The year 2020 has been quite challenging for many of us. It has been a year in which darkness, in fact thick darkness, covers the people. Instead of experiencing God’s light and glory, some of us have had contradictions instead.
The Lord has however come to assure us this morning that regardless of what you have seen in the last 9 months, you can still see the glory of God!
A. The Glory of God in Context.
· The intervention of God.
· The arrival of God in your situation
· The miracle of God
· The supernatural
· The blessing of God
· The answer of God
· The restoration of God.
B. Prerequisites for Beholding the Glory of God.
There are a number of Biblical requirements to seeing the glory of God. Some of them that can be gleaned from this text include the following:
1. You need Jesus Christ the Advocate on your side - V.33-35,38,39,40,41,42-43.
· Jesus wept! That is a serious matter!
· Jesus wept twice in scripture; here and over Jerusalem - Lk.19:41.
· Jesus' weeping here was not out of weakness.
· Rather, he wept out of compassion, concern and burden.
· He wept out of deep love for Lazarus and even Mary and Martha.
· Can I tell someone this morning that Jesus is touched by what you are going through - Heb. 4:15.
· He is deeply moved by your situation and has come to do something about it.
2. You need to deal with every hindrance - V.39.
· As powerful as Jesus is, there are certain things he would not do for you.
· You will have to do them by yourself.
· Jesus would not remove the stone for Martha and the rest.
· It was their responsibility to remove the stone, while it was His responsibility to perform the miracle.
· What is the stone hindering you from experiencing your miracle?
· Is it anger? Is it bitterness? Is it un-forgiveness?
· What is the sin that you need to deal with?
· What is the restitution that you need to make?
· What is that stone that you need to remove?
· May the Lord open your eyes to see such and deal with it right away. Otherwise, you can’t see the glory.
3. You need to avoid pretense - V. 39.
· The reason why some of our problems persist is because we pretend they don't exist.
· We thus continue to suffer in silence.
· Martha, though she spoke out of