{"id":3161,"date":"2014-04-14T08:49:24","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T12:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/?p=3161"},"modified":"2014-04-17T08:24:21","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T12:24:21","slug":"the-way-to-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/2014\/04\/the-way-to-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"The Way to Forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"greatbaner960w\"<\/a>SERIES: The Great Adventure: The Way
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TITLE:\u00a0 The Way to Forever
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Scripture: John 11
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\u201cAll great Christians have been wounded souls.\u201d Tozer<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong at the broken places.\u201d Hemingway\u00a0 We can safely say \u201cEvery one of us broken by God, and it is in those broken places where we are strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I.\u00a0\u00a0 THE BACKSTORY<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Jesus raised Lazarus to life, not to restore him to life, or to comfort his grieving sisters, but that He and His Father would be glorified.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sickness does not lead to death\u201d is another way of saying, \u201cThis sickness will not end in death.\u201d This may be the most important statement in the whole story.<\/p>\n

Everything that takes place after that statement is just one opportunity after another for the life and love and goodness of the Father to be experienced, embraced, and believed.<\/p>\n

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II.\u00a0\u00a0 THE ENCOUNTER \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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What was Jesus saying when He said this illness will not lead to death? Was not saying Lazarus would not die. He was saying death would not be ultimate outcome.<\/p>\n

It is never easy understanding God\u2019s way of doing things. We wonder, like Mary and Martha, why Jesus didn\u2019t come sooner, especially when He claims a deep love for this family.<\/p>\n

Mary and Martha could only see (the immediate<\/span><\/strong>). What they would soon learn is you can\u2019t have a resurrection without (a death<\/span><\/strong>). You cannot know the transforming triumph of Christ without a (crisis<\/span><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Jesus wept. Why?<\/p>\n

1) Jesus weeps with those who weep.
\n2) Jesus weeps for the condition of humanity.<\/p>\n

We celebrate today what Paul writes in I Cor.15: \u201cDeath is swallowed up in victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

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NEXT WEEK: \u00a0\u00a0Title: The Way to Peace<\/p>\n

Text: John 14:15-31<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SERIES: The Great Adventure: The Way TITLE:\u00a0 The Way to Forever Scripture: John 11   \u201cAll great Christians have been wounded souls.\u201d Tozer \u201cThe world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong at the broken places.\u201d Hemingway\u00a0 We can safely say \u201cEvery one of us broken by God, and it is in those broken places … <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon-notes","nodate","item-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3161"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3168,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions\/3168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}