Even Now!

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John 11:1-2 NKJV  Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. [2] It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

  • Friend of sinners.
  • Church of outcasts.

Luke 7:37-38 NKJV And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, [38] and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

Luke 7:47 NKJV  Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

John 11:3-4 NKJV  Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” [4] When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

  • God can withdraw His hand of protection.
  • Healing glorifies God the healer.
  • Sickness not from God.

Wait

John 11:5-7 NKJV  Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. [6] So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. [7] Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”

  • Jesus builds the Church, His house.

Psalm 127:1 NKJV Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.

  • Seems like delay to us but God is not bound by time as we know time.
  • That’s because God lives outside of time, in eternity.

Isaiah 57:15 NKJV For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

  • Jesus even said I’m glad in face of what seems like a tragedy.

John 11:14-15 NKJV  Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. [15] And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”

  • Looks like things are going from bad to worse, but don’t give up.
  • Nothing wrong with asking God “how long?”
  • Songs of deliverance, make haste oh God to deliver me.
  • However, persist like Daniel, Widow and the judge.

John 11:21-22 NKJV  Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. [22] But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”

  • Even now, anything is possible because of Jesus being with us.
  • Nothing in impossible for God, what looks like delay is for the glory of God.

2 Chronicles 16:9 NKJV For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him…

Spiritual vs Natural.

The raising of Lazarus had a profound effect on Mary.

  • Perfume and sat at the feet of Jesus.
  • Martha’s reaction was natural and not spiritual.

Luke 10:40-42 NKJV  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” [41] And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. [42] But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

  • Stillness is spiritual.
  • Healing glorifies God, spiritual.
  • The disciples could only see the natural.

John 11:8 NKJV The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?”

  • They assumed that the delay was because Jesus was worried.
  • Jesus uses that point to explain only to those who have wisdom by speaking about day and night.

Proverbs 4:7 NKJV Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.

  • The difference maker is the Holy Spirit

Trust Jesus

Psalm 32:6–7 6 For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You In a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters They shall not come near him. 7 You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

  • Read Psalm 32

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(…) I was going through the orientation session and I came across me. What a surprise, yes. And I was saying, I’m quoting myself, yes,(…) that Jesus did not die for your sin.

And I was thinking, I said that.

It was because of the multitude of edits, it came out that way. But what I had said, and it’s there in the recording actually, is that Jesus didn’t die just for your sins. That’s not the primary reason, that’s part of the reason. He had to do that to accomplish something else,

which was reconciled to our Father in heaven.

But that alone itself does not make it 100%.

Jesus died that you and I will have a choice to choose God.

Sin has no power over us and Jesus would follow me, it’s our choice.(…) We have to make that decision every day.(…) God doesn’t force us into heaven.

It’s a decision we have to make.

And Jesus said, “Count the cost, not for salvation,(…) but for discipleship.”

And I was thinking about that and I was basically putting myself away from all the ministerial activities

to reflect on what God is actually telling me how to move forward. And actually I didn’t have any word for Sunday up until this morning.

And I wasn’t afraid to stand here without a word. I knew the Lord would work.

But then here’s the thing,(…) what gives me that confidence?

And the Lord said, “Speak about that.”

And that was in my mind for a couple of days about that and why He’s not giving me a particular topic to preach on. I thought I would continue on this.

Yesterday I heard another preacher talking about some things and basically about hanging on. And a couple of days ago, I heard another preacher talk about the same thing but in a different way. And I told myself this cannot be a coincidence

because this is what I’m going through.

And the Lord is telling me to hang on and the Lord is telling me to preach that.

I said, “Okay, but give me the words you speak.”

So He led me to John 11.

And we’re going to read,(…) we’re going to understand what is going on there and what the Lord has taught me.

If you go to John 11, 1 and 2, it says, “Now a certain man was sick,

Lazarus of Bethany,(…) the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

It was Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.”

Now, if you read the Bible passages, you’ll find that the anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary with the hair is in the next chapter.

So we don’t know how Jesus met Martha, Mary and Lazarus, but we know that Jesus is a friend of sinners.

That is important because to an extent I stopped being a friend of sinners.

I started being judgmental of sinners.(…) The Lord asked me, “What about you? Were you not saved by my grace?”

In 1998 or 99, the Lord told me to type out a book because that was not available. And the book was called “Joshua Generation, The Church of the Outcasts.”(…) And that’s the first time I heard the Lord saying, “You will be a shepherd of those who call themselves outcasts.”

Or who think they are outcasts, who think they are rejected by society.

And here I am being high and mighty with the Bible and dumping people on the head with it. Whereas Jesus was a friend of sinners(…) because He was friends with Lazarus.

The Bible says so.

And then there was Martha and Mary. So the Lord said, “Learn from it and teach this.” And there’s a lot more thing, but I’m going to teach what the Lord has told me to. Let’s go to Luke 7, 30, 70, 38. “Behold,(…) a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table at the Pharisee’s house, bought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil and stood at His feet behind Him weeping.(…) And she began to wash His feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head. And she kills His feet and anointed them with fragrant oil.” Now, when I first read this, it was a little mysterious to me. Why was she crying? I thought maybe it was because she was repentant of her sinner, you know, all the weight of her past came and then, you know, all these things. But then when I put these together, it made sense because this is talking about Mary, whose brother is whom?

Lazarus,(…) who Jesus raised from the dead. Yes? Now, if you continue that further, it’s in Luke 7, 47, it says, “Therefore I…” This is Jesus speaking. “Therefore I say to you, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Now, all your sins are forgiven. So shouldn’t you love Jesus with everything?

Isn’t that why we sing He is my everything, He is my all?

He loves much,(…) is forgiven much.

So something tells me that is an equation.

So if I don’t see love,(…) could it be that people don’t believe that they’re forgiven?(…) I don’t know. Or they think all Jesus’ hoopla is a fairy tale?(…) Remember the difference between spiritual and natural. You’re called as a Christian to be spiritual, to think spiritual. How do you do that? You renew your mind. But let’s get back to John 11, verse 3 to 4. “Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, Lord, behold, He whom you love is sick.” The way this is worded, yes,(…) He’s sick, but it says, “Whom you love is sick.” Does that mean they don’t actually love Him? I don’t know. I’m not saying that, but I want you to think in those areas. Yes. Now, why it’s important? When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Jesus said that, yes. Now, God can withdraw His hand of protection, which is what caused Lazarus sickness.(…) Perhaps this hand of protection was never there, because they were not very close to Him. That is probably why this is worded this way. And the healing or raising of Lazarus glorifies the healer, who is God, yes? But that sickness is not from God. God did not say, “Okay, I will send that sickness down.” No.

All He had to do is…

Remember balance strategy? I taught you about that, yes?

Withdraw His hand, yes?

When you take the umbrella or close the umbrella while He’s running, you will get wet.

Do you understand, yes? God did not… He did not need to send the rain. It’s already there. The world has fallen, but in that fallen world, you are called to be sheltered by the Lord, yes? His hand of protection ends there. Do you understand, yes? That is why we wait on the Lord. We sharpen our axe.

So that we walk under the umbrella, under His protection.

So that we hear Him telling us, “Go to the left.” And we don’t go to the right, or stand still in that place. Do you… Are you clear on what I’m saying, yes?

It’s for a relationship that Jesus died, to reconcile us to God our Father in Heaven. And our Father in Heaven gave us whom? The Holy Spirit. And we are called to be filled with that Holy Spirit. Am I clear on this, yes?

If you’re not, you’re going to be as dry as a bone, and like Lazarus, maybe, Markeia. But like a zombie, you’re still alive. You’re still walking around. Do you understand, blaming all the other Christians to be, what? Hypocrites. Whereas you are not following the Bible. You don’t understand why Jesus died on the cross. Am I clear on what I’m saying? Let’s go to John 11, 5-7. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Now, here’s a love. Jesus loved not only Lazarus, but Martha and her sister, yes? Now, we’re not going to go into that, but so when he heard he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. That’s a strange thing to do. Because if I hear somebody sick, I need to do something about it. Do you understand? But here’s Jesus saying, doing what? The exact opposite. He stayed two more days in that place where he was. Then he said, after two days.(…) That means after two days is there what? Third day, yes? That is also important, yes? On the third day, he said to the disciples, let us go to Judea again.(…) You don’t question Jesus on what he does and why he does.

Because you follow him. Why? Because he builds his church.(…) He doesn’t build your church. Do you understand? If we go to Psalm 127.1, unless the Lord builds his house,(…) they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. He builds his house, his church. So it seems like a delay to us because two days went by, no?

Lazarus is what? Yes, Margaiah, yes?(…) But God is not bound by time as we know time. I wear a watch and know the time. But God is not bound by this time. That’s because God lives outside of time in eternity. Eternity is not having a lot of time. It’s living outside the boundary or the bounds of time.(…) Let’s go to Isaiah 57.15. For thus say the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, who where lives in eternity. Yes, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit. That s is not capitalized. That means you with him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite once. If you think you got it all, then go your way. You don’t need God. But here the thing is God lives outside of time in eternity.(…) To add salt to the wound, Jesus himself said, he’s dead and I’m glad. That’s a weird thing to say, yes? He says, I’m glad in the face of what seems like tragedy.

How many of you have gone through this situation? I know I have. When I go through what I consider to be hell and I look at God, he’s happy. I’m like, why are you so happy? You can ask God that.(…) Yeah, but understand you don’t mean that.

But then Paul said, what rejoice.

So it’s not joining a laughing club and having a mockumentary of being happy about it, about nothing. No.

There’s something that bubbles up within you. The peace that surpasses all understanding.(…) It surpasses all understanding. Why Jesus said, I’m glad. Go to John 11, 14 and 15. Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead and I’m glad. For your sakes, I was not there. That is a mechanism. That’s not the Jesus that I know or the Jesus that I’ve been taught, yes? But it says, I’m glad.

For your sakes that I was not there. That you may believe.

Huh.

That means what? They still don’t believe.(…) Sometimes God will take you through certain things to make you believe.(…) He’s not the author of sickness, yes? Yes. Nevertheless, let us go to him.(…) Because Jesus already said he’ll raise him up, yes? But let’s go to him. Means what?(…) Jesus is going to show up and there’s going to be a change, yes? From what I’ve read about his life, the only funeral he attended was his son.(…) There was no funeral when Jesus showed up, people raised from the dead, yes?(…) Look at the widow’s name, yes? So it looks like things are going from bad to worse. And I’m going through that right now. But there’s a peace that surpasses all understanding.(…) I already told you that my left eye is blurry.(…) And yesterday I could barely see anything clearly. In fact, Steve and Rachel were there for practice and they were on the other side of the room. All I could see was them blurred with my left eye. And I was like, hmm,(…) what can I do about it?

Glasses don’t cure this. Only God can cure this. So here I am with a dilemma. What do I do tomorrow?(…) I was thinking yesterday, I could either succumb to this or I could overcome this.

And for me to overcome, I’m talking about me, I cannot have a fairy tale. It has to be real.

There has to be real peace.

And that happened last night.

The peace that surpasses all understanding.

I was doing something, God said, finish that. I finished that. Then the Lord said, go to sleep. Because I normally would have stayed up until I got something to preach. I said, go to sleep and I went to sleep.

And I woke up in the morning and then I woke Anu up. She didn’t want to get up and I woke her up again. And then the Lord downloaded all the things, what scriptures that I’m teaching you. I already knew this, but He was able to articulate it further.

And I’m telling you, hang in there.(…) Don’t give up.(…) Nothing wrong with asking God, how long will it take?(…) King David did that.

I have written songs about that, yes.(…) In fact, the Bible talks about songs of deliverance, yes.

We sang it, I think a month ago, it says, make case to God to deliver me. These are all songs that God gives. Songs of deliverance. This is not top 40 billboard charts.(…) It’s for you and your deliverance, yes. Here’s the thing.(…) This song has been on my head for the last couple of days. Make case to God to deliver me. My song.(…) Meaning what the Lord gave me.(…) So I’ve learned not to give up. Not just yesterday, but from what the Lord has taught me. I have been, He said, thus far He has helped me. Persist like Daniel.(…) Remember, He fasted and prayed for 21 days. What if He gave up on the 18th day?(…) Remember in the New Testament, the widow and the judge? What if she said, oh, I don’t want to disturb the judge(…) and therefore I will not knock on his door. The other day, I asked somebody why they don’t call me for prayer. Because obviously, I’m human. And when I pray, it’s a human word that is coming out of my mouth. But who answers prayer? God does. Who does the miracles? God does. So why didn’t they call me? They said, oh, they don’t want to disturb me. I said, that’s your problem. Be happy with your sickness.(…) We go through all this trouble because we don’t go to God in prayer.(…) And God has given to His church apostles,(…) prophets,(…) evangelists, pastors and teachers.

So when I pray,(…) I’m not conjuring up nice words. I’ll pray as the Lord tells me. A man of God, his son was in the hospital in the ICU on a ventilator.

He didn’t know what to do. This guy was a pastor and yet he called up another pastor thinking that pastor would encourage.

So he called up the other pastor was a man of God known throughout the world. If I told you who he was, you would know him. So the other pastor said to his endances, hello. And he will live and he’ll be off the ventilator and he hung up. And this man of God saying this pastor hung up on me. So then I went to the hospital and they were just pulling of the tubes out of my son.

And he was okay.

So his son was miraculously healed.

And then he called his pastor and this pastor was like, I already told you that he’s going to be well. So are you bothering me again? This is what God does sometimes.(…) He doesn’t get emotional with your mind. Yes, he tells you as things are. Let’s go to John 11, 21 to 22. Now,(…) Martha said to Jesus, Lord,(…) if you had been there, my brother would not have died.(…) Here’s the thing, verse 22, but even now,(…) even now.

And today’s talk is called even now.

Can you say that one time? Even now? Can you say that?(…) Even now.(…) I know whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Who’s saying this? Martha.(…) It says, yes, things have gone from back to us. In fact, they’ve become ashes.

He’s dead.

But even now, there’s hope. Why? Because Jesus is there. Even now, anything is possible because Jesus is there with us.(…) Amen.

This should give you hope. I know it gave me hope because nothing is impossible for God. And what looks like a delay is for the glory of the Lord.

But what does the Lord want of you? Go to 2 Chronicles 69. I’m going to read a portion from that. 2 Chronicles 69. For the eyes of the Lord, remember,(…) looking unto his eyes. Yes, there’s something about that. But we’ll look into that later. Yes. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through out the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him. Is your heart loyal to him? Or is he the last of the last case? If nothing else works, you go to God.(…) I’m asking you to check your heart.

Because raising of lassers had a profound effect on Mary and on Martha, but more on Mary because it was Mary who went the next day, on the next chapter with that perfume of alabaster jar.

What did Martha do when Jesus came for lunch or dinner in their place? Go to Luke 10, 42 afterwards, 40 to 42. But Martha was distracted with much serving and she approached him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you’re worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part

which will not be taken away from her.” What is a good part?(…) It’s not denial of your responsibility. It’s sitting at the feet of Jesus. It is waiting on the Lord.

Do you see the importance? What did Martha do? She saw the same miracle. She saw her brother being raised from the dead. She thought she could make it up by serving the Lord, doing many, many, many, many things.(…) But Mary sat at the feet of Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Stillness is spiritual.

Healing glorifies God. Healing is spiritual.

But the disciples, Jesus’ own followers, could only see the natural.

Go to John 11.(…) The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone you and you are going there again.”

Remember,(…) Lazarus died. Jesus said, “I’m staying here for two days.” Then he said, “I’m going to go back to see Lazarus.” And here the disciples are thinking only naturally, saying, “Okay, he must have stayed back because he was afraid to go there because he’ll get killed if he goes there.”

Are you getting what I’m saying?

So they said, “What? Out of the heart?” The mouse speaks, “Yes.” They said, “What came? What was in the heart?” “The Jews wanted to kill him, yes, so that’s why he didn’t go.”

They assumed that the delay was because Jesus was worried.

It was not time for him to die.

Jesus uses that point,

if you can read that later, to explain only to those who have wisdom by speaking about day and night. You must work during the day and not night because it doesn’t make sense naturally(…) to understand. But if you have wisdom

and you have understanding of the Scriptures, you will know what Jesus is talking about because that is in a different plane. Like time does not have a linearity with God,

these Scriptures don’t have a linearity with God.(…) And that takes wisdom to compile them together to make sense out of that. That is why most people get the book of Revelation of Jesus Christ wrong because they don’t have a revelation of Jesus Christ. They have knowledge of stupidity

that they call theology.

I don’t know where they got it from, but from what I’ve read and what I’ve seen, it is wrong.

I’m not saying everybody is wrong, no.

That’s not what I’m saying, yes, but you understand what I’m saying, yes? In Proverbs 4 and 7 it says what?(…) Wisdom is the principle thing, therefore get wisdom and in all you’re getting, get understanding.(…) Before I was afraid to speak like this because I didn’t want to put other people down, but you got to call a spade a spade and you got to call stupid stupid.(…) So wisdom is the principle thing, therefore get wisdom and in all you’re getting, get understanding and the difference maker as far as you and I are concerned(…) is the Holy Spirit.(…) Without the Holy Spirit, how will you have wisdom of God? How will you have the mind of God or the mind of Christ?

And this is what gives you peace that surpasses all understanding. What do you have to do? Trust Jesus.(…) Go to Psalm 32 verse 6 and 7 and read the whole Psalm. I’ve read it earlier. You are my hiding place, talking about God. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.(…) Selah. Songs of deliverance. Is there a song of deliverance in your heart?(…) That’s one thing I have noticed about Anu.(…) Whenever I’m lying in the room she comes in, she has a song, she’s singing. I’m like, what are you singing? What are you trying to sing? What are you attempting to sing? I make joke of it, but then there is a song.

And I have noticed that most of the time

it’s the same song that I have.

Not only is the same song, it’s what I’m singing, she’s just singing.

I’m like, who’s the conductor? The Holy Spirit is the conductor.

Do you understand? Yes.

And this is not special to me or to Anu or to anybody else. It’s available to you. All you’ve got to do is ask and seek and knock.

Hallelujah,(…) God is not partial.

Let’s continue to worship Him and continue to read Psalm 32. Read it when you get home.

Psalm 32.

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