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The Gospel of John, chapter 11.
Very familiar, famous story.
I want to talk to you tonight about
getting ready for the next move of God.
Getting ready for the next move of God.
And John, chapter 11.
I'll pick it up at verse 32.
Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she
saw him and fell at his feet saying
to him, Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the
Jews who came with her also weeping, he
was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled.
And he said, where have you laid him?
And they said to him, come and see.
Lord, come and see.
And Jesus wept.
And so the Jews were saying, behold, how
he loved him.
But some of them said, could not this
man who opened the eyes of him who
was blind have kept this man also from
dying?
Jesus therefore again, being deeply moved within, came
to the tomb.
Now it was a cave and a stone
was lying against it.
And Jesus said, remove the stone.
And you see, you gotta remove the stone
to get ready for the next move of
God.
Remove the stone.
Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to
him, Lord, by this time there will be
a stench for he has been dead four
days.
Jesus said to her, did I not say
to you if you believe, you will see
the glory of God?
And so they moved the stone.
I believe, I hope you'll agree with this
opening statement that God is up to something.
As we view worldwide events at the end
of 1989 and in the beginning of the
decade of the 90s, it is very evident
God is up to something.
We are on the verge of some kind
of prophetic door opener entering into the last
days of the last days.
I don't know exactly what the crumbling of
communism means.
You may have heard that in Russia they're
about to vote a plurality of governments or
parties.
And so we've seen the crumbling of communism,
the crushing of the Berlin Wall, the apparent
reunification or steps toward the reuniting of two
Germanys, and the Eastern European nations turning from
communism and embracing a Western form of government
or democracy.
And I believe that it means something as
far as the unfolding of God's plan for
the nations and the end time.
God is up to something.
I believe also that the world spotlight will
soon turn to Israel.
Now the attention is on the demise of
communism, but never take your eyes off of
Israel.
As goes Israel, so goes the ticking of
God's prophetic clock.
I do believe the events now in Europe
and Russia has resulted in a number of
seconds where it's ticking off what I like
to call the prophetic clock.
Now that clock probably is set now somewhere
between 11.55 and 12 o'clock midnight.
And when it strikes midnight, Christ is going
to return.
And it will no longer be p.m.,
it will be a.m. And do you
know what a.m. means?
We sing it here from the scripture, joy
cometh in the morning.
A.m. is the morning.
And the morning refers to past midnight when
we shall see Jesus face to face.
And that's also the meaning of the word
joy.
As I said, no one can know for
sure what current world events mean as to
how close we are to the end, but
we're very, very close.
And I'm ready, very ready for God's next
move.
Now regardless of our inability to know the
exact timetable of God's next prophetic move, and
regardless of what the devil does in reaction
to that move, and by the way, remember,
God never reacts, he always acts.
The devil has to react to what God
acts.
And regardless of how the devil reacts, one
thing I know for sure, it's as one
fellow said, I read the last chapter in
the Bible, we win.
We win.
And actually Jesus wins, and if you're on
his side, and if you're open to his
move in your life, then he's gonna take
you over the goal line with you.
Hallelujah.
My son told me the other day about
a Christian song currently making the rounds, sung
by a well-known Christian singer, and I
thought it was interesting.
He shared this with me.
And he told me that it deals with
a conversation between Satan and his demons.
And the demons report that there is trouble
in the land.
And so Satan wants to know what it
is, what's the cause of the trouble, and
he says, is there trouble in our abortion
clinics?
And the demons said, no, that's all fine,
we kill 4,000 unborn a day.
And Satan says, is there something wrong with
my pet project, television violence?
And the demons said, no, no, we got
that covered, from videos to cartoons.
And Satan says, is there a disturbance in
my false religions?
And the devil says no, or the demons
said no, business is booming.
And so Satan wants to know, well, what's
the problem?
And the answer comes back, sir, the saints
are on their knees praying.
And then Satan says, well, it's time to
launch my final, most vicious attack.
I'll just remind the saints of their past,
how they were liars and they were cheaters
and they were manipulators and they were moochers.
And the demons answered and said, but sir,
you know what will happen if you remind
saints of their past.
And Satan says, and what is that?
He said, if you remind the saints of
their past, they're gonna remind you of your
future.
Yes, what a glorious future we have.
Now, I bet you thought that this was
gonna be a prophetic message.
Well, you're wrong.
You see, we must prepare, we must be
prepared and prepare ourselves for our glorious future.
The only way to be ready for God's
next move in the church and in the
world is to get ready for his next
move in your own life.
And that's what this message is all about.
You see, we are to be a moving
people.
We must never be standing still or neutral
or stationary in God.
When Joshua told the children of Israel and
what he told them applies to us.
In Joshua 3.3, it says this, don't
turn there.
It says, when you see the ark of
the covenant of the Lord your God, then
you shall go after it.
And a few verses later, it says, for
you have not passed this way before.
Now listen, if you've passed the way before,
wherever you're passing right now, if you've passed
that way before, it means you're going in
circles.
And the Lord doesn't want us to go
in circles.
He wants us continually to move on and
forward.
And whether you've been saved one day, one
week, one month, one year or 30 years,
get ready.
Get ready for the next move of God
in your life.
We are either moving forward and onward or
we're moving backwards.
Proverbs 4.18 says, but the path of
the just is as a shining light that
shineth, and this is the part that I
like, it shineth more and more unto the
perfect day.
And oh yes, it does shine more and
more, but listen, unless you and I are
walking in the light as he is in
the light, we cannot be moving into the
more and more and the unfolding of his
revelation to us and in us.
And that's what God wants.
And oh, I don't know about you, but
it makes it so exciting.
I'm still moving on.
I've been born and raised in the faith
and in Pentecost, but I'm still moving on,
praise God.
The light shines more and more.
Now let me take you to an example
of how to get ready for the next
move of God in your life.
The story of Lazarus is a wonderful example
of how to get ready for the next
move of God.
Now, if you want God to call forth
his purposes in your life, as he called
forth and brought forth Lazarus, if you want
him to call forth his purposes in your
life, then you must do what they did
here.
And that is to remove the stone.
God's next move in our lives comes only
if we remove the stone.
And that's the very essence of my message.
Now, there are some cast of characters in
the story of Lazarus being raised from the
dead.
That need to be brought to our attention
or at least I never really paid much
attention to them before.
I preached on Mary and I preached on
Martha and their reaction to Lazarus' death and
the reaction of the disciples, but I never
focused in and saw this other secondary cast
of characters because they're very interesting.
Because there was a group of mourners friends,
relatives, neighbors who came and made some comments
when Jesus came on the scene and I
read them to you in my scriptures tonight.
And I see among them three types of
people.
Three people whom the Lord also addressed.
When he said remove the stone, he was
speaking to this group.
And I classify them this way.
There are three of them.
One I call the realist.
The realist.
Second in the group was what I call
the optimist.
And the third is the pessimist.
And you're gonna see, I want you to
see within these three things certain characteristics in
our own life.
And the first one I call the realist.
Now when Jesus came on the scene and
he saw the depth of the grief and
the flow of tears, look again at verse
37 that he was deeply troubled or moved
within, I think verse 33 it was and
Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews
came with her also.
He was deeply moved in spirit and was
troubled.
And the first group came to him and
he said to them, he said, where have
you laid him?
And this first group answered back and said
Lord come and see.
Come and see.
Now that group is what I call the
realist.
And the dictionary defines a realist as a
person concerned with real things and practical matters
rather than those that are imaginary or visionary.
And so a realist is one who sees
things as they really are.
The optimist sees things as he would hope
them to be or he always sees the
best side of everything.
And the pessimist, you know what the pessimist
is, he always sees the worst in everything
and in everybody.
For example, if an optimist, a pessimist and
a realist are riding in a car and
the gas gauge is right in the middle,
you know what the optimist says.
He says well we're half full.
The pessimist says we're half empty and probably
the gauge doesn't work right.
And so they argue back and forth as
to what they're going to do.
The realist speaks up and says hey, there's
a station right up over here.
Why don't we go and fill up so
you two guys can go and shut up.
In our family I'm usually the realist.
I'm usually the realist except when we travel.
When we travel, I hate to stop.
I hate to stop to fuel the car
or to fuel the stomach.
And my wife becomes a realist and I
become the optimist because whenever the tank comes
on, the light comes on that says your
tank is almost empty, I always tell my
wife well there's at least two more gallons
in there and I know a cheaper station
up the way.
And when lunch time comes, I say well
we'll just go 20 more miles which becomes
about 40 more miles.
Now also I'm a realist when it comes
to money.
My wife is the optimist.
You see when we pay the bills, I
finish paying the bills at the end of
the month and I have $100 left over,
I say well let's save it.
We'll put it in the bank and next
month if we get another $100 we'll put
that aside and month after that and year
after year and I say honey, we'll have
a little retirement.
But you see my wife, she's the optimist.
She says you're the one that's singing soon
and very soon.
Why leave it for the devil?
Let's spend it.
I knew I was going home alone tonight
anyhow.
My wife has to leave early.
Well I don't happen to agree with my
wife on that point.
But when it comes to other problems and
situations in our lives, sometimes being a realist
is a hindrance to faith and this is
a stone that needs to be removed and
let me explain it.
When the mourners at Lazarus, we could call
it a wake, when the mourners said, Jesus
said where have you laid him?
And they said come and see.
They were being very practical.
They were being realist but they were not
being men of faith.
They were saying in essence come and see,
come and see the grave.
Come see for yourself.
Lazarus is dead and they accepted the reality
and finality of Lazarus' death and they apparently
were inviting Jesus to come and to pay
his last respects to a situation that was
a closed case or a closed casket.
But you see there is a lesson to
be learned from this.
Be careful how you view the sorrows in
your life Be careful how you view the
sadness or the sickness or the tragedy or
the trials in your own life because you
can take on a realist attitude, an acceptance
attitude as it were a come and see
attitude and this can become an attitude of
self pity, of resignation, of acceptance and of
finality and such realism can destroy your faith.
Now you see there are times when we
must be realistic and accept the finality of
certain things but I believe that there are
other times when we give in too soon
to certain things.
We give in too soon and we accept
what God does not want us to accept
and we close the door to a situation
that God hasn't closed and he says remove
that approach remove that attitude that's a stone
you'll prevent me from moving in your life
if you view things that way.
When Jesus said remove the stone the realist
was at the stone and Jesus spoke to
him and he speaks to someone here tonight
who has given in to self pity or
you've given in to accepting a personal defeat
and you've said it's all over and the
Lord would say to you tonight remove that
stone and get ready because I can enter
in and I can move into that situation.
You see the words come and see can
mean Lord come and see what you did
to me.
Come and see Lord the mess that you
made for me.
In fact isn't that wasn't that Martha's attitude?
Mary said Lord if you had been here
you would have not died.
I believe that was a statement of faith.
Martha said the same thing but it wasn't
faith.
And so it is here.
They say come and see and it can
mean Lord see what you did to me.
See how you failed me.
See my plight.
Some people go around wanting everybody else to
come and see their tragedy or sorrow.
Not so that somebody can pray for them
but that so somebody can pity them.
I remember when I was a little fella
I got a real bad burn one time
on my back.
And so it was all bandaged up and
everything and I remember I left my shirt
off.
I left my t-shirt off and I
prayed it all around the neighborhood.
And I wanted everybody to see I had
a big burn.
And I had a great big boo-boo
and I wanted everybody to have pity on
me.
And finally the neighbor lady came to me
and she said you're very proud of that
aren't you?
And even as a little fella I realized
what I was doing.
Have you ever seen people like that?
Have you ever been a person like that?
Going around look at my boo-boo.
Look what's happened to me.
And you see some people go around parading
their hurts.
Parading some so-called injustice.
Parading around some little pet peeve.
And you know when a man has a
pet peeve it's remarkable how often he pets
it.
Remove the stone of self-pity so God
can bring forth his purposes in your life
so that he can take you on more
and more towards his perfect will for you.
You remember John was sulked under a withering
gourd.
Elijah was bitter under a juniper tree.
Job complained on the ash pile.
And each of them in their own way
were having a pity party.
And you know when you have a pity
party there's only one party there.
And that's yourself.
And if anybody else is there if they're
smart enough they'll get out of there as
soon as they can.
And that's, even men of God have had
that.
And pity parties have only one person at
the party and it's the sulker.
And while he sulks he says God you're
not producing for me.
But I want to tell you there's a
cure for self-pity.
And the cure for self-pity is the
mind of Christ who emptied himself and took
on the form of a servant wherefore God
highly exalted him.
In other words, get your eyes off of
your situation.
Get it off of that.
Remove that stone of self-pity so that
God can come through into your life.
If you indulge in self-pity and the
luxury of self-pity and see self-pity
is a luxury.
It's kind of a luxury.
You know, I remember when I was a
kid when I would get sick I'd get
all kinds of attention.
And then when I got better it was
business as usual.
And so you kind of wanted to linger
on the sickness you know, for a while.
And I've seen people, the reason they can't
get healed is because their situation has been
a means of saying come and see, come
and see, come and see.
And it becomes a focus.
And if you indulge in self-pity and
the luxury of self-pity it means that
you have forgotten that you have been purged
from your old sins and that you have
put on a new man in accordance with
the life of the Son of God in
you.
And so there is the realist at the
tomb.
And then secondly, I see the optimist in
the crowd.
Look at verse 35.
It says, Jesus wept.
And so the Jews were saying, behold how
he loved him.
Now the dictionary describes the optimist as one
who takes the most hopeful or cheerful view
of matters or expects the best possible outcome.
And so here was a group seeing Jesus
weeping over a very sad situation and they
try to make the best of it and
to see the best in everything and so
they say, why my goodness Jesus must have
loved him very, very much.
You see, an optimist practices looking on the
bright side of everything.
He looks at life through rose-colored glasses.
Everybody else sees the gauge half empty, he
sees it half full.
The economy may be bad, but he says
it's only temporary.
You tell the optimist you're sick, he says
at least you're not dead.
You tell him your car's broke down, he
says you ought to be glad you got
a car.
You tell him you're losing your apartment, he
says be glad you didn't lose your job.
Ever know anybody like that?
Now the trouble sometimes with the optimist is
that he denies reality and he or she
practices a lot of self-denying by living
in an unreal world of self-made cheer,
self-made brightness and false hope.
And you see, that is often practiced in
the church and among believers.
Jesus spoke of those who look at the
indications of the weather and they say, oh,
it's going to be fair tomorrow.
And this is what I call the fair
weather Christian.
Everything can be going wrong in their home,
everything can be going wrong in their marriage,
in their personal walk with God, things are
out of order because there's sin, there's disorder,
there's disobedience.
But you ask them how they're doing, how
are you doing?
And they say, oh, everything's wonderful, everything's fine.
But of course you know it's not.
And storms are breaking out all around them
and they say, oh, the weather is just
beautiful.
And these are the people who say, oh,
I know that God loves me.
And just like the Jews said, oh, look
how Jesus loved Lazarus.
Now it's true that he loved Lazarus and
it's true that he loves you.
But if you've got death inside of you,
if you're living in sin, then Jesus loves
you.
But he does not love the condition of
your soul any more than he loved the
condition of Lazarus' body in the grave.
And if you're to get ready for the
next move of God in your life, you
may need to remove a stone of denial
and get real and get honest before God.
And until you move that stone, until you
get honest before God, he can't move in
your life the way that he desires to.
Turn to Matthew the 16th chapter, if you
will.
Matthew the 16th chapter.
Here Jesus warns us about looking at the
wrong signs in our life as proofs of
his love.
And there are people I see today in
the church that are very typical of what
Jesus talked about here in Matthew the 16th
chapter.
He answered and said unto them, when it
is evening, ye say, it will be fair
weather, for the sky is red.
And in the morning it will be foul
weather today, for the sky is red and
lowering.
O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face
of the sky, but can you not discern
the signs of the times?
A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a
sign.
Do you know the sign that many in
the church are following today?
It's the sign of red sky at night,
sailors delight.
These are the Christians who believe that peace
and prosperity is a sign of God's blessing
and God's love.
And so that's all they ever see.
That's all they ever look for.
And preachers tell them that the sky is
red.
The sky is the limit.
You can have whatever you want from God,
materially speaking.
And every message and the only message some
preachers preach is the red sky message.
They tell people everything is all right.
And they teach Christians to look for such
signs, but they don't teach them to look
for Jesus.
Of optimism, but not of faith.
And there is a great deal of difference
between a man-made optimism and a God
-given faith.
And I'm seeing more and more that some
of the so-called prosperity or faith preachers
are not really faith preachers.
They're mere success motivators.
They're optimists.
They're cheerleaders who are blinding the eyes of
their followers to the fact that there may
be a stone in front of their door
and that Jesus will not come inside until
that stone is removed and that the resurrected
man can come forth out of their lives.
Matthew 16, verse 4 says, an evil, adulterous
generation seeks after a sign.
He said, oh, yes, and a sign will
be given it.
Will not be given it except the sign
of Jonah.
And Jesus, of course, is referring to himself.
Jonah is a type of Christ in that
he was swallowed up, as in death, but
he was also resurrected.
And the only sign that we are to
follow is Jesus, not your feelings, not self
-made optimism, and certainly not the teachers or
preachers who say all is well, all is
well.
They prophesy a fair weather, but they never
ever tell you that you have to remove
anything from your life, remove any stones before
he can come into your heart.
Look at verse 4, note verse 4, the
last sentence.
It says, and he left them and he
went away.
Oh, that strikes fear in my heart.
I never want Jesus to leave me or
depart because I'm not discerning a problem.
I'm not seeing something within me that God
wants to get at or deal with in
order for him to bring about the next
move in my life.
I don't want to close him out so
that he has to depart and move on.
Now thirdly, note the pessimist.
This is represented in Martha.
However, she was probably not the only pessimist
in the crowd.
I believe she's a representative person.
When Jesus said, remove the stone, listen to
what her reaction is.
She is aghast at the very thought of
it.
She says, Lord, by this time there will
be a stench for he has been dead
four days.
Martha, you see, is the classical, typical pessimist.
Now the dictionary defines pessimism as the tendency
to expect misfortune or the worst outcome on
any circumstances.
The practice of looking at the dark side
of things.
And also, the pessimist is a complainer.
In verse 21, Martha lets Jesus know how
upset she is.
She said, Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
Now, when Jesus says, roll back the stone,
Martha does not see that as a positive
sign.
She does not see that as something positive
or hopeful.
She sees and expects the worst.
All she can think about is how it's
going to smell.
You see, this is a picture of the
pessimist.
This is a picture of how many people
live.
Life is very difficult.
Life for the pessimist is very difficult.
Not only do they see the dark side
in everything and in everybody, for them, life,
if you'll pardon the expression, life is a
stinker.
Life is a stench.
This stinks and that stinks and he stinks
and she stinks and everybody else, they see
the worst, they smell the worst in everything
and everybody.
Now, do you know people that have that
kind of attitude problem?
You see, among non-Christians, it is called
pessimism.
Among Christians, it is called unbelief.
We know it was unbelief in Martha because
Jesus spoke directly to her and to her
unbelief.
In verse 40, Jesus said to her, Jesus
said to her, Oh, that's
another stone that has to be removed.
The stone of unbelief.
You see, it was not Lazarus that had
a stench.
It was Martha.
If there's anything that turns God away, it's
the smell of doubt and unbelief.
Jesus said to Martha, He's referring back already.
He had said previously to her, I am
the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me shall live even
if he dies and everyone who lives and
believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this?
And she said to him, Yes, Lord.
I have believed that you are the Christ,
the Son of God, even he who comes
into the world.
In other words, she makes a very theological
statement.
She said, Oh, yes.
It's in our doctrine.
It's in our creeds.
But that's not what Jesus asked her.
He asked her again.
He comes again.
And he said, I say to you again,
did I not say to you, if you,
Martha, believe, if you, Martha, believe today, today
you shall see the glory of God.
And I say to you tonight, just like
Martha, do you stand before a tomb?
Do you stand before a situation, pardon the
expression, that stinks, that's not a very pleasant
thing, something that has left a stench in
your soul?
Well, then the Lord has the same message
tonight for you that he had for Martha,
and it is this, if you believe, you
shall see the glory of God.
Hallelujah.
Now, what happened when the stone was removed?
Verse 41, that little line in my Bible
that says, and so, and so they removed
the stone.
After all of their arguments, after all of
their resistance, they removed it.
And you see, when the stone of self
-pity or the stone of self-assurance or
false hope and unbelief is removed, God is
able to take the next step in our
lives.
Do you know what God's next move in
your life or what he wants it to
be in your life?
What he wants to do in and for
every one of us?
This is what I believe it is, and
it's in this story, and I see myself
in this story.
I believe that he wants to bring forth
a new man.
He wants to bring forth a new man.
Lazarus went into the grave a dead man.
He came out a live man.
He went in bound, but he came out
free.
And tonight, if you're here and you are
dead in your trespasses and sins, then I
want you to know that that stone, if
it's drug addiction, if it's homosexuality, if it's
lust, whatever your stone represents, if you will
let him move it, if you say, yes,
I want it moved, then Christ can call
forth a new man out of your tomb.
Hallelujah.
That new man is called a new creature
in Christ Jesus.
But listen, the call to Lazarus is not
just to the enslaved sinner.
It's to all of us.
At any stage of our spiritual walk, God
is wanting to call forth a new work,
a new thing, a new revelation, a new
change.
Hallelujah.
2 Corinthians 3, 18.
But it says, But we all, with open
faith, beholding as in a mirror the glory
of the Lord.
Didn't Jesus say to Martha, If you believe,
ye shall see the glory of God.
And Paul says that glory is for us.
Remove the stone so that the glory will
go into the grave and Lazarus can come
forth.
And Paul says those who behold the glory
are changed into the same image from glory
to glory, even by the Spirit of the
Lord.
Another translation of the same verse goes like
this.
It says, We are transformed in ever, I
like this.
We are transformed in ever increasing splendor into
his own image.
And the transformation comes from the Lord who
is the Spirit.
We are a people who are constantly in
process.
I remember a young convert spoke to me
as I was going out of the church
one day.
And I said, How you doing?
He said, Well, he said, The Lord's really,
really digging deep.
He's really getting down at some things.
He said, Does it ever stop?
I said, No, it doesn't.
It never stops.
Oh, you know, it's a different degrees, but
it never stops.
Listen, we're always in process.
Like the caterpillar turning into the butterfly, we're
continually emerging from one level to the next,
from one change to the next.
Think of it tonight.
Consider, consider where and what the Lord has
already brought some of you from.
The scriptures speak of what we once were.
It uses terms like this.
It calls us, it talks about the man
of corruption.
It talks about the wretched man.
It talks about the unrighteous man, the vain
man, the natural man, the defiled man.
But you see, when you confess your sins
and when you gave yourself to the Lord,
Jesus interceded for you before the Father and
a Lazarus began to come forth.
Hallelujah.
And who is this Lazarus?
Listen to how the scriptures describes it.
When old things pass away and behold, all
things become new.
Here's just a few examples.
We go from being an old man to
a new man or woman.
We go from a dead man to a
raised man.
We go from a carnal man to a
mature man.
We go from an optimist to a man
of faith.
We go from being a double-minded man
to singleness of heart.
We go from living on the outward man
to living by the inward man of which
the inward man is renewed day by day.
We go from a man of flesh to
a man of the spirit.
And the Lord is taking us from being
a man or woman of little stature unto
a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ.
Or what about putting off the old man
which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust,
a man whose conversation is ungodly.
And we put that off so that ye
can put on the new man which after
God is created to righteousness and true holiness.
Or some of you, he's taken you from
being an angry man, an angry woman, and
he's made you a gentle man and a
gentle woman, hallelujah.
I could go on and on describing the
man of God that we are ever emerging
into.
Philippians 3.12 says, Not that I have
already laid hold of it or that I
am already perfect, but I am pressing on
in hope of winning the mastery as Christ
Jesus has won the mastery over me.
Hallelujah.
You see the Lord is calling forth a
church today.
He's calling forth a people without spot or
wrinkle.
And he wants you therefore to get ready
for the next move of God in your
life.
And that means removing the stone so that
he can take every spot, he can press
out every wrinkle, hallelujah.
It says, Put ye on the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And we are ever laying aside one garment
and putting on a new one in Christ.
One more verse and I'm going to close
with this.
Look at verse 44.
Verse 44.
And I close.
Well, verse 43.
And when he had said these things, he
cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come
forth.
And not only has Lazarus come forth, but
he keeps coming forth.
And then it says, And he who had
died came forth, bound hand and foot with
wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with
cloth.
And Jesus said to them, Unbind him and
let him go.
I see that's what the Lord is doing
in some of you.
The Lord's unbinding you.
In fact, he is continuing.
He is continually unbinding the grave clothes of
the old man, the man of sin, and
perfecting the new man.
This is a continual process.
I look back over my life.
I was thinking, praying about this today.
I look back over my life, and I
have left a trail of grave clothes.
I've left a trail of them.
Starting when I was about a teenager, and
I guess for the last umpteen years or
so, thirty-some years, whatever it is, the
Lord has been unbinding me, loosing me from
that old man.
And he keeps unbinding me.
He keeps unwrapping me.
And you know what I believe, Brother Bob
and Brother Jimmy, I believe there's a man
of God down in here somewhere.
I believe if I keep letting him unbind
me, I'm going to finally get there, hallelujah.
And he's going to keep unbinding us.
Get ready, get ready for the next move
of God in your life.
He wants to unbind you and let you
go.
Have you ever got one of those gifts?
You open it up, and it is a
package.
And you open that up, and in it
is another package.
And you open that up, and there's another,
you know, you feel a little silly, and
you get a little mad, and you keep
going and keep going, and finally, you know,
it's a great big box, but it's a
very little thing.
Ah, but listen, that's, I see, I see
that's the process that I'm talking about.
The Lord keeps opening, and he keeps, there's
a gift inside there somewhere, hallelujah.
And one day, one day, I'm going to
be able to present it.
One day, I want to be able to
present a perfect man unto him.
A man that walks, oh, I don't mean
a sinless man, but I want to be
that man who's living in the full stature
of Christ, hallelujah.
And you know, you know, when we, when
this service is over, and you're all out
of here, we have a crew that goes
through here.
I don't know when they do it, but
they clean up.
They clean up all the debris, and you
know, thank God, I don't think we're a
real dirty church.
I haven't asked.
Oh, here's one of the ushers saying yes,
one of the workers saying yes.
And you know, they come through, and they
clean up all the paper and everything.
But you know something else that's beautiful?
I believe the Spirit comes through and picks
up all the grave clothes, all the grave
clothes that have been left behind, all the
things that God's dealing with, people who he's
liberating, people who he's changing, people who he's
saying yes, I'm speaking to you.
Lay down that hurt, lay down that attitude,
lay down that jealousy, lay that thing down.
God puts his focus on some other sin,
and especially around, oh, there must be a
stack of them at the altar.
He picks them all up, hallelujah.
This is a place to leave it.
He is unbinding us, glory to God.
That's the process.
Get ready for the next move of God
in your life.
There's some more clothes to come off, hallelujah.
Let go and let God have his way
in your life tonight.
Are you ready?
I don't know what God's saying to you,
but listen to me, I believe that he's
saying something to every single one from this
front row back to the last row, every
single individual, every one of you.
You're at some point of time in your
spiritual walk, and God may have done great,
marvelous victories for you, but whatever it is,
whatever stage you're at, he's not finished with
you yet.
He wants to open another package.
He wants to take off some more grave
clothes, and he wants a Lazarus to come
forth.
He wants to bring glory into your tomb,
as it were, and let a new Lazarus
come forth.
Will you let him do that tonight?
Praise the Lord.
Shall we stand together?
When you make great, great, tremendous promises to
the Lord and can't fulfill them, or other
times when you're ready to deny your faith,
the Lord doesn't want you to swing that
way.
He wants you to swing right in the
center of his will.