Don't Be Dead Any More

I am basically going to just transcribe the words straight from my journal, which might be a tad rambly and/or incoherent, so let me give you a little bit of context first. A few weeks ago, I heard probably the best sermon of my life on this passage from John 11. You can read the whole chapter here, but the following is the part I'll be focusing on. Y'all, this has changed my life, which is exactly what the Gospel should do whenever you truly encounter it. I hope it changes your life too.

³⁸Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹"Take away the stone," he said.
      "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."
 ⁴⁰Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
 ⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."
 ⁴³When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
      Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Roll the stone away to expose the death in your heart, no matter how ugly it is or how bad it smells. No matter how offensive it is, roll the stone away because it's the only way you can walk out of death and into new life. Come out of your death. Come out into the light no matter what you look like or how badly decayed you are.

Come out of death and show everyone freely that you were dead - talk about the sins it's "not ok to talk about." Expose them to the light so they can end - you're not dead any more. And then end them. Stop living as one who is still dead! Walk out of the tomb.

What are your tombs? What's dead inside of you? What stones is Jesus trying to roll away? Are you resisting the exposure of your death because you think you'll be embarrassed or that others will be offended by it? They're involved too.

God says to those around you that they are to remove your grave clothes. You don't have to do anything but come out of the grave. That's it. Jesus has already called you back to life. Just take the step out and let your community take off your grave clothes. Then get to living without even a hint of death around you. You're finished with that.

Stop living as though you're still dead. What in the world could possibly be stopping you? As you work through this, write down any "buts" that come to mind, and let Jesus deal with those. Just one chapter before this story of Lazarus in John, Jesus says, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). He didn't come to die so that you could stay dead inside, but rather, He has called you into abundant life and made a way for you to live it. So get on it.