Hello and welcome to one on one. We are so pleased that you've chosen Christian programming to be in your homes and we are honored and blessed that you have chosen us, Buddy and Veronica McLaughlin, to come and to break the bread of life with you and bring the good news. And yes, it is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, this awesome technology and wherever you're hearing us from, we just appreciate you carving out the time to get into God's Word, to let us share some beautiful nuggets. You know, we don't get a lot of time half hour with you a week, but we're just so thankful that you're allowing us to share with you the goodness of God, all the treasures that come with serving the God that loves us.
Well, a little stick of dynamite goes a long way, Buddy. So maybe dynamos for the Lord and just explode with all of his goodness and mercy and give you just the wonderful news of Jesus Christ. And what we want to tell you about today is that Jesus is never late. Now I'm late.
There are times that I know the trying of that he's faith is. She has done much better. I have to tell the truth. She has done much, much better.
I'm doing better. But I have to understand. Or I'll become more patient either way, it works well. I think we've kind of found that place.
But many times going through, and I say that, going through really hard, difficult seasons in our lives, trials in our lives, we're waiting for the breakthrough. We're waiting for God to make the scene. And many times when I'm ready for God to make the scene, it's like this. Hurry, hurry, hurry.
So I have told God, and I do this, very reverently, and I say, sir, I don't mean to be ill reverent, but I'm going through something here. And you've really missed an opportunity to be early. Okay? And that little small voice every single time, every single time, he will speak to me.
And he said, but I'm never late. God's timing is so precise and it's so perfect. And I need to know that because the impatience that I have, I'm reminded of a story. And I can relate with Mary and Martha in the book of John in the 11th chapter when they had a really dire situation.
Many times they were going through things. I mean, it's dire. Well, you know, a lot of times you take your eyes off of God because you're starting to focus on the issue. And I think that's where Martha and Mary were here.
They were focused. Well, the focus is my brother is dying. Your best friend, Jesus Lazarus and Mary Martha, Jesus would love to go to Beth and do their house. One thing, Martha was a great cook.
So Jesus always knew that he could get a great meal at Martha's house. They loved being there and Lazarus was a dear friend. And so when Lazarus became sick, Mary and Martha just knew as soon as they got word to Jesus that he's gonna make the scene. But it didn't happen just that way, just like many times in our lives.
You know, we have a relationship with the Lord. I love him. I pray. I feel his presence.
We've got a special thing going on. It's like we're best friends. So when I need something, I expect him to be there. And if he's not, I'm like, where are you?
And that's exactly where they are. We're gonna pick up this story in John chapter 11. And it says, now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and white his feet with her hair, whose brothers Lazarus was sick.
You know, it was giving us a little story here with Mary, is that she loved the Lord so much she anointed him with oil his feet and then white his feet with her hair. And I mean, just a special, special relationship. Mary loved being at the feet of Jesus. And Martha loved doing things for Jesus, like cooking for him and tending to him.
So they had a close relationship. So therefore the sisters sent to him saying, Lord, behold, the one whom you love, your best friend, he is sick. And then Jesus heard this and he didn't get in a hurry. And one thing that we do know about God, he just doesn't get in a hurry.
He said, this sickness will not be in the death. He prophesied over the situation, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. He prophesied already what was going to happen. He said, this sickness is not going to be in the death.
And it's going to glorify the Lord. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So he heard that he was sick. He stayed two more days in the place where he was.
Then after he said to his disciples, he said, let us go to Judea. So what happened? They needed a miracle immediately. Have you been in a situation I know I have, where I need a fast, quick miracle, God you've got to come through.
And so by the time the news had gotten to him, he had stayed there for two more days, stayed right where he was. And then it took another two days when he said, well, let's go to Judea. Well, it took him two more days to get there by all accounts, buddy. Jesus was very late.
Well, he was. I mean, when you look from their perspective, he was late. In the earthly realm, he was late. Jesus was late.
Lazarus didn't see him before he expired. So that is a pretty good determination that, yeah. Yeah, he's running. He's running in our mind and in their mind, they're panicking.
Because we think non-spiritually many times. And we let the evidence become the conclusion when the conclusion is going to be what God decides. Yes. The sickness isn't going to be to death.
And we have to go back, even in the Old Testament, Isaiah 55, 8 says, my ways are not your ways, says the Lord, for they're much higher. And my thoughts are not your thoughts. So we have to understand that God has a plan. We have to trust that plan.
We have to go with that plan, even though we don't understand that plan and we're snapping our fingers at God, it's just like there's a purpose in the delay. Delay does not mean denial, especially when you have a promise, when you're going into the situation. Many times when we're facing hard things, I have to go back to God's promises. I have to remind myself of the Word of God.
God, you promise. I may not see it right when I want to see it. But I know that you will always come through. And I ask the Lord, why do you do this?
Why do you put me on pins and needles like this? Why can't it just be easy? And the Lord, He didn't have to answer me. But He said, if I did it any other way, I would not receive the glory.
You would think you did it. And it's not about you. It's about me and increasing your faith. And that's exactly about the story we're going to get into here.
Well, you know, Lazarus, it was, it was prophesied. So we knew something good was going to come of it. It's hard to see how something good comes of it at this stage of the game. But you know, we got to realize that God moves on.
And I remember a scripture in Luke that really, this story took me back to. And it was talking about the parable of the sower. And the very last thing it says about sowing, it says, but the ones that fell on good ground are those who, having heard the Word with a noble and good heart, keep and bear its fruit with patience. Keep and bear its fruit with patience.
So we know we have, they had the good heart, but they forgot they heard the Word. And forgot that the Word was telling them that it wasn't going to be as they see it. It was going to be okay. And so many times we know the outcome is going to be okay.
But we get so caught up and lost in the details of the moment that we lose a bit of our testimony. We lose a bit of the fact that, hey, it's evident we didn't trust God because we were so vocal about the moment that God should have arrived, that He didn't arrive, that look where we are. Now, where are you God? You know, we blame God many times.
You know, just like this, you know, Jesus, why didn't you come? Why didn't you get here? Why didn't you change this? It didn't have to be this way.
Well, they're chastising Jesus. They're not believing in the Word that He prophesied. You know, God said He prophesies over us through His Word all the time, if we'll just read it. He says He has good things for us.
He wants us to prosper and to be in the health. That's God's Word. We call the truth of God's Word into our situation. We don't call our doubts into the situation and then tell God what we expect.
We call the truth of God's Word into it first. We believe in what God will do. And we stand on that. Yeah, we're human, we're fleshly.
And we do, we lose sight, we lose our patience. And we get wrapped up in what it appears, how it looks. Well, I can tell you, we've gone through those same things. I can give you a great example.
We looked on a 55-inch screen TV at these sales that were from my body that the doctor said, these are cancer sales. And we had agreed that we did not have cancer. We were not going through this, that we were going to be fine, what they found was going to be nothing other than miraculous. And we weren't going to have cancer.
Well, not many people along the journey believe that with us, especially those that saw that 55-inch screen TV. And there were those sales much like Martha and Mary, there's Lazarus, he's in the tomb, he's dead. What good can come of this? There's those sales.
I've got cancer, it's showing cancer in my body. Those are my sales. It's got it right there on the little header that those are Ralph McLaughlin's sales. But we didn't believe that.
We didn't believe that that was the end of it. We knew that was where we were at that moment. But we believed that the end of it, it was going to be different. Jesus already told Martha and Mary at the end of it, it's going to be different.
They just didn't know where the end was. We're not that smart. Airways are not his ways. Our thoughts are not his thoughts.
We try to make air thoughts, his thoughts. When God is saying, look, step back, be patient. Keep a good heart, remember my word. Keep your heart true to my word.
God is going to reveal those things to us in due time if we are just patient. And we know Veronica that is so hard for us in our flesh, especially in moments that are uncertain, that feel so terrible that up tug at us emotionally. That's where the enemy can really come in when we're emotional and start stripping away what God has promised us. He tries to sabotage our faith.
And there's an unfolding plan that God has, and it's unfolding. And a word of prophecy that we have is contrary to where we are at the present time. It's not in our situation. It's in the future.
It's not where we are at the time. So the prophecy had already gone forth to change the future. And that's exactly what happened when Buddy was diagnosed with cancer. I told us he had cancer sales, and we said, no, those are not his.
And then when they went in there to remove, there was no cancer. So praise God. We had a promise to know, and Psalms 103 says that we have benefits with serving Jesus, that we have salvation, and we have healing from all sickness and disease. That was our prophecy.
That was our promise. And that's where we stood. So now we get to the next part of the story, where we already know that Lazarus is dead. So in verse 17, it says that, so when Jesus came, he found that they had already been at the tomb for four days.
And in verse 20, it says, then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, and Martha was very vocal. We already know that Martha had been vocal before, when she had been serving Jesus. And she said, you know, Mary needs to come and help me.
And he said, well, Mary's at my feet, and she's doing the better things. So just chill, Martha. So how many of us, and I'm very guilty, to say, OK, Jesus, we confront him and say, where have you been? And she said to the Lord, if you had only been here.
Now she was chastising him a bit, then he would not have died. So if you had done what I had asked you to do, when it's kind of like a mother saying you do it and you do it right now. But God says, I have an unfolding plan that you know nothing about, and it's for the greater glory of God. And she's like, where have you been?
But even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, that he'll give it to you. She wants to have faith. She's looking at him so desperately. And those times that we want to have faith, and her faith has just been shaken when you get a diagnosis of cancer.
You get a phone call in the middle of the night. You're shaken. She's like, you know, I'm shaken here. But I know that you can still do it.
And Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. He's going back to his prophecy. And Martha said to him, I know that he'll rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And he said, but I am.
Oh, this is so powerful. You need to get this into your spirit. I am the resurrection. I am that one.
I am the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me, he shall never die. Do you believe that?
He's looking at her to say, Martha, do you believe this? Are you believing me now? You understand that I am the resurrection in the life. Do you believe?
And she said, yes, Lord. Yes, that's all it takes. When Jesus comes into our situation, when Jesus comes into those rooms where there's no hope, all we have to do is say, yes, Lord, we believe. And at that moment, when Martha said, yes, Lord, I believe you are the Christ who has come into the world.
What did she do? She received that prophecy. She received what Jesus had said. Yes, yes, you are the one.
And even though it looks impossible and buddy, we've been into some impossible situations where all we had was to believe and then we received. That's all you have to do. You believe. That's how we get saved.
We believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world. We believe and we receive Him into our hearts. Well, when we need a miracle, we believe and then we receive. And then we know that God's Word will come to pass.
And we call on other believers who have the same faith that we have to join with us because we know that there is power in the power of prayer and agreement. Corporate agreement is a huge thing. You know, Veronica and I, we talk to each other every day about people who need prayer, things that are going on. We join together, we pray, we join with other people that we know in prayer.
We have a prayer group that, I mean, Veronica got a prayer office. My goodness, I mean, her and the two girls in there, Carolyn. And Sheila, hold the cow. We are the Holy Ghost gang.
I'm telling you, we see miracles every day in that office. They have a war room in there and it's for real. And it goes on. And that's what we have to remember that we already have the answer.
It's already there. We just haven't seen it yet. And the answer is as he wants us to prosper to be and healthy, he wants good things for us, he wants us to believe and have faith, knowing that whatever he does with our lives, that it is for our good and for his glory. Hey, if whatever he wants to do with my life is for his glory, Lord, do it.
Whatever you want to do with my life for your glory, God, why am I going to stop it? Why am I going to doubt it? It's his plan. And I've always told Veronica the first thing I want to say when I see the Lord is forgive me, God, I tried to mess this up so bad.
You know, I just didn't see and we don't see because we have those eyes that see and focus on the things that satisfy the flesh that somehow, and our flesh is something that can be manipulated. Just don't forget that. It can be manipulated by the one who is the deceiver of the brethren. He's the one who wants to come in to kill, to steal and to destroy and to steal what?
To steal this hope of everlasting life. Just to rob you of that. You know, we were listening to a message about Robert Morris here in a long ago and it talked about the devil, that he has no new tricks. He knows what your weakness is and your weakest moment and he goes after that.
It's no new tricks when you see that, when you sense that, when you feel that, just rebuke it in the name of Jesus and get back on the path to understanding that God has dominion, he has given you authority and power and dominion over all these principalities who would come against you. All you have to do is call upon that. That's the privilege of having God at the center of your life, of having received him and having these promises in your life. All these are yours when you've said, God, forgive me of my sins.
Forgive me, Lord, I want you to come and live in my heart. Make me new, God. That's all you have to do. Christ will come and dwell within your heart.
Give you this power. Give you this promise of resurrection. She knew that there was going to be a resurrection a day. She just didn't realize it was going to be today for Lazarus and it was going to be another day for her.
She had lost sight that Jesus had promised that. We're asking you, don't lose sight of that. Don't lose sight of that promise. If we run our ways, race, if we fight or fight, if we trust in God, we don't turn away to the right or the left.
We don't listen to the voice of the deceiver. We don't hear those things that he says that he tries to convince us about our brothers and our sisters, about our walk with God, about the lusts of the flesh. Going the wrong direction is the wrong direction. You can't make it right.
All you can do is turn away from it, ask for forgiveness and get back on the road. And that's what we do in our walk every day. You're going to face these trials. Jesus says, if we're in the world, these tribulations are going to be part of what we live in.
That's just part of it. But we don't have to take them as something that can't be good for us in some way that we can't trust God for. Let's get the flesh out of the way. Get the negativity out of the way.
Get the negative people out of the way and start trusting in the one who truly loves us. Start, remember to trust. I shouldn't say start. Remember to trust in him.
Don't get sidetracked. And that's what had happened. They had gotten sidetracked with the moment and had lost the promise that had been given to us. And it happens to us so frequently that we have to know that Jesus says, I am the life.
Jesus is the life into every dead situation. It will never change. It will never change because he died, he rose again. He has victory over death, hell and the grave.
He is the resurrection. He is the life. What do you need a life in today? Do you need a life in a dead marriage?
Do you need a life into a dead body that your body is physically ill? Do you need life in a dead relationship? What do you need a life in? Jesus speaks life.
And that's exactly what he did in this situation. He looked at Mary and Martha and they were crying and they were wringing their hands saying, you know, you're late if you had only been here before. And Jesus just said, where did you lay him? And then he goes and he walks to the tomb and he's like, roll away the stone.
And then there's still, well, if you do that, the stench is gonna be so bad. He's been dead four days. Regardless of how bad the stench is and what you were going through, Jesus wants to roll away the stone. You may have already buried it.
You may have already put the dirt over it, but Jesus is standing right there and he said to Lazarus, and he spoke his name first, Lazarus. Come forth. The dead thing that is in that tomb, come forth. And the Bible said that he came forth in his grave clothes, bound in his grave clothes.
And Jesus looked at his disciples and said, no, lose him. He's alive. There's life in him. Jesus is the life giver.
He is the resurrection. And when he speaks, hell cannot deter his plan. God has a plan for his lives. It may not look like it's running on time, but if we will trust him and if we will believe, then he will speak life into every dead situation.
What a marvelous story. And what had lessened to us, that we want to ring our hands. When we're saying, God, where are you? I don't understand why this is happening.
You've got to come through right now that we trust his plan when we believe. We continue to pray through it and also believe the promise, the prophecies that he has given us. You know, we pray over our children that they will have their destinies, that they will be blessed coming in and blessed going out. That is a promise that we remind ourselves.
In the process of getting life back, we need to remind ourselves of the promises that God has given us. We go to God's word. These are the promises that are tried and took true. And one promise that I know is still yet to come to pass, is that he is coming back for a church, a church that is without spot and that is without wrinkle.
He is coming back for us. So don't wrinkle your hands. Don't fret. Just know that it's going to happen and we believe it and we prepare ourselves for it.
We want to encourage you today to unbind those grave clothes on the promises that you feel have been discarded somehow, that you can't see that we've come to fruition. We're telling you today to unbind them. Take the grave clothes off them. Let them become your promise again.
It is your promise. Don't let the enemy steal that from you. Don't let him rob you. He's a thief and he wants to rob you of the goodness that God has for your life, of the promises that he has for your life.
Don't let him do that. Today is your day to rebuke him in the name of Jesus from these promises. If it's your husband, if it's a job, if it's your children, if it's you, in whatever it is, whatever the situation, your finances, your health, your community, whatever it is, God can restore those things, our school system, the things that we need, the promises, our nation that was founded up on the cornerstone of God. We need to take the grave clothes off those promises and call those things that are not as though they are.
That's what God says. If we will do, he will honor that. He will honor that because we are honoring him with our faith and a good heart and we are patient to see him and his promises come to fruition in our lives. We speak life into every hopeless situation that you are going through right now by the authority of Jesus Christ, by the authority that he is the resurrection and he is the life.
Life is coming to you, your family, your household now by his authority in Jesus name. Receive it. It's an honor to come into your homes each and every week till we see you again this time next week. Remember that God is always faithful.
Hello everyone. Veronica and I would like to thank you so much for partnering with Deaf Song Ministries through these many years. We appreciate your support, your love. We look forward each week to coming and being a part of your life in your homes.
Bring you God's Word. We are so humbled to receive your praise reports of salvation, of healing and restoration. We are excited to take this gospel across the world. We know this next season is bringing great harvest for his glory.
Thank you and remember the best is yet to come. We hope this program has enlightened and enriched your life. This ministry is made possible by the grace of God and your generous financial support. If you would like to partner with our ministry to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, write, call or visit our website at www.buddyandveronica.com.
We look forward to visiting with you again soon. Until then, remember God is always faithful.