Bringing God’s Peace to a Chaotic World

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J.John: Is there a stone standing between you and Jesus? Is there a stone standing between you and a miracle?
John Fuller: Today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, British evangelist J.John encourages you to remove any barriers that might be impeding your relationship with God. I'm John Fuller, and thanks for joining us.
Jim Daly: J.John and his wife Killy came across the pond, as we say, to visit Colorado last year. What you'll hear today is a message they gave to our staff, and I know you're going to be inspired as well. J.John is an author, speaker, and the director of Philo Trust in London. He's one of our most popular speakers on this show. He's an excellent storyteller.
John Fuller: And he's usually in our top ten every year. Here now is J.John and his wife Killy joining him on stage to start their presentation on today's episode of Focus on the Family with Jim Daly.
J.John: All of us here are defending the truth, but there is a time to feed on it. People like us, everyone is in ministry, everyone irrespective of what their role, position, or calling in life. But then there is ministry ministry, and we're involved in ministry ministry. The danger with us who are involved in this kind of ministry, which involves the spiritual battle, is that we have so many irons in the fire we're in danger of putting the fire out. So what we may need to do is take out some irons, stoke up the fire, stoke up the fire, and be renewed, revived, and revitalized. That's our prayer for the next few minutes today. Killy, you're going to read the scriptures.
Killy: Yes, I'm reading from John chapter 11, beginning at verse 38. Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 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?" So they took away the stone, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him and let him go." This is the word of the Lord. Amen.
J.John: Amen. Thank you, Killy. Okay, I want to unpack that passage. Obviously, it's a very well-known passage, and I want to draw four words out of this story. The first word is remove. Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Jesus, if he wanted to, with just a word, could have removed the stone. Because Jesus was the one who said if you had faith as small as a mustard seed, you could tell that mountain over there to move and shift. He had the power to do that, but he didn't move it with a word. He used others to move it. That's the great thing about Jesus. He could do so much more, but he likes working with us. I remember when my son Michael was about five, and I said, "I'm just going to go out and wash the car." Michael goes, "Oh, Daddy, can I come and help?" I thought, "No, not really. Not really." But of course, "Oh yes, you can help." But now I've got to find him a bucket. I've got to find him a sponge. So I thought, "Okay, you wash the headlamps." Every minute he's like going, "Daddy, am I doing it okay? Am I doing it okay?" I'd go and have a look, and no he's not. He's not doing it okay. He's put prints all over the car, all over the thing. But did it not bring me joy? Of course, it brought me joy. He wasn't doing it very well, but it brought me great joy that he was willing and wanted to work with me. What a joy it is that we can work with Jesus. People often say, "Who do you work for?" I say, "I work for God." "Do you?" I say, "Yes, I do. I work for God." Wow, I work for God, I work with God. We need to keep reminding ourselves, irrespective of whatever it is that you are currently engaged in, that you're working with God. You're working with God, the Creator of the entire universe and the cosmos. That's who you're working with. Now, here is my question. Remove, remove. Is there a stone standing between you and Jesus? Is there a stone standing between you and a miracle? Is there unforgiveness? Are there hurts? Have we built a wall of stones that's affecting our relationship with Jesus? Remove the stone. I'm Greek. You know when that movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding came out? Many of you saw it. When it came out, friends of mine said, "J.John, is that what Greek culture is like?" I said, "No, it's worse." Culture can be so suffocating and so restricting. My mother is a travel agent for guilt trips. I don't know if you've got a mother like that, but I ring my mother, and within 90 seconds she's making me feel guilty about something. I'm worn out with just being criticized all the time, all the time. Have I allowed something to come between me and Jesus? Is there anything for you? A hurt, an unresolved issue, unforgiveness? We need to remove anything that is standing between us and Jesus. Here is the second word: respond. Jesus with a loud shout, a loud shout, not a whisper. He didn't go, "Lazarus, come out." No, a loud shout. "Lazarus, come out!" It's a good job that Jesus used the word Lazarus, because you know the power of Jesus. If Jesus had not used the word Lazarus and just said come out, everybody would have come out. But on this particular occasion, Jesus was asking just one man to come out. "Lazarus, come out!" Now, here's the question. Has Jesus asked you to do something and you haven't done it? Has he asked you to do something and you haven't done it? I often get people coming up to me going, "Oh, J.John, could I speak with you? I feel like I'm at a crossroads in my life, and I could do with some direction." And I'm kind of like, "Well, look, has Jesus asked you to do something and you haven't done it?" Nine times out of ten people reply, "Yes, he has told me to do something, and I haven't done it." And I go, "Well, why are you asking for more directions? Just go and do what he told you to do. Do that, and then he'll tell you what else to do." Have we done what he's asked us to do?
John Fuller: You're listening to J.John on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, and we want to encourage you with more of his wit and wisdom in a free collection of downloads: seven complete shows featuring J.John, including this one with extra content. Request the J.John Collection at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast or call for details: 800-A-FAMILY. Let's return now to more from J.John.
J.John: I really felt the Lord said to me, "Go and pray for this woman." I said to Killy, "I really feel I should go and pray for this woman." Killy goes, "Well, you ought to go." I said, "It'll be one hour drive. I'll end up spending an hour with her, and then I'll have to drive back. That's another hour. Three hours. I've got to find a morning or an afternoon." Anyway, I didn't get round to it. A couple of months later, I really felt I should go and pray for this woman. Again, Killy goes, "You should go." I said, "Yeah, I've got to go. I've just got to find half a day to go." I didn't go. When we're home in England, we wake up with the alarm, the alarm comes on, and then we listen to the global news, BBC News. This woman was headline news. She was the top of the news. Amy Winehouse dies. I felt so sick because Jesus told me to go and pray for her. Now, you're wondering how on earth could I have got to Amy Winehouse? Well, Amy Winehouse rented my cousin's house in London, and she lived in my cousin's house. My cousin said to me, "J.John, just tell me when you want to go and meet Amy Winehouse, and I'll arrange it for you." And I didn't go. I was too busy. Too busy to go and help a broken woman. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Amy Winehouse, I mean a global superstar who had a drug addiction. I vowed that day, I repented, I confessed to the Lord that I knew that he told me to go and I didn't go. But Lord, I promise and I vow from this day on, I will go anywhere, I will do anything. However little or however big, I will do it. Every time I've had what I call a quiver in my liver, you know when you get that little stirring, I've done it. I told this story in the recording that we did yesterday. We were in church, and the pastor got up and the pastor goes, "Oh, I'm really sorry to bring this up, but we really, really need people to help look after the babies, and we need people to sign up for the coffee rotor." I thought, "What kind of a church is this? Why don't people volunteer? I can't believe it." As I'm thinking this, I feel this conviction. Sign up for coffee. I'm like, "Oh, Lord, I'm not a barista. Oh, Lord, I can't believe you're wanting me to do that. Oh, Lord, I'm really busy. Why do you want me to do that?" Then we go to sign up for the coffee. The lady starts laughing. She goes, "You're never here," because three weekends a month we minister in other countries and in other churches. But I said to her, "But we're always here once a month." So I said, "I'll sign up to do... we'll sign up and do the coffee once a month." So we did. We had to arrive early, set up, make up the coffee. I didn't like the coffee. So the second month, we bought our own coffee. I didn't like the cups that they served the coffee in because you kind of burnt your fingers. So we bought our own cups. I didn't like the biscuits, so we bought our own biscuits. They didn't have napkins, so we bought our own serviettes. We started investing in the ministry. I did it for three years. I loved it. I was a barista. I loved it, loved it. I met more people once a month for three years in church than I had the previous 17 years. After three years, the Lord said, "That's it now. Don't... I don't want you to do it anymore." I said, "But I want to!" I want to! You see, the Lord guides our steps, but he also guides our stops. Sometimes you have to stop something in order to step into something. Here are two questions. Question one: Is there a stone or something between you and Jesus? Is there something blocking a miracle? Question two: Has Jesus asked you to do something, but you haven't done it? It could be as little as serving coffee. Third word: release. So Lazarus, he was tied like bandages, completely tied up with bandages. What I find intriguing about this story is that you could say that Jesus was not very pastoral. Because you know how sometimes you're sitting in a chair and then you cross your legs, and after a while you've got pins and needles? Can you imagine what it was like if you'd been dead for four days? Why didn't Jesus say, "Hey guys, why don't you go in the tomb and take him a herbal cup of tea? Because the herbal tea might be really refreshing. Yeah, a Middle Eastern herbal tea. Oh, have we got any physios here? Have we got any chiropractic? I mean, it might be quite nice if we give him a little massage, wouldn't it? Let's go in there and help him out." No. He had to come out himself. He had to come out himself. Sometimes we're always waiting for someone else to come and help us. He's wrapped in linen cloth. Jesus says, "Untie him. Release him. Let him go." You see, Lazarus had to get up by himself. But in order to be released, that's when the community of God's body steps up and helps. Let me ask you this question. Is something binding you? Do you feel restricted in some area of your life? Are you feeling bound instead of free and liberated? If you're feeling bound in any area of your life, seek the counsel, the prayer, the support of others within the body of Christ to help take those off and set you free. If God, Jesus, has called us out of the tomb, we can't continue living as dead people. We've got to live as people who are transformed. Transformed. I love that word. In Romans 12, it says the transformation by the renewing of your mind. Okay, word number four: reveal. They couldn't stop talking about it. They couldn't stop talking about Jesus. There are two reasons today why people are not yet Christians. Two reasons. One, they have never met a Christian. Two, they have met a Christian. They are the two reasons why people today are not yet Christians. You and I can either help or hinder someone in their journey of faith. So what do I do? I remove anything that's between me and Jesus. I respond to anything that Jesus commands me to do. I get released from everything that's bounding me. And I reveal Jesus to other people wherever I go, wherever I am. Last year, Killy and I, we were here in America. One day we had a couple of hours free, and we decided let's go to a mall and just have a little wander around and buy some things for the grandkids. We got into the car, and I asked the driver how long it will take. He said 20 minutes. I said, "Oh, great." I said, "Is there anything I can pray for you?" I didn't say who I was. I didn't say I was a Christian, didn't say anything. I said, "Is there anything I can pray for you?" He said, "Yes," he said, "could you pray for my mother who's got Alzheimer's?" I said, "Of course, I would love to pray for your mother." I said, "Do you mind if I pray now out loud?" He said, "Yes, please." So I start praying for his mother. As I'm praying, he starts crying. He's weeping. And he's going, "Oh, God, oh, God, I will go back to church." We didn't mention church. We didn't say anything. You see, Killy and I, like you, we carry the presence of Jesus. We carry the presence of Jesus. The same presence that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us. We carry the aroma of Christ. So when I get into a cab, the first thing I do is I pray in the cab. "Lord, cleanse this cab from all evil, immorality, darkness, and we invite your Holy Spirit in here." So when I then start praying in the car, the guy is convicted by the Holy Spirit. Anyway, we talk to him when we get to the mall, I give him some stuff, and then I pray over him. Anyway, after a couple of hours, it's time for us to leave, and our Uber app isn't working. It's like, "Oh no, the Uber app isn't working." And we're in this mall, and it's an outdoor mall, and it's beginning to get dark. And we're like, "Well, what are we going to do?" We don't know what to do. And I just said to Killy, "Why don't you ask that lady if she knows why our Uber app isn't working?" So Killy goes to the lady and says, "Excuse me, you don't know anything about Uber apps and why our app isn't working?" "Oh," she goes, "oh no, oh no, I don't know anything about that." And she goes, "Where are you staying?" And Killy says, "Well, we're staying at this hotel." "Oh," she says, "that's about 20 minutes away. I'll take you." Who does that in America? It's getting dark. We walk to her car. I say to Killy, "You sit in the front. I'll sit in the back." We just don't know, do you? Where she's going to drive us? We get in the car, and I said, "What's been going on in your life?" That's all I said, "What's been going on in your life?" And she said, "My whole world has caved in. Last month my son died of an overdose." So we spent 20 minutes ministering to this lady. We get to the hotel, we ask her to stay, we rush upstairs, we get lots of resources, we come down, we give her resources, we pray with her, and we just share a little bit about Jesus. We go back to the room, and our Uber app started working. I think the Lord stopped our Uber app working so that we could meet this woman so that we could minister to her in her grief. Reveal Jesus whenever and wherever you can. There it is. There's our little Bible study this afternoon. Remove. Is there anything between you and Jesus? Is there anything between you and a miracle? Remove it. Respond. Has he asked you to do something? Just do it. Are you feeling bound? Get released and keep on revealing Jesus to whoever it is that you encounter wherever you are. That's it. That's it. I hope you've enjoyed our little contribution today. I hope it's given you a little faith lift. I hope it's inspired you with a bit more faith, hope, and love. And in the words of the prophet Nike, just do it.
John Fuller: What an inspirational message from British evangelist J.John and his wife Killy on today's Focus on the Family with Jim Daly.
Jim Daly: What a great message, and I just love J.John's closing thought that we need to be eager to reveal the love of Christ to others. We don't have to go into full-blown evangelist mode, but if we can smile at a clerk who's having a bad day or leave a generous tip for our server at a restaurant, we can spread a little joy. And maybe we can find a way to bring Jesus into the conversation in a natural way. You can even tell people about Focus on the Family and this show and encourage them to check us out.
John Fuller: I've shared with lots of folks about the Focus on the Family app for their smartphone that allows access to all the great resources we have, which can really make a big difference.
Jim Daly: It's so true. And speaking of free resources, we have a great one for you. We have a collection of seven shows featuring J.John that you can download right away. The collection includes today's show with extra content. Just look for the J.John Collection when you visit our website. We're at focusonthefamily.com/broadcast.
John Fuller: When you're online with us, check out a great book from J.John called Jesus Christ: The Truth. It's an intriguing look at the life of Christ, and it will help you get to know him better. And we'd be happy to send it out to you for a donation of any amount as you support the ministry of Focus on the Family. Help us as we help other families to thrive in Christ. And again, our website is focusonthefamily.com/broadcast or call us at 800-A-FAMILY. We hope you have a great weekend and then be sure to join us on Monday when you'll hear how to parent your child's heart, not just react to their behavior. Thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I'm John Fuller, inviting you back as we once more help you and your family thrive in Christ.