A few weeks ago, I was at my daughter Caroline's track meet in Staten Island. The Morris County Track Championships for some reason are held in Staten Island. That's how far away it is to go to get a nice indoor track. If you want to make some money, build an athletic facility in New Jersey, can I get an amen?
Anyway, after one of her events, she wasn't feeling good. There was a lot of drama involved in it, and she took her spikes off. And now as I recall it, she handed them to either Joan or I. I don't really remember.
Fast forward a couple days. Caroline's getting ready for her next meet. I hear the question billow from the other room. Oh no, where are my spikes?
Now if you have kids, you know as a parent we have a pre-programmed answer to questions like this. I don't really need to enter the struggle or the hunt yet. I just asked the age-old dad question. Anybody know what that is?
Where did you put them? And then I got back the answer. No father wants to hear. I gave them to you, remember?
Now track spikes are not cheap. They're north of a hundred bucks. And so this was some stuff entering it. I noticed something as this went down about my initial reaction, my natural reaction to what happens when stuff invades my life.
Here's my first thoughts were, Caroline, let's go look for them together. No? I didn't think, hey, let's give the track facility a call. Maybe somebody turned them in.
No. Hey, Caroline, let's sit down and see if we can find another pair and maybe they'll get here in time for your meet. Nope. All those would have been productive.
Instead, and I remember this quite specifically, my thoughts were, how in the world did she think this is my fault? She's 16 years old? She got a little bit of this lecture. You were responding.
How is this my fault? You're 16. You should have checked your bag before we left. Now, immediately this was my second thought.
Something's not here this morning. She's actually out of track meeting this time at Tom's River, another crazy place. So we'll just keep this little secret between us. The second thing I thought to myself immediately was this, I can't believe Joan left those spikes at that facility.
That woman is so scatterbrained, all she does is cost me money. It's on the middle of this series. Stuff happens. All of a sudden I have this thing that hits me.
It's like, why is that my first reaction? Something happened. Bad things happened. I blame somebody.
See, this is funny and it's harmless, but I want to share another quick story that happened to Joan and I. I've told it before and I can't get into the details about it right now. But when Caleb was two years old, I found him at the bottom of our pool. Joan thought he was with me.
Out in the cult of Sackler, the other kids, I thought he was with Joan in the house. Because God chose to save his life at that moment, he screamed out and I found him a few moments, a few minutes later he was at the bottom of the pool and I pulled him out and he breathed. It was literally like a miracle. But when I bought him inside and he was crying and Joan was crying and I was crying and Joan had to tell around him, I remember exactly where we were on the living because I could feel it.
All of a sudden, I remember feeling inside me this thing that said, you were supposed to be watching him. And then Joan looked at me and said, you were supposed to be watching him because it's not funny when it's real stuff. See, when the stuff gets serious, had Caleb not been okay, that stuff would have ripped my family apart. Have you noticed that in your own lives or in your own homes?
Stuff happens and it usually doesn't bring us together. It tends to tear us apart. See, Jesus knows this. But in the world, you're going to have problems.
Some stuff is going to happen. It happens to the good and the bad. It happens to those who love God and those who don't. And it happens to those God loves.
And Jesus, the teacher, says a couple of the hardest things I've ever heard a human be cold almost. If you were going to make these stories up and try to make it like, yeah, Jesus, you would never write these stories about what he says because they're troubling. But he's trying to help you and I to understand in your stuff, don't ask the wrong questions. I'm going to set the scene for you to the first story.
Jesus has literally been chased out of the temple. There are rocks flying by his head because the temple leaders are trying to stone him. He defended them because he had been doing some miracles and we're saying, where do you get this power? He said, we follow our Father Abraham and Jesus makes that bold pronouncement.
Some of you know what he goes. They said, do you think you're greater than Abraham and Jesus goes well before Abraham was? I am. And that also had connotations about God saying his name was I am.
So they lose it and they start chucking stones at Jesus. John records the story and he says that Jesus just slipped away from the temple. So here's how the story goes. As he went along, right after that, he saw a man blind from birth.
And his disciples asked him, here comes the question, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind? Who sinned? Better known as whose fault is this?
Stuff happens? Who do we blame? This is somebody's fault. Now here's what we know from week one of stuff happens.
Stuff happens like this. Not because God made mistakes. You know that, oh, I didn't mean for him to be born blind. I was an accident.
That's not what happens. Stuff happens because we live in a fallen world and nothing. Nothing. In all of creation is as God would have wanted it to be.
All of it is broken. Me, you, the blind man, all of it broken in different ways. Some visible. Some not so visible.
But in the first century, and see, I think in this century, there's this prevalent understanding that this man was born blind for one of two reasons. A, this is something he's blind to punish his parents. His parents did something and it resulted in this kid, this baby being born blind. He's paying the price for their sin.
You know, maybe if they just hadn't gotten married. You know, maybe if she hadn't had that drink during her pregnancy. You know, maybe if she hadn't gone to that yoga class. Maybe if I hadn't gone to my grandmother's house and my grandfather was smoking.
It's their fault. It's their fault. It was his fault. It's the blind guy's fault because in fact, in Jesus's day, this is crazy.
But the teaching was you could be born this way because you sinned in the womb. You know, just curse my mom out in her belly, right? Let her have. Didn't like what you had for lunch.
And so this concept underlying is a God that is angry and judgmental and he just can't wait to have children be blinded by their sin. God is just watching that baby in utero. Just waiting for him to screw up. That sounds kind of silly, but the truth is at one lower than we do it all the time.
Because if it wasn't there, then it must be mine. I screwed up. I did something wrong and God is getting me back. What is the first question that we ask?
Literally when stuff happens, what did I do to deserve this? My marriage fails, my business fails, my kids fail. If I can't find someone else to blame, that's my first option. I'm going to look around hard, right?
But if I can't figure out a way to blame somebody else, then I must have done something and God is doing this to punish me. But here's what Jesus answered. His answer sets the first century and I think the 21st century on its ear. He looks and he goes, neither.
That's a wrong, it's a binary choice that doesn't exist. It's a stupid question. You're overruled. You don't get it.
It's not ARB. This is not a blame game. You're asking the wrong question. Neither.
This man, nor his parents, said. But this happened. I hate this. Okay.
You wouldn't write this. It doesn't make me go, Jesus. This happened. Nobody's going to put this on a bumper sticker.
This happens so that the works of God, other translations are this happened so that the power of God might be displayed in him. The child wasn't born blind because there's something someone did. This child was born blind and this is tough because if it's true, it's problematic for us. It means that we can't fix everything.
We can't just understand what happened, who's the blame and what happened again. Jesus says this child was born blind in order that the works of God, the power of God, the glory of God could be displayed. This child stuff, this man, this now man stuff has purpose. He's blind with purpose.
His stuff is going to display the works and the power and the glory of God. I don't like that answer because I have kids. See I want. I want my kids like Bionic eyesight to show the power of God.
I want his football acumen to display the power of God. I want her SAT score to display the glory of the works of God. Remember what Paul said last week? God's power is made perfect, not in our strength, but in our weakness.
You're asking the wrong question. Jesus says you're focused on the wrong thing. See you want to blame somebody for this. You just are trying to figure out how you could fix this, how you could prevent this.
I'm telling you it's the wrong question. There's a bigger question and a better question and here's what it is. Where is God's work and power going to be shown in all of it? I heard a speaker put it this way.
When we constantly focus and all of our attention on what's wrong, we lose sight of what God is making right. So Jesus goes on with this confusing little saying and you're going to see, he says this a couple of times because he says this a couple of times because he's so sorry that I'm going to show you. He's so related. Jesus goes, look, as long as it's day, we must do the works of him who sent me.
Night is coming when no one can work. While I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. Jesus is saying, look, while I'm here, I'm going to be here for a short amount of time. It's going to be dark soon.
When the day's here, when I'm here, I've got to show you something. See what God does. I want you to understand how God uses brokenness and weakness to display power and work. So that in the future, because it's going to be dark soon, I'm not going to be here forever.
A day is going to come when stuff is going to come in your life and you're going to start trying to blame people. You're going to start on just thinking maybe that you did something to deserve this. I want you to ask those questions when it's dark out. So now when we're in the light, I'm going to show you something.
After saying this, he's spit on the ground. Again, John just adds these details, right? I would have preferred Jesus at abracadabra. After saying this, he's spit on the ground, made some mud with saliva and put it on the man's eyes.
This man went and washed and came home seeing. But the healing is not the key to this story because there are lots of stories of Jesus healing. And there are lots of stories of Jesus not healing. The key is the conversation and the teaching.
In the stuff, the question is not who do we blame, but what is God up to? Where is God at work? Where is his glory going to be displayed? How is this stuff possibly, even as much as I hate this right now, going to display the work of God or bringing glory?
And this is not because he's narcissists. All I'm going to make people blind so that I'm glorified. What God is trying to say is, look, I am the hope of the world. Unless I am glorified, made known, people will never find me.
I love these people so much I'll do it. God doesn't need our praise. I need to be lifted up because I love them so much. I am their way out of this.
I'll do it, use anything to reach them. The story continues. The religious leaders are still fired up, man. They had just tried to stone them.
And now he goes out and heals blind people. So they try to conspire to get people to say that Jesus is doing this by some demonic power. They ask the guy that was healed twice. Are you sure this is what happened?
They even call it his mother and father who John says were scared. And the religious leaders go, tell us that your son was born, not born blind. And they're like, well, we think he was, you know, I'm a little bit scared. So they bring the guy back in again.
They're like, this has been done by the power of a sinner. I love what the guy says. He looks at me and goes, you can say whatever you want. Here's what I can tell you.
And you've heard this in a pretty famous song. I was once blind, but now I see. They didn't like this answer. So they gave the old understanding that everybody always had.
To this they replied, you were steeped in sin at your birth. You deserve this. You're not dead in your mother's womb, but God got you back for it. How dare you lecture us.
And he threw him out. Here comes Jesus. He hears that they throw him out. And Jesus, when he finds him, looks at him and he asks a question.
Because you're going to hear this question again in the next story. Do you believe in the Son of Man? Well, who is he, sir, the man asked me. Remember, he was blind when he had this meeting with Jesus.
He says, tell me so that I may believe in him. And Jesus said, you've now seen him. In fact, he's the one speaking with you. And then the man said, Lord, I believe.
And he worshiped him. Because the works of God, the powers of God being displayed in his life resulting in God's glory coming on and people coming to faith believing. It's not. The question is not, who do we blame?
How do we fix it? The question is in the midst. What is God doing? Where is he?
And how is his power and glory going to come out of this? This is not easy to teach. Because what it means is that in the midst of the stuff, I have to rely on God. Instead of relying on myself.
I'll show you quickly another wrong question. We do it all the time. Stuff causes us to blame one another. I just showed you that.
It breaks down our relationships. But there's another thing it does. Most of you know the story that disciples are on a boat with Jesus in a horrible storm kicks up. It's called a size mose in Greek.
That's the same term they use for how they make earthquakes. That's how bad the storm is. Here's what was recorded by Mark. A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped.
Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. Have you ever felt like that? I'm dying here. This ship is sinking.
My husband is leaving. My kids are out of control. I can't get one more call from a bill collector. The doctor told me this isn't going to end well.
Are you asleep? Are you doing anything? Here comes the wrong question. The disciples woke him and said to him, do you care?
Do you even care? Because that's the second wrong question we ask in our stuff. God, do you see what's going on down here? Because when stuff happens, it actually gets us to start the question, the goodness of God.
They're not sitting around going, this storm is terrible. But wait, do we see the glory of God? What we ask is do you even care? Because I think this thing's going to sink.
Last story, because it captures both of these wrong questions so well. And then it gives us the right one. John records it. He says this.
There was a man named Lazarus who was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and his sister Martha. He gives us a very interesting detail that he didn't need to put, but he puts for a reason. This Mary, whose brother was Lazarus, who now lays sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.
There was an earlier story that Jesus had gone to the home of Mary and Martha and her brother at Lazarus. And Mary had come out with an alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume. The scriptures actually say how much money it costs. It was worth a year's salary.
I don't know how much money you make. Imagine a year's salary. He takes this, breaks it open, and anoints Jesus with him. In fact, it cleans his feet with her expense of years worth of money and her hair.
That's how much you love Jesus. That's how much Mary loves Jesus. So the sisters sent word to Jesus. He's about a day and a half away.
Lord, the one you love is sick. It's interesting, right? They don't give his name. The one you love.
Lazarus is like a first century Beyonce. It just goes by one name, right? I'm the one that Jesus loves. It's actually kind of funny because John writes this and John every time he talks about himself says the disciple that Jesus loves.
So Mary and Martha, now they've been hanging around Jesus and they know how many people Jesus is healed. So you can imagine they're pretty sure that Jesus is going to care and everybody in the crowd, when they hear that it's Mary and Martha, they're going, oh man, Mary, sister, remember Mary did you broke that whole thing? Yours worth of wages, tears, hair on the feet. Oh man, and they know how much Jesus loves them because when they hear the one that Jesus loves, they're going, oh Lazarus.
And so I mean they're going, as soon as Jesus gets word of this, we know what he's going to do. He's love the Bethany. He heals people. He doesn't even know there is no way he's going to leave Beyonce to her own demise.
When he heard this, Jesus said, this sickness will not end to death. This is going to sound kind of familiar. It's for God's glory. So that God's son may be glorified through this.
Thorns with Paul and blindness with a man and sicknessing Lazarus. Sickness is bad. Jesus is going, no, I need to redefine this for you. It's going to be used for the glory of God.
But I don't want sickness to be used for the glory of God. I want touchdowns to be used for the glory of God. I want to watch Tim Tebow again. Tell me, thank his Lord and Savior Jesus.
I'm not picking on Tim Tebow. I love Tim Tebow. In fact, I would like him to marry my daughter. But that's a whole, it's a whole separate issue.
See, that's what I want. I want that to show me the glory of God. I want political power to show me the power of God. I want money and promotions.
And I want my best life now to testify to everyone around the power of God. And Jesus goes, I got a better category. I'm going to give you some stuff for my glory and my renown. You might not understand, but I'm telling you, people are going to come to believe in me.
Now, Jesus is about to do something again that you wouldn't write the story, but he's about to do something again that is so offensive. In fact, I don't really like saying it because it really makes him look bad. If I could just be honest with you, you know, there's several places in the script you're like, I just like I crossed that one out because that's a little bit tough. This is so offensive that John adds a little line to the story.
John goes, now, just remember, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, keeping him on because you're not going to believe this. You might think differently. And so many heard that Lazarus was sick. Well, he loves him.
So we know what he did, right? He does want anybody who loves somebody who would do. He stayed where he was, two more days. That's why John's like, yeah, I told you.
I mean, I remember the man, I was there with the whole Mary and the appointment, and I was sure he was going to go too. But he just stayed there. And so Lazarus is dying, and Jesus is sleeping in the proverbial boat again, and days go by. Then he says to his disciples, let's go back to Judea.
But Rabbi, they said, remembering to the last time they had been there and that whole thing with the blind man, Rabbi, they said, you know what's just a little while ago where the Jews tried to stone you there, and you're going back. Remember, Jesus, they chased you out and they were throwing stuff at you? See, the disciples remember it too. They don't remember it as a story.
They remember it because they were stones flying by their head too. Jesus, you know, you don't really need to go back there and heal them. You could just kind of do a thing from here. Wouldn't that be easier for all of us?
Just kind of cure it. We've seen you do that before. We don't need to go back there. There's trouble back there.
And Jesus answered. Goodness, not familiar. Stories are so amazingly alike. I never noticed the thought work on the song.
Jesus answered. Are there not 12 hours of daylight? Anyone walks through the daytime is not going to stumble. They'll see by this world's light.
It's a person who walks at night that they stumble for they have no light. Jesus is going to look high up in the light of the world. It's going to be dark soon. And before you start running around the darkness, I need to teach you something because I need to show you some stuff.
John, there's going to be a time coming in your life where something, and I'm talking about, not me. I'm talking about John that wrote this. Although as I say that, I'm talking about me, which I just wish wasn't true too. Some stuff's going to happen.
And if I don't teach you this, if I don't actually show you this, I just stay here and heal. That's not going to do anything. I need to show you something because you're going to get scared and you're going to ask the wrong question. You lose your faith.
So follow me, boys. I need you to see this. After he said this, he went on to tell them, our friend Lazarus is falling asleep, but I'm going there to wake him up. And his disciples replied, well, Lord, if he sleeps, he'll get better.
He's fine. We don't need to go. Jesus had been speaking of his death. His disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
As I thought about this, this happens at my house on a regular basis, especially when the kids were younger. John would come to me and say, you know, he's really sick. When the kids are really sick, they're, I think they're, they've got a fever. Do you think we should take them to the emergency room or the doctor?
Gosh, no. There's a copay involved in that. I'm going to say right here, put them asleep and we'll say they'll probably be fine. Let's leave them off.
Give it some time. And here comes, okay, here comes a very offensive line. I don't like reading it to you, but here's what Jesus said. So he looks at them because they didn't want to go.
They didn't want to get stolen. So he looks at them and he told them plainly. That basically means you guys aren't that bright, so I'm not going to have to dumb us now. Lazarus is dead.
And here comes a horrible line. And for your sake, I'm glad I wasn't there so that you may believe. But let's go to them. Let me repeat them.
Lazarus is dead. I'm glad I wasn't there. Lazarus is dead. I'm glad.
I could have fixed it. I could have changed it. Lazarus is dead. I'm glad I wasn't there.
Eek. Why? Jesus. So that you might believe.
See, this is the story of the man born blind. Jesus, you would have asked someone to be born blind so that people might believe. Yep. Jesus, you would have asked someone to have a thorn in their flesh, a constant pain that would hamper their whole life in ministry just so they might know your power.
Jesus, you would let someone you love die in order that others might believe. Yeah, in fact, that's going to be the story of my life because my father is going to allow me to die so that you might believe. So wait a minute, Jesus, you mean this whole thing isn't about getting a promotion in a bigger house and the cute guy in the cafeteria? No.
There's something bigger going on here. And then Thomas. Okay, so Thomas is a disciple, right? John says he was also known as Dinnemus.
You know him by another moniker. Anybody know what Thomas' other moniker is? Doubting Thomas. See, it didn't begin post-resurrection.
It begins right here. Then doubting Thomas said to the rest of his disciples, great. Let's all go. We'll all die.
Right? Let us all go that we need to die with them. Great idea, Jesus. Let's go.
And so, on his arrival, Jesus finds Lazarus' been in a tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem. Listen to how John recorded this story for us. It was only two miles away.
Many Jews had come to Martha and married to comfort them in the loss of their brother. Why does John record this for us to see? Because in other words, jeez, lots of other folks made the trip. Lots of other people seemed to care a little bit more than Jesus did when Martha heard that Jesus was coming.
She went out to meet him. But Mary stayed home. What a detail. Why did Mary stay home?
She's ticked. Have you ever been ticked? I've had a night or two. One time just banging the dashboard in my car.
I am so mad at you right now. Yeah. Imagine Mary. Stupid, gave you that stupid perfume.
Years worth of it. Made a fool of myself in front of everybody. What did I ask? I asked you one thing to heal my brother.
You think I'm going to have to greet him on the hill? It's the same question. Jesus, you don't even care, do you? Lord Martha said that Jesus.
If you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Jesus, this is your fault. You're to blame. You didn't come.
You could have. You healed strangers. You healed some maritans. You healed sinners.
You said you loved us. And you know what you did? Nothing. In fact, she kind of almost rubs it in, I think, with this line.
I know that even now that God would do whatever you wanted in the deal. But you didn't care. And Jesus says to her, your brother will rise again, Martha. And she responds, I know he'll rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
This is Martha. This is your well-meaning Christian, pablon-blowing friend. Well, we know he's in a better place. Martha's kind of like, yeah, I know he's in a better place.
But you know where I wanted him in this place? I wasn't asking for a better place. I was asking for him to be here with me. He was young.
He didn't deserve this. Don't you care? And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and a life. Those who believe in me, even though they die and whoever lives by believing me, will never die.
And then he asks her the exact same question. He asked the blind guy. The exact same question that resonates across time and space to you in the middle of your bankruptcy, in the middle of your divorce, in the middle of your mourning and your pain and your fear. Do you believe this?
Paul with the thorn in your side, do you believe this? Blind man since birth, do you believe this? Disciples in a boat going down, do you believe this? Martha, whose brother just died, knowing I could have saved a Martha, I instill the resurrection and the life.
Do you believe it? And in the midst of the pain and anger and disappointment and frustration, she goes, yes, I believe you're the Messiah, the Son of God who's coming to the world. And so with just this mustard seed bit of faith, she goes back to her sister, Mary, and says the teacher's here and he's asking for you. And when Mary heard that she got up and went to him, Jesus hadn't yet entered the village, he was still out where Martha had met him.
And when the Jews, the ones that all seemed to care and that had come to comfort them, they had been with Mary in their house, they noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to go to the tomb and mourn there. When Mary reached the place where Jesus wasn't Psalm, she fell at his feet and said, Lord, if you had been here, this wouldn't happen. My brother wouldn't have died. It's just the honesty of John recording the event.
She does the same processing. This is your fault. I would have saved him and you didn't. I gave you the perfume.
You don't care. And when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews would come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Where have you laid him? He asked come and see, Lord, they replied, and Jesus wept.
See, this is not the answer to a trivia question of what's the shortest verse in the Bible. This is the story of God with us in the stuff, in the pain. John records it because he wants everyone who's ever been taught that all what you're going through is because of your sin, and some stuff is because of our sin. But what you're going through is because of your lack of faith.
He's recording it for people that tell you, just look around. You wouldn't be in this if there was a God there's no God. God doesn't care. See, God is not just at work in your stuff.
God weeps with you in your stuff. He loves you so much that with whatever you're going through right now, it is deeply moving to him in his spirit and it troubles him. He's not putting you through it. He's carrying you through it.
God cares about your stuff. And the Jews, I don't know what to do with this. The Jews have been in the house comforting Mary. They go, look, see how he loved him.
But then some of them said, yeah, but he's the same guy that opened the eyes of the blind man. He could have kept him from dying. Jesus, John records again once more deeply moved. He comes to the tomb that was a cable, the stone laid across the entrance.
Take away the stone he said. But Lord, Martha, the sister of the dead man said, by this time there's a bad odor. He's been in there for four days. And here comes the key line to the whole story, the truth of what can happen in our stuff.
If you ask the right questions and don't get distracted by the wrong questions, then Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God, even in the stuff, that's why I keep asking, even if you believe, even when my inaction becomes a stumbling block, even when the brokenness of this world is causing you pain like you can't believe, if you will keep faith, I'm telling you, you will see the glory of God. You could taste it. You'll know it. You'll feel it.
You'll experience it. Do you still believe? And so they took away the stone and Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you've heard me. I know you always hear me.
In fact, I'm saying this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me. And when he said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. And the dead man came out and his hands and feet were wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face. Jesus said, take off the grave clothes and let him go.
And here comes the summation statement that if you will stay faithful in the stuff, here is what happens when we do what Paul said last week, when we boast in our weakness, when we stop pretending, oh, I got it all together. Nothing bads that happened to me. I'm a Christian. I'm a good person.
I'll dance to you about it, because it'll make you look bad. Therefore, because of this stuff, many of the Jews, who just before had been insulting and not believe, many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary believed in it. Of course, they did. The power of faith.
Now the lesson is not that God is going to heal everybody and make everything OK all the time. Because I know I had friends at the first service. I watched it as a mother wheat because she lost her son a couple of years ago, and I know you hear these stories and you go, yeah. But Lazarus came back to life.
My son's dead. The blind man since birth is seeing my kid still has Down Syndrome. But teaching is not that it's all going to be made okay in this life. Here's what I'm convinced of.
Jesus is showing John this because he comes back to him later and says, John, it's going to be dark out later. And I need you to remember this story. A bunch of chapters later, John records Jesus saying this. Very truly I tell you, speaking to Peter, he says, Peter, when you were younger you dressed yourself and you went where you wanted, but when you're old you're going to stretch out your hands and someone's going to dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.
Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death, which was not a good one if you know what happened to Peter. He said, the death by which Peter would glorify God. Peter, some stuff is coming. In fact, you're going to die, not in bed is an old man.
But if you will believe and because you believe your death, even your death is going to glorify God. And then he said, follow me. As the band comes up, here's the lesson for today. In the stuff that is so important to not ask the wrong question, stop who's to blame.
It's so destructive. Maybe it's at work in your house right now. So many of our relationships get messed up by it. It's his fault he never spent any time with the kids.
It's her fault. All she does is spend money. It's not what have I done to deserve this. That only serves to give you a wrong impression of God, like he's wielding a club instead of being deeply moved and weeping by your side.
The wrong questions give wrong answers. Here's the question, where even in the deepest of stuff, where is God at work? What is he up to? Where can I see his glory?
If I believe, trust, have faith, keep walking, stop blaming. Where can I see the glory of God? Where is he making? No wrong right.
Don't blame. Believe. And I'm telling you, based on the promise of Jesus, you will see the glory of God.