Politics, Prophecy, and the Power of God (John 11:45-54)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:07.429 Pring your attention to God's Word in John Eleven. I'll read this passage and 2 00:00:08.150 --> 00:00:11.910 here from the end of John Eleven, and then preach on it this morning. 3 00:00:15.589 --> 00:00:24.579 John Eleven. Let's start in verse forty three. Lazarus, friend of 4 00:00:24.660 --> 00:00:30.260 Jesus, brother of Mary and Martha, has died. He's been dead for 5 00:00:30.420 --> 00:00:36.530 four days. He is stinking dead and he's in a tomb, sealed in 6 00:00:36.609 --> 00:00:42.570 a tomb, has been. Jesus now brings him from death to life. 7 00:00:42.609 --> 00:00:47.530 He raises a dead man from the dead and makes him live. Will hear 8 00:00:47.810 --> 00:00:52.840 this and the reactions that follow. May God bless his word to us. 9 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:59.439 Verse Forty Three. When he had said these things, he cried out with 10 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:04.989 a loud voice Lazarus come out. The man who had died came out, 11 00:01:07.430 --> 00:01:10.870 his hands and feet bound, with linen strips in his face, wrapped with 12 00:01:10.950 --> 00:01:14.909 a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. 13 00:01:17.030 --> 00:01:19.659 Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen 14 00:01:19.819 --> 00:01:23.459 what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the 15 00:01:23.540 --> 00:01:29.579 Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the 16 00:01:29.659 --> 00:01:34.090 Pharisees gathered the council and they said, what are we to do? For 17 00:01:34.209 --> 00:01:38.250 this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, 18 00:01:38.530 --> 00:01:42.530 everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our 19 00:01:42.769 --> 00:01:48.519 place and our nation. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high 20 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:53.000 priest that year, said to them you know nothing at all, nor do 21 00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:56.599 you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the 22 00:01:56.719 --> 00:02:00.280 people, not that the whole nation should perish. He did that. He 23 00:02:00.750 --> 00:02:06.030 did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, 24 00:02:06.150 --> 00:02:09.110 he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the 25 00:02:09.150 --> 00:02:15.430 nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are 26 00:02:15.469 --> 00:02:22.180 scathered, scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put 27 00:02:22.219 --> 00:02:27.780 him to death. Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but 28 00:02:27.939 --> 00:02:31.849 went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, 29 00:02:32.409 --> 00:02:37.409 and there he stayed with his disciples, or with the disciples. Now 30 00:02:37.490 --> 00:02:39.370 the pass over the Jews, who was at hand, and many went up 31 00:02:39.409 --> 00:02:45.280 from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking 32 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:47.680 for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple. What 33 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:51.719 do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all. 34 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:57.240 Now the chief priests and the fair he's had given orders that if anyone knew 35 00:02:57.240 --> 00:03:00.870 where he was, he should let them know so that they might arrest him, 36 00:03:01.949 --> 00:03:13.300 maybe seated here in our passage. We have this question. What are 37 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:19.099 we to do? On the chief priests and the Pharisees gather this counsel together 38 00:03:19.219 --> 00:03:23.659 and say, what are we to do? There's a kind of handwringing right 39 00:03:23.340 --> 00:03:30.129 what's going on? I don't know what, a frustration and anxiousness. What 40 00:03:30.289 --> 00:03:37.610 are we to do? This is a question that is that God never asks 41 00:03:38.969 --> 00:03:46.400 of himself. God never is sitting in heaven wondering, waiting, deciding, 42 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:52.280 trying to figure things out. This is something we do all the time, 43 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:57.669 every moment and in a sense, in every way, we are constantly asking 44 00:03:57.789 --> 00:04:02.830 this question. Maybe it's a much more mild form. What's next? What? 45 00:04:03.750 --> 00:04:06.990 What? What's the next thing to do? And sometimes it's a much 46 00:04:06.990 --> 00:04:13.139 more anxious question, a fearful question. What are we to do? But 47 00:04:13.259 --> 00:04:18.579 God, as I say, he never he never asks this question because he 48 00:04:18.819 --> 00:04:26.529 always works according to his will, and his will is perfect in every way. 49 00:04:29.529 --> 00:04:32.569 Consider what Ephesians, when eleven says, says that God works all things 50 00:04:32.569 --> 00:04:40.120 according to the counsel of his will. Isaiah for ten, the counsel of 51 00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:46.319 God stands and he does his good pleasure. We are also reminded that God's 52 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:50.120 will is eternal, perfectly wise. It is good, as we have heard. 53 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:57.350 So God, in his perfect wisdom, is never like US trying to 54 00:04:57.389 --> 00:05:00.269 figure out how to match the means to the ends. How do I get 55 00:05:00.310 --> 00:05:05.029 from A to be? That's wisdom, right. It's knowing the right end. 56 00:05:05.629 --> 00:05:09.379 What's the thing to obtain? What's the good thing? First of all, 57 00:05:09.420 --> 00:05:12.540 knowing what it is, and then how do you get there? Challenging 58 00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:17.100 things, but not for God. God's wisdom is perfect. God's wisdom is 59 00:05:17.180 --> 00:05:25.529 unsearchable. God's wisdom is grounded in his will, which is also eternal, 60 00:05:26.449 --> 00:05:30.850 which means that God is not continually deciding things, sort of reacting to events 61 00:05:30.889 --> 00:05:39.079 in time and space, but it is set perfectly eternal, forever made. 62 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:44.800 All things that fall out in God's Providence. All things that happen in our 63 00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:49.949 world happen because God is never asking what do we do? What do I 64 00:05:50.110 --> 00:05:56.709 do? This is, of course, a question creatures ask all the time, 65 00:05:56.790 --> 00:05:59.790 as I've said and as I hinted at earlier in our service, part 66 00:05:59.829 --> 00:06:03.069 of it's just ignorance, right. It's not necessarily sinful. We're just limited. 67 00:06:03.579 --> 00:06:09.420 We can't see everything, we don't know everything as God does. We 68 00:06:09.579 --> 00:06:13.939 also have very limited power, we have very limited abilities and what we can 69 00:06:14.019 --> 00:06:18.449 choose to do. We're also moved all the time. There's thousands, millions, 70 00:06:18.569 --> 00:06:27.329 billions of variables constantly affecting every moment, all interrelated and interacting. It's 71 00:06:27.410 --> 00:06:32.800 really impossible to have a hundred percent certainty about anything, at least in the 72 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:39.560 way that God knows things. We are creatures, we are limited, and 73 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:44.439 there's nothing wrong with that. That's how God made us. We are not 74 00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:49.509 God's we shouldn't try to be. But there is something sinful that is added 75 00:06:49.550 --> 00:06:54.870 to this. Of course. We don't simply a limited creature. It can 76 00:06:54.949 --> 00:07:00.149 still trust and rely fully on the Lord. A creature can go to his 77 00:07:00.389 --> 00:07:03.660 or her God and say, I don't know everything, but you do, 78 00:07:04.339 --> 00:07:12.019 and so I'll trust you. A limited creature can say I cannot always determine 79 00:07:12.100 --> 00:07:14.860 the best thing, I don't always know the best way, but you do 80 00:07:15.579 --> 00:07:18.250 and I will trust you. Sin, of course, doesn't do that. 81 00:07:19.529 --> 00:07:25.089 Sin Doesn't say what do I do, and then hand that question over to 82 00:07:25.250 --> 00:07:30.600 God and rest in him. Rock of ages, cleft for me know, 83 00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:35.879 the creature wonders out of God, out of that protection, out of that 84 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:43.279 certainty, and tries to forge his or her own way, to do things 85 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:46.790 according to our own reason, our own decisions, our own will. This 86 00:07:46.910 --> 00:07:50.230 doesn't mean, of course, that we don't make decisions and we don't have 87 00:07:50.350 --> 00:07:55.310 choices to make and all of that, but it's a question. The focus 88 00:07:55.430 --> 00:08:00.740 here is on dependence. Are we depending on ourselves at the root of what 89 00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:05.060 we are doing? Are we dependent on who we are and what we do 90 00:08:05.379 --> 00:08:09.699 and all and and our ability to be in the world, to control the 91 00:08:09.819 --> 00:08:15.730 world, to decide the world, to know the world? If we do, 92 00:08:16.009 --> 00:08:20.129 it's a fool's errand for one, in our sinfulness we go against the 93 00:08:20.329 --> 00:08:26.689 grain. God has ordered this world in a certain way and in our sinfulness 94 00:08:26.769 --> 00:08:31.679 we always push against the way that we shouldn't go. And we all have 95 00:08:31.840 --> 00:08:35.360 examples of this. We can put put point to in our lives things where 96 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:39.000 our parents have said, if you do this, this will happen, and 97 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:43.110 then we do the opposite, and then we go man, I should have 98 00:08:43.350 --> 00:08:50.110 listened. All of us have lost jobs and friends and gotten ourselves in all 99 00:08:50.149 --> 00:08:54.269 kinds of bad situations because we've not done the thing that we know we ought 100 00:08:54.269 --> 00:09:00.179 to do, or we've left undone the thing we know we really should have 101 00:09:00.340 --> 00:09:05.460 done. We're fools, and it's not just a problem of ignorance, it's 102 00:09:05.500 --> 00:09:11.610 a problem of sin. We go against the grain, not only in our 103 00:09:11.649 --> 00:09:18.970 actions but also in our minds. We often purposefully misread things in order to 104 00:09:18.210 --> 00:09:26.320 justify our own actions. We we look at situations and we say, well 105 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:33.799 then, if that happens, I have to do this. We use faulty 106 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:37.909 reasoning. There's all kinds of crazy things going on here in the reaction of 107 00:09:37.990 --> 00:09:41.629 the Pharisees. They're trying, for example, to kill a man who just 108 00:09:41.870 --> 00:09:46.070 caused someone to rise from the dead. How do you think that's going to 109 00:09:46.149 --> 00:09:54.379 go? Right? They are. They go even against the advice of Caiaphas, 110 00:09:54.940 --> 00:09:58.899 see Kiaphas, even though he's not he's it's a political maneuver that he 111 00:09:58.019 --> 00:10:03.659 get offers here. He even recognizes their foolishness. They say, if we 112 00:10:03.779 --> 00:10:07.100 let him go, everyone will believe in him, as if they have any 113 00:10:07.210 --> 00:10:11.610 control over that. They're thinking all about themselves. The Romans will come and 114 00:10:11.730 --> 00:10:16.009 take away our place, our nation. These words are emphasized in the Greek 115 00:10:16.090 --> 00:10:22.000 as well. Kiaphas stands up and says, you guys don't know anything at 116 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:26.639 all. You're making excuses because you're upset. This is not the way to 117 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:35.509 handle this. We don't trust God, we don't reason according to his principles, 118 00:10:37.110 --> 00:10:41.629 we aren't willing to endure suffering. There's all kinds of things. We 119 00:10:41.710 --> 00:10:46.110 could go on and on and on. We've put ourselves and we find ourselves 120 00:10:46.149 --> 00:10:50.940 in all kinds of terrible situations and asking ourselves, what are we going to 121 00:10:50.100 --> 00:11:00.179 do, and then even answering that in bad and foolish ways. This is 122 00:11:00.259 --> 00:11:05.889 what happens with the Pharisees. Some of these people who go with Mary have 123 00:11:07.210 --> 00:11:15.370 this amazing experience of seeing Lazarus rise from the dead and they believe in Jesus 124 00:11:15.850 --> 00:11:20.879 and says and then in verse forty six. Some of them, though, 125 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:26.799 they go to the Pharisees, and it seems like there's some like tattletelling going 126 00:11:26.919 --> 00:11:33.389 on here. They told them, Pharisees, what Jesus had done. Dude, 127 00:11:33.509 --> 00:11:37.549 can't you believe what he did? There isn't a sense of our one 128 00:11:37.750 --> 00:11:41.909 er or majesty. There's no trust. Here. Is the God of the 129 00:11:41.990 --> 00:11:48.220 universe. He just caused a man to come from death to life. It's 130 00:11:48.299 --> 00:11:54.820 like they're they're complaining about something when they ought to be praising a god for 131 00:11:56.019 --> 00:12:00.620 it. And then the same goes for the Pharisees. Here we have what 132 00:12:00.940 --> 00:12:13.370 is fulfillment of God's prophetic word and Psalm to. We have recorded the WHO 133 00:12:13.370 --> 00:12:18.360 will stand against the Lord and his anointed? The people of the world. 134 00:12:18.440 --> 00:12:22.679 They Murmur, whisper, they take counsel together to stand against the Lord and 135 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:26.960 is anointed, to break apart their bonds. And this is exactly what happens 136 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:33.750 here. The chief priests, the the important leaders in the church and the 137 00:12:33.830 --> 00:12:39.190 Pharisees, they gather the counsel together. We got to have a meeting. 138 00:12:41.230 --> 00:12:43.379 What are we going to do? And notice what they're trying to do, 139 00:12:43.659 --> 00:12:50.419 notice what their goal is. They are afraid. They are afraid that everyone 140 00:12:50.460 --> 00:12:54.539 will believe in him and that somehow this will cause the Romans to take away 141 00:12:54.659 --> 00:13:01.409 both our place and our nation. This, by the way, is how 142 00:13:01.450 --> 00:13:07.129 we usually get ourselves in trouble. We try to control the things in our 143 00:13:07.210 --> 00:13:11.289 lives, thinking that we have ownership over them all, this is my place, 144 00:13:11.529 --> 00:13:18.840 my right, my whatever, and they become our idols. Doesn't mean 145 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:24.000 we don't possess things, of course we do, but when we possess them 146 00:13:24.039 --> 00:13:28.350 in such a way that they possess us, when we possess them in such 147 00:13:28.389 --> 00:13:31.110 a way that they have control over us and they guide our every thought, 148 00:13:31.230 --> 00:13:39.190 in every action, that we're willing to disregard the glorious work of God so 149 00:13:39.389 --> 00:13:45.580 that we can protect the things that we have, that's when we get ourselves 150 00:13:45.620 --> 00:13:52.220 in trouble, and unfortunately, that's what the Pharisees are doing here. They 151 00:13:52.220 --> 00:13:56.009 are they are concerned to protect, to control, the things in their lives. 152 00:13:56.690 --> 00:14:01.169 They want, at all costs, to protect their authority. That's why 153 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:07.649 they're afraid of Jesus. They're afraid because he puts the things that are most 154 00:14:07.809 --> 00:14:13.960 valuable to them at risk. And God does this all the time with all 155 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:20.320 of us. We all have things in our lives that we are afraid to 156 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:26.990 lose, whether it's our health, our money, certain relationships, freedoms, 157 00:14:28.870 --> 00:14:31.750 and it doesn't mean those things aren't valuable. They are the that's why we're 158 00:14:31.789 --> 00:14:35.269 afraid to lose them. Is Why we love them. They are God's goods, 159 00:14:35.350 --> 00:14:39.460 gifts, and they shouldn't be despised. We shouldn't turn away from these 160 00:14:39.539 --> 00:14:43.340 things, good things anyway, when God is given to them to us, 161 00:14:43.340 --> 00:14:48.299 we should accept them and love them and hold them with appreciation and value them, 162 00:14:48.620 --> 00:14:54.409 but we don't clench down on them, we don't elevate them to the 163 00:14:54.529 --> 00:15:00.889 status of God. We don't say I'm not okay if these things are not 164 00:15:01.289 --> 00:15:09.120 there. We don't make our lives entirely dependent on those things, because our 165 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:15.240 lives are only ought to be only dependent on one thing. Quotes for those 166 00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:20.120 who are listening on the Internet, God. Our lives ought to only and 167 00:15:20.279 --> 00:15:26.590 always be dependent on God. And here is God in the world, raising 168 00:15:26.830 --> 00:15:33.190 dead people to life. Here is God challenging those idols, challenging those things 169 00:15:33.269 --> 00:15:41.259 and giving themselves, giving them everything, offering to them eternal life, showing 170 00:15:41.419 --> 00:15:48.019 his glory and his power in this amazing way. When God does this in 171 00:15:48.139 --> 00:15:54.169 your life, when God reveals his word, when God reveals Jesus to you, 172 00:15:54.370 --> 00:15:58.809 as he is doing right now in the preaching of his his word, 173 00:16:00.009 --> 00:16:04.559 in the hearing of his word, as you hear Jesus, do you turn 174 00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:10.200 away and you say I'm going to protect my country, my things, my 175 00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:15.320 people, my relationships, my money, or do you hear and receive the 176 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:26.590 Gift of God that is given to us? Do you believe one of the 177 00:16:26.710 --> 00:16:37.340 ways we see God use these kinds of crises in our lives is in Chiaphas 178 00:16:37.539 --> 00:16:41.700 here? This is one of many, many examples we could see from this 179 00:16:41.820 --> 00:16:47.570 passage and from the rest of John and all of scripture really. But notice 180 00:16:47.610 --> 00:16:52.529 what happens with Caiaphas. There is this kind of political maneuvering that's going on 181 00:16:52.850 --> 00:16:56.610 all over the place, and he says, you guys don't know anything at 182 00:16:56.649 --> 00:17:00.570 all, nor do you understand it's better for you that one man should die 183 00:17:00.690 --> 00:17:03.480 for the people, not the whole nation should perish. Like let him go, 184 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:08.119 leave him alone, let him do his thing. If the Romans find 185 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:14.440 him and he dies, you know will be better. But what he doesn't 186 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:22.750 realize is that God uses this as a way to preach his word. He 187 00:17:22.990 --> 00:17:30.339 takes these this these political the political maneuvering, and he does so throughout the 188 00:17:30.460 --> 00:17:33.539 rest of John as well, and he used it as at able as a 189 00:17:33.619 --> 00:17:38.339 blessing, and so we see in verse fifty one. But being high priest 190 00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:42.099 that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not 191 00:17:42.259 --> 00:17:47.650 for the nation only, but also to gather into one children of God who 192 00:17:47.650 --> 00:18:00.079 are scattered abroad. Out of dirty politics, God brings a prophecy, and 193 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:04.519 this is a kind of prelude what the Cross of Christ is all about. 194 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:15.710 Out of the murder and execution of a political threat, we have the salvation 195 00:18:15.750 --> 00:18:25.230 of the world. Out of the sinful acts and choices of men, God 196 00:18:25.349 --> 00:18:30.700 brings us not just the salvation of his people in Israel, but through people 197 00:18:30.819 --> 00:18:37.779 scattered all over the world, into one lovely family, through the cross, 198 00:18:38.660 --> 00:18:45.690 through the execution, through the murder of the son of God. And this 199 00:18:45.809 --> 00:18:52.569 is what God is always doing. This is how the glorious life that we 200 00:18:52.690 --> 00:19:00.519 have in Christ will come, death to life, suffering, trial, tribulation, 201 00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:07.400 but ultimately leading to glory the Pharisees, and unfortunately, many of us 202 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:14.029 want nothing to do with that. We're don't want to suffer, we don't 203 00:19:14.069 --> 00:19:17.829 want to wait, we don't know. We want our country and we want 204 00:19:17.869 --> 00:19:22.509 our place and we want our fame and whatever it is you want to list 205 00:19:22.710 --> 00:19:26.339 and we want it now, and we want it without trial, we want 206 00:19:26.339 --> 00:19:32.539 it without tribulation. But this is not the way of Christ, just isn't? 207 00:19:33.099 --> 00:19:37.180 We see it in the death of Lazarus and him waiting before rising rip 208 00:19:37.380 --> 00:19:41.690 cause it calling him to race from the dead. We see it in his 209 00:19:42.170 --> 00:19:47.569 I'm going into the Wilderness and being alone, in his in his loneliness and 210 00:19:47.730 --> 00:19:53.920 his separation. We will see it ultimately when Jesus is hung on a cross. 211 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:00.519 But why does he do this? He does it so that the death 212 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:04.599 and the suffering and all those things, the the that we face in this 213 00:20:04.839 --> 00:20:11.990 life, would be once and for all, finally put to death. We 214 00:20:11.150 --> 00:20:15.869 of course want to alleviate these things, we don't want to endure them, 215 00:20:15.950 --> 00:20:19.109 but there is no way that we can conquer them on our own. When 216 00:20:19.150 --> 00:20:23.420 we try to the just these little towers of Babel, to borrow a story 217 00:20:23.460 --> 00:20:27.140 from the Old Testament, but just we try to reach our way up to 218 00:20:27.220 --> 00:20:36.089 heaven, and it's just it never works. It doesn't work. But when 219 00:20:36.250 --> 00:20:42.049 God decides to overcome death, when God says I will give you my grace 220 00:20:42.329 --> 00:20:47.130 in such a way that all your sins will be forgiven, you will have 221 00:20:47.289 --> 00:20:52.000 eternal life forever. I will gather you in from the farthest places, from 222 00:20:52.039 --> 00:20:56.559 the most dangerous situation, from the most costly thing, and I will give 223 00:20:56.599 --> 00:21:02.400 you more blessings than you can ever imagine. That is a work that will 224 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:07.829 be completed, and that is a work that was completed by our Savior on 225 00:21:07.990 --> 00:21:12.630 the cross, and that's why we trust in him and him alone, and 226 00:21:12.750 --> 00:21:21.700 we turn away from our foolishness and our our sin and we say no more, 227 00:21:23.019 --> 00:21:30.180 I don't care about my idols enough to lose my life, and besides 228 00:21:30.259 --> 00:21:36.250 that, it's a sin against God. But we see in his love and 229 00:21:36.369 --> 00:21:44.809 His grace given to us this perfect freedom and this perfect life. And so 230 00:21:45.089 --> 00:21:52.519 my encouragement to you is to trust him, to believe in him, this 231 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:56.640 one who not only raised Lazarus from the dead, but took up his own 232 00:21:56.799 --> 00:22:02.710 life after his own death and rose with authority over death, having conquered it 233 00:22:02.869 --> 00:22:07.549 and all sin and all suffering, and done so. Finally, if you 234 00:22:07.670 --> 00:22:11.150 leave off on your own into the world and try to establish your own kingdoms 235 00:22:11.230 --> 00:22:14.990 in your own places, in your own way, in according to your own 236 00:22:15.029 --> 00:22:18.099 reason, even if you do a really, really good job at it, 237 00:22:18.220 --> 00:22:26.940 by human standards. It'll all be lost. Moths eat things up, rust 238 00:22:27.140 --> 00:22:33.930 destroys the steel. Death comes to us all. You will face only a 239 00:22:33.089 --> 00:22:37.569 life like the author of ECCLESIASTIES describes it, a life under the sun that 240 00:22:37.690 --> 00:22:45.400 is just vanity after vanities, chasing after the wind. But if you receive 241 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:52.319 a life like Lazarus did, if you receive a life that is given to 242 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:59.750 you by God, Almighty creator of the world and Redeemer of the world, 243 00:23:00.789 --> 00:23:08.150 your life will be perfect, consummated in glory and forever. Trust in the 244 00:23:08.269 --> 00:23:15.099 Lord Jesus Christ, trust in him alone. Let's pray