Jonah ran from God, Samson couldn’t control his fleshly lusts, Judas betrayed Jesus, Lot offered his daughters as harlots to evil men. Even today, we get into relationships we don’t have no business being in, go places we have no business going say things we have no business saying and at times even shock ourselves are things that we do.
Look at you’re neighbor and tell them
“I don’t even know myself”
You may think you have figured out who you are but then let the right time, the right test, the right trial, the right person, the right temptation, come along and you will see something different than what you thought you saw before. We try to size each other up at times. Often time we try to play god to other people telling them what they are “you’re nothing but a crack head, you’re nothing but a prostitute, you’re nothing but a liar, you’re nothing but a thief” but we only see what’s on the outside and we don’t know the future. The Bible tells us that “Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.
Most times we are so far off the mark in trying to identify who and what other people are that we get them to start actually believing that they are something that they are not. So they begin to pattern themselves after what we say. But I want to ask you all a question tonight, whose report will you believe? I would rather believe the report of the Lord.
I love my mother but my mother in all of her motherly intuition can’t tell me what I’ll end up becoming, I love my friends but they don’t know why I am really here in this world. I thank God for psychologists who spend years learning how the human psyche operates but no one knows me inside and out like the one who created me. Only He holds the future and the key that unlocks my destiny.
Some of us need to tell a few people in our lives in a loving way I don’t mean no harm but you only see the stage of metamorphosis that I am outwardly showing but you don’t know what’s on the inside of me. Stop trying to figure me out so you can categorize me and place a label on me and leave that to the only one who knows who I am. “Eyes haven’t seen ears haven’t heard neither has it entered into the hearts of man what God has prepared for those who love him and are called according to His purpose. Look at you’re neighbor and tell them:
“God doesn’t need any help”
Truth is that as long as we are in this body we are going to be transforming constantly until that one and final day in a moment in the twinkling of an eye we are going to be changed. This mortal shall put on immortality and this corrupted body shall put on incorruption and it does not yet appear what we shall be but when it’s all over we’re going to be like Him.
Look at your neighbor and tell them:
“I shall be like Him”
And that’s what we need to tell ourselves every time we look at ourselves and what we see doesn’t look like what we shall be. Just look at yourself and say ahhh but one day I shall be like Him. When people call out to you the various unbecoming stages of your earlier development that don’t look pretty and all they want to do is remind you that you are a caterpillar a helpless little wormlike ugly looking thing. Just tell them oh but one glad morning when this Life is over I’m going to sprout some beautiful wings and I’ll fly a way. To a place where love will never end I’ll fly away. When I die hallelujah by and by I’ll fly away.
