Tuesday Night Sermon Notes
In Week 3 of Who Told You, Pastor Bryan took us to Bethany, where Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. In that culture, after three days all hope was gone, so four days was not just a delay; it was a verdict. Too late for the healing, too late for the dream, too late for the breakthrough. We have been living off words that were never God's words. Tonight he went after the lie that says it is too late, and asked one simple question: who told you that?
It is not too late. God has never been late, and He is not about to start with you.
“Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”
John 11:1-5 (ESV)
“So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.”
John 11:6 (ESV)
“Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.”
John 11:17 (ESV)
“Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.””
John 11:21 (ESV)
“Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?””
John 11:39-40 (ESV)
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
Genesis 50:20 (ESV)
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Proverbs 16:18 (ESV)
“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.”
Galatians 3:1 (ESV)
“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.”
Hebrews 10:36 (ESV)
“as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
Psalm 103:12 (ESV)
All the evidence can seem to prove it, and it is still a lie. The clock looked like it ran out, but Jesus was never worried about the clock.
Jesus got the message and chose to stay two days longer. He wasn't stuck, distracted or unaware; every minute of that delay was on purpose. God can be intentional and silent at the same time. Pastor Bryan compared it to an AI chat that just says “thinking”: it isn't talking to you, but it's working, and then the answer shows up. Silence is not absence. It may be heaven setting the stage. Keep believing.
Martha believed in Jesus and still believed it was over. She had real trust and real grief, and the enemy loves to work in the gap between what you believed God for and what actually happened. Be honest with God; He already knows. Pastor Bryan shared, for the first time publicly, that he and Jasmine lost a baby at 13 weeks. It didn't change his belief in God. He was angry and he still praised, and they chose to believe again, and God turned it for good. He is no respecter of persons. Don't let your grief write an ending God has not signed.
Martha did the math, and the math was right: four days, there will be an odor. But Jesus wasn't working from her math. He had already told her the outcome. The only thing between her and the glory was a stone and her willingness to move it. Your stone might be negative voices, a habit you know you shouldn't be messing with, hesitancy, or old wounds. Roll it away. Whose report will you believe? A doctor's report or the world's math is not the final word. God is.
Jesus heard the report and said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God.” Maybe God knew that if it had gone right the first time, we would have taken the credit. Pride goes before a fall. You can't have a testimony without a test. Jane shared how a sudden vision problem landed her in the ER, where she prayed for a woman in severe pain; her own sight was restored, and God got the glory out of both situations.
Jesus had already told Martha, “This illness does not lead to death.” Yet we stay in it, thinking with an unrenewed mind, and our offense starts bleeding out on everybody. Ask yourself not only who told you that, but why you believed it. Why did the enemy sound so enticing? Why did that voice get louder than God's? Like Paul asked, “Who has bewitched you?” You have need of endurance. God has already told you the end of the story in His Word. Conviction is God's love saying “get it right, I've got more for you”; if you feel condemned, that's a heart-posture problem. Pastor Bryan told how, at 17, he got a speeding ticket in his Viper-blue Ford Escort, borrowed money from Sister Linda to pay it, got passed by his dad on the way, and blamed Linda. Some of us are still passing the buck when God wants a heart-to-heart.
The story is already written on God's side; He's waiting for you to decide which ending you'll take: the other voices, or the report of the Lord. It takes a heart change, a mind change and a spirit change. Repentance means turning away from those words, that lifestyle, those thoughts. When we repent, God removes our sin “as far as the east is from the west” and remembers it no more, so put the enemy back in his place. Pastor Bryan shared a testimony: a woman facing foreclosure on a Monday grabbed a prayer cloth Sunday night and kept believing; at the last second, the foreclosure was canceled. It could have been four days, four years or four decades. Tonight that stone is moving.
“Four days was not just a delay. It was a verdict.”
“God has never been late once, and He's not about to start with you.”
“The delay was never a denial.”
“God can be intentional and silent at the same time.”
“Faith and disappointment can sit in the same heart at the same time.”
“Do not let your grief write an ending God has not signed.”
“Your math can be accurate and still be the wrong measure.”
“I didn't call it dead. You did. Who told you that?”
“Not only who told you that, but why did you believe that?”
“Did that voice get louder in your life than Mine?”
“The story has already been written on God's side. He's waiting for you to decide which ending you're going to take.”
“It could have been four days, four years or four decades, but tonight He wants to set you free.”