Friday 9/19/14 Lazarus

Dear Father in Heaven:  I love You.  Please forgive me of my sins and help me to repent and try my best not to do them again.  I confess I am a sinner and I need Your help in repenting.  Father, thanks for watching over family and friends, and Father, thanks for sending Jesus to save me.  I love You, Father in Heaven.  Holy Spirit, come over us this day.  You are welcome in our home that our Father has provided for us.  Lord, be with all those working in the fields of Harvest this weekend, and keep them healthy and safe.  Please, Lord, help me now with the message and then help me dispatch it.  In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, after talking with our Lord, I am going to make an attempt at a different look at an old subject, Lazarus.  You do remember Lazarus, right?  Let me get right to it.

Friday:  September 19, 2014:  Lazarus!

John 11:38 - Jesus, 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."  40 Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"  41 So they took away the stone.  Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard me.  42 I 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."  43 When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus come out!"  44 The 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." (NIV)

Jesus said and it is quoted in John 11:25 ...

John 11:25 - Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?"  (NIV)

So right now I want to ask all of you this question.  Do you believe this statement that Jesus made to Martha?  And if you do, how might it apply to you?

Let me take one question at a time.  First, do I believe this statement that Jesus made to Martha?  Yes, of course I believe, for a few reasons.  First of all, our Lord Jesus would not lie about anything.  Second, it is recorded in my Bible and I believe everything that is in my Bible without exception.

Next question, how might this apply to me?  First of all, I believe that Jesus can raise people from the dead, even today, and I have heard people testify that they had died and Jesus sent them back, that He was not ready for them.  I also have a granddaughter named Brittney that had died and was snapped back to life at an accident scene.  So I know it is fact and it even happened in our very own family.  We also know that Jesus Himself had died and was risen from the dead by our dear Father in Heaven.j  But I want to put a personal touch on this.  I myself have been risen from the dead!!  Hear me out on this one.  Once I tell you my story you might say, something like, that has happened to me.

Now remember that when we speak of Lazarus he was very sick and had passed away before Jesus got to his home, so He, Jesus, could not heal Lazarus.  So Lazarus passed away and was readied for the grave.  He was wrapped in grave clothes and spices put on his body.  When I look t this story I like to picture what it might have been like to see Lazarus walking out of the grave.  I want you to think about this before I go into my story, and that is think about Lazarus and then think about all the graves that are going to burst open when our Lord returns.  There are going to be a lot of people walking out of those graves, some wrapped in clothes and others whose bones might just be like a pile of bones.  Old wooden coffins will be broken open and those heavy cement tops of the strong boxes that those coffins were in will be tossed about like a child's toy.  Think about this, those who have been cremated, put in a small urn, think about that top coming off and a stream of dust coming out.  Might it look like "Major Nelson, watching Genie coming out of her bottle?"  Think about it as that cloud of dust takes on the form of the heavenly body.  Think about those things while I tell you my story and ask you how many of you might relate to this.

I had died, yes, I was dead, dead, my friends, really dead.  I was raised by Christian parents and after mamma passed away, I walked away from Jesus.  It does not make a different how I spell this out, I was dead to sin, I really was.  Oh, I messed around a few times, I went to church a few times but never really had been "risen" from my dead self and was not walking in tune with God.  No, I was walking more in tune with Satan but never considered it like that.  In all sense of it, I was a "dead man walking."  I surely was not walking with Jesus, I was not, and had my ticket been punched, I would have surely perished.  But then Jesus, who had not given up on me, called me out.  Dan Lehman, come forth!!  I had been through a few things and had some major setbacks and again was dead in sin.  I knew this was wrong, I would talk to a nun, one of the sisters from St. Margaret Mary's school and convent in Penbrook, PA.  She told me Jesus had something better in store for me.  Then Betsy, one of my customers, invited me t church with her then friend Don and I took them up on the offer.  I was talking a lot to a black minister who was a customer at our service station.  Jesus was calling me.  Dan Lehman, come forth, and He was sending in His workers to help get me.  He sent a nun, and I am not Catholic.  He sent a black pastor, and I had never attended the church he pastored.  He sent customers who sent to church in downtown Harrisburg where I never attended. Dan Lehman, come forth out of that sin, do you hear me?  Then He sent someone else, He sent Dolores, and she had a team with her.  A team, mind you.  They were The Couriers, and along with Dolores came Duane, Neil, Phil, Doug, and this very young man named Timothy.  Also came Phil and Marie, and a host of other Christians.  Jesus said, come forth, Dan Lehman, walk away from being dead in sin and come back to me.  Come forth, Dan Lehman, come forth.  I was so blessed.  It was not easy, my walk back was not always easy, but it has been very rewarding.  Jesus not only called me back from the dead, He said to me, come forth, Dan Lehman, I need you to work for me.  I need you in the fields of Harvest, Satan is not going to get you, Dan Lehman, because I have you now.  Climb aboard that Gospel Train and follow me.  Come forth and join the living.  PRAISE GOD, FOR HE IS GOOD.

Do you have a Lazarus Story?  Have you been called back from the dead?  I have, and I am so blessed.  Just because you are not Catholic,  don't think God might not use a priest or sister to help you.  Just because you are not black or white or another color that Jesus will not send you someone of another to work for Him.  Remember and think about this, there is only one race, just one, the human race.  So if you are walking on the dark side, if you are walking in sin, please do not close off your hearing, for Jesus might be calling you as He did me.

Dan Lehman, come forth, and I did, now He is telling me, Come forth and share your blessings, and I have been.  Time to tell you this, go and share your blessings and the love of Jesus.  I love ya.  Please share that love also.

Pastor Dan