Think of how God wants us to need and to enjoy Him. Mary and Martha wrestled with the death of Lazarus, their brother. We don’t have to hold our lives together. We need to consider and believe Jesus. He gives truth and He weeps in compassion. Death is abnormal and He is aware. (Ecclesiastes 7:14; John 11:1, 20-36)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller, Jesse Feyers
Sermon 12991
Date: 2025-09-10
Time: Wed 7:00 pm

 

Jesse Feyers –

I’ve been hearing a lot of – P. Schaller has been mentioning Amos 3:3 a ton. Does anybody know what
that says? There you go. We got it. “Can two walk together unless they be agreed?” And I was
doing a study on that a while back and it just keeps on bringing it up. I love when the Lord does
that. Keeps bringing up certain verses and really what it means is can two walk, can two
proceed forward together.

This is unity. It’s not just I’m together and I know him and I’m going. It’s in unity. How can two
proceed together in unity unless they be agreed? And you can think of the word, agreed. Okay.
I have to agree with him. But really it means a meeting place. To meet. Like he just said at the
end of his prayer.

So, how can two walk, proceed together in unity unless they’re meeting? And God is saying this
to Israel who is really backslidden and in idolatry. And he’s just like meet with me. Meet with
me and then it will produce the agreeance through humility, right? God doesn’t force change.
He produces one. Like just meeting with Jesus. And I love that thought. Just continually meeting
with Jesus.

And so, we’ve been, I’ve been carrying this and we’ve been just saying we’re going to meet
Jesus and we’re going to go to Richmond. And we’re still going to Richmond and we’re meeting
Jesus. We’re bringing Jesus with us. We’re fellowshipping with him and bringing him to people.
I’m going to try and draw. I got a map. That’s you. That’s Baltimore. So we drive right – there’s
D.C. And then we drive – I got a map up here. I’ve done it a thousand times. And then down
here and there’s Richmond. Two and a half hours but then sometimes it’s five hours. So, the
fellowship in that car ride. Man, it’s rich. It’s beautiful.

So, we’ve been doing that since – I wrote down January 7, 2022. Bible college wanted to go. We
kept going by faith. And we’re just meeting with Jesus, right? We’re bringing Jesus with us and
we want other people to meet Jesus and know who he is ’cause he’s the real man. I’m just a
servant.

And so, it’s beautiful what he’s doing in Richmond. There’s a guy over here named Ben. The
church that we stay at is over here. Terrible drawings. We met Irvin, a man who has been
coming faithfully. Like near the city. Gavin is over here. Janine. You guys know Janine. She’s
down here. She’s a bigger circle. Who else can we think about? Janine, Gavin.

There’s another young lady, new lady that we met near campus right there. She’s been coming.
And it’s beautiful. We’ve been going for three, yeah three years. Over three years and God is
just bringing people to us. You know, certain people have come and gone. I think of this one
lady in particular because we met her two years ago. Two years ago and inviting her to come to service and not coming at all, you know. And it could be just let’s forget about it. Let’s go to the
next but I love the heart of God and I love how he puts people on our hearts and we keep
pursuing them and loving them.

So, now recently, a month later, because Beka and Ester Smith actually were visiting in
Richmond and they’re like do you have any women we could minister to? And I haven’t talked
with this girl, with this young lady in a while. Here’s her number. I don’t know what you’re
going to get, but they met with her, you know, and just fellowshipped with her and loved her
and she came the next service. She’s just longing for fellowship. And that’s just one of many.
We have another guy over here that’s towards that end right there. That’s Virginia Beach. We
met him in Richmond but he goes to school in Virginia Beach. His name is Shay. We just keep
pouring into his life. We met him when we did the July, the 30 days of July.

There’s another guy up here in D.C. He was in Richmond but now he moved to D.C. area. His
name is Hosway. Met him three years ago and we keep loving him no matter what. And I’m
actually encouraging him to come to Bible college because he has to get surgery on his knee for
the second time. So, I’m like, come on! Come to Bible college. A young man. And I say this
because people are amazing and God brings people into our lives. They are an important thing.
Turn with me to Hebrew 12. And I say that though but there’s another side to it. People. Myself.
You know, others. We can be tough. It can take a lot of patience and endurance.

This verse in Hebrews is amazing. So, we went down this last week. I went down with another brother. We
stayed for two days in Richmond. We had an amazing time. But the brother that came with me
kind of got agitated in a way just because of somebody else in the Body. Just, you don’t need to
know the details but it wasn’t big. But you know, people can rub us off the wrong way or not. It
happens. It definitely happens.

So, I knew, we’re driving back home and I knew that he was bothered and something was going
on. And I was like, man, what did I do? It’s always first, what did I do? But I just, God was giving
me nothing. We just left it alone. We sat in silence for a good ten, fifteen minutes. Then I
turned up some worship. I just started praising the Lord in the car.

Then soon after he caught along. And then after praising the Lord, let’s put on a message. Put
on a message. And it was this Hebrews 12 which I’ll read through real quick. And then after the
message, then we’re talking about it. You see. Then we’re talking about it. We’re just meeting
with Jesus. Just bring Jesus into your situation. There’s going to be people who are tough and
hard to deal with sometimes. It’s like, Lord, I can’t. but there’s a purpose in it all.
And so, this message, Hebrews 12:14. Peace doesn’t come naturally, right? It doesn’t. it takes
effort. It takes humility. And this is not just with believers.

It says all. All men. Second one is and holiness. Think of this as purity or sanctification. Sanctification. And it says without which no man shall see the Lord. No man shall see the Lord, you know. I think of his prayer just thanking
the Roberge family. Just like what did he see? He saw the love and he saw the Lord. You know,
I’m sure there’s hard times but they see the Lord through the sanctification process.
And I wrote down if I don’t receive the love of God, the fruit of the Spirit, I will neglect that
peace with others. I won’t be sincere, which is like the pure, the sanctification that it’s not
sincere. My walk is not sincere.

I’m just doing it for show and I will despise the chastening of the
Lord in Hebrew 5. Despise it and I won’t grow in the holiness or the sanctification process. And this
happens with people. This happens in the church. So it says follow peace with all men. And vs.
15 and then we’ll close. My time is up. Vs. 15. Looking diligently lest who? Any. Any man falls
the grace of who? Not me. God. Man. Lord, help us with this to follow peace with all men.
In closing, that person that was with me in Richmond, this is the verse that the pastor spoke on
and it just hit us so good, right? So good. It hurt because I was going through it. We had a root
of bitterness growing up inside of us because of jealousy or insecurity or you name it. The root
of bitterness can happen so small, you know.

But I don’t want that to come between me and another brother. I don’t want another brother
fail the grace of God or be discouraged because we all go through discouragement in the world
and it will happen. We should have unity just like Christ is telling us. Just come meet with me.
Just come fellowship with me.
Turn on the music. Turn on Christian music and have a breakdown halleluiah session. Listen to a
message together. That’s why you come to receive. Because a root of bitterness can spring up.
But no. We want to hold onto the grace of God. That’s an amazing. It points to community. It’s
not just me. It’s all people. Follow peace with everybody. Amen.

P. Schaller –

That was good, wasn’t it? Let’s think about it for a moment. Jesse, like
relationships in the car. Relationships. Bible college students that are new here and tonight we
are going to preach about Martha and Mary whose brother died and they were both hurting
people and we are in a world with a lot of hurting people. And when Jesus comes, he knows
how to touch them and help them. Yeah. That was great. Let’s pray for the offering. (Prayer).
God bless in the offering. Amen. Thank you.

Turn with me to – you’ll be out of here at 8:00. Maybe. Maybe. So, thank you so much Paul and
Lettie coming from Switzerland and also Jesse for your faithfulness and ministry. Your heart and
faith and your dad and mom, too. All right.

Eccelsiastes 7 and then John 11. Ecclesiastes 7:14. (Prayer). Two different times in your life. One is prosperity and
be joyful. And I really like that part of the verse. In the time, the good times, enjoy them. Enjoy
them. In the time of prosperity. Enjoy it. Really enjoy it. Enjoy life. It’s great.
But in the day of adversity, it doesn’t say get depressed. It says consider. Do you see that. But in
the day of adversity, consider. What do you consider? Reality. In the day of prosperity we are
joyful and in the day of adversity we check ourselves with reality. And that’s a gift to us. That
we can look at reality in the face. We can consider. We can think about it.

There’s a reason why the world is made this way with these two different words. One is the
prosperity. The world is made so that you would be joyful. But then it’s made this way so that
you have both. Why? Vs. 14. God has set the one over against the other. He has given you both.
And he has done it on purpose. He has set one against the other. Why?

Because this is, this is wisdom. Wisdom is to give us both. This is God’s mind. ‘Cause he wants us to
live and know him. He wants us to relate to him. He actually wants us to need him, enjoy him,
relate to him. Look at the verse, vs. 14. To the end that man should find nothing after him.
Another way of saying it, he did it so that the man can’t figure it out. A man can’t figure out his
life. He says I did everything right. Why do I have this mess? It’s for you to consider. Stop and
actually to relate to God. To consider. I don’t have an answer. I need help.

In the day of prosperity, you might say I don’t need help. I’m just filled with my bank account is
loaded. Everything is good. I’m healthy. My family is healthy. Everything is good. Now, let’s turn
to John 11. Our prayer is on Wednesday nights here we would get fed the Word and eat
something. Eat some spiritual bread, spiritual food. And it happens. Thank you, Lord, cuz this is
your will what we are doing tonight.

John 11:1, now let’s wait a minute here. Before he was sick, before Lazarus was sick, let’s say
two weeks before, he was healthy. His sisters were in the house. They even had earlier times
when Jesus was in the house and it was a very good time. You could say in the day of prosperity
be joyful. But now we have adversity. And what should they do in the adversity but consider.
Now, in the considering because I believe these were women of God, they were wrestling with
the whole thing, of course. That’s the meaning of adversity. I can’t package it. I don’t
understand it. I don’t know why this happened to me. Why didn’t you come Jesus when we
called for you? If you had come here, my brother would not have died. This is their
consideration. They’re processing what’s going on.

And the point that I want to bring out is how Jesus ministered to those ladies. And in a similar
way, he has a minister to you and I where we are considering what is going on. What does the

Lord want from me? What’s his intention? I can’t – life isn’t what maybe some people thought
it was. And what I think, etc. We can all relate to that.
Go to the text here. John 11:20. Two women with two different personalities. One is very – we
could say she’s active. She moves around a lot. Martha, why are you busy so much in Luke 10.
She ran out. She heard Jesus was coming. She ran out to meet him. Mary didn’t have that in her
heart. Like she didn’t know what to do and she sat in the house. I don’t want to read too much
into it, but just simply to say they were different.

Vs. 21-22. Even now. Now, because we are believers, we have this amazing blessing of
understanding things and having faith. And this woman has faith. Even though surely, she’s
heartbroken and surely, it’s beyond her. We could say beyond her capacity.
We don’t have to hold our life together. We just have to consider who he is and relate to him in
faith and talk to him. And listen to him. Cuz he has something to say and this is vs. 23-24. She
had doctrine and she’s correct. Vs. 25. He went deeper than the doctrine of the future
resurrection. He said I AM. He’s speaking about his deity. He’s saying I AM the resurrection and
the life.

And many of you, I believe in your lives I don’t doubt it that you have the reality of Christ in
your life so really that you know the meaning of this verse. That he is bread. He is the door. He
really is the way. He is the resurrection. He is the answer in life. Cuz I can’t find out how this
works. Prosperity. Adversity. And God set one against the other so I could not get to the end of
the whole thing and figure it out.

That I am left wondering even today, even tonight, in our hearts. We have things that we
wonder about and we think about and we come to him and he minsters to us. This is the
beautiful thing about us walking with God. He ministers to us. And I’m sure if we went through
the crowd and we asked testimony after testimony we would hear that people would be saying
that God has spoken to me. That he spoke to my heart. He comforted me. He showed up. He
actually gave me a promise. His presence moved me. I was touched very much.

We said earlier in the week that some day we want to preach on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit
coming like a rushing, mighty wind. And one of the points we made is that wind and spirit in the
Bible are the same word in the Greek, pneuma. The word for air. Air, wind, spirit. It looks like
the spirit is similar to wind because you can’t see it but you can feel it. Because it can be
ignored. Like the wind is ignored.

Usually, when you get up in the morning, you go, what’s the temperature outside? You usually
don’t say what’s the speed of the wind? Is it coming from the north or the south? Okay. Like

wind is ignored and so is the Holy Spirit but he is here. He is here. He is the presence of God.
The Spirit of God.
The wind is also – the Spirit is like the wind in the sense that you don’t know where it’s coming
from and you don’t know what the Spirit is doing. Where is it going? And so there is a very good
parallel between the wind, but there’s another point. If wind is very strong, it’s like the first
thing you’re concerned about. Meaning, if there’s a hurricane coming, everybody talks about it.
If a hurricane hits a house, it’s over. If the wind is so strong, it can blow you across the parking
lot. Or a tornado pick you up and lift you and throw you somewhere. The wind.

When Pentecost came, it was as rushing, mighty wind and it had such an impact on people that
it changed Jerusalem. It actually changed the world. And that Holy Spirit is here. But maybe
now he is one mile an hour or very gently on your face. Or very gently on your heart.
And this woman needed Jesus to talk to her and tell her something about her brother cuz she’s
heartbroken. And he tells her theologically and then mystically about himself. I am the
resurrection. Can you believe me on that? Can you believe me that I am here? Can you believe
in the midst of your tears that I have a message for you?

Do you believe that the trouble you have in your life is on my radar screen and I know all things
from the end to the beginning. And that I am here so you can know me? And this is actually
ordained of God, ordained of my Father? That you would consider, that you would draw near,
that you would trust me. Wow.

So, go to the next verse here, please. Vs. 26. I love that he said that part. Do you believe this?
He puts it on her. Believest thou this? Do you believe this? Isn’t that beautiful? Do you believe
me, Jesus said. Do you believe me.

I know that the pain in life can be so great that it might take me some time. I met some people
through the years in the ministry where they struggled for five years before they believe him.
They become angry and sometimes they are bitter and sometimes they stop talking and stop
considering. They just go to the pain and the anger and that. But don’t. Rejoice in prosperity
and in adversity be careful. Be careful cuz he is here and that’s what we see.

But then there’s another woman here that he said, that he talked to. And start from vs. 27-28. I
like that. It goes like this. Martha runs out and has the talk. The talk has ended basically and so
she goes back in to say, Mary, he’s here and he’s calling for you. That part I don’t know if that’s
true. He actually cares about you. Mary, come on. Like get somebody out of the house. Get
somebody out of their funk. Get them moving. And we need that. Cuz I could see myself sitting
in the house. Like all of us see that.

But there’s something beautiful about God and his work and how he sends people into our
lives. And he sends leaders into our lives and he sends the Word into our life and he wants to
get us moving in the faith and recognize he is here and what it is that he wants to do.
Vs. 29-32. The same sentence. I’m sure they had said that sentence between each other,
Martha and Mary. If Jesus had been here, this would not have happened and so on. Vs. 33-35.
So, this is another part. The theology is with the front part with Martha and then this
identification. He’s the Son of God. He doesn’t need to weep. He’s going to raise the dead in a
few minutes. He doesn’t need to weep. But of course, he weeps.

He could say, I’m the Son of God. I have the authority over death. Step aside. I’m going to do a
great work. Watch what I’m going to do and raise the dead. Why did he do it this way? Huh?
Why? He’s ministering. He’s ministering to her. He’s ministering to us. He’s saying I feel your
pain. He’s saying I don’t believe people should die either. People should not die. I didn’t make
people to die in Titus 1:2. God promised us life.

The dust cannot praise God. A rotting body in a tomb does not praise God. I did not make
Lazarus to die. And he’s weeping as Timothy Keller says – believe he’s the one – he says in his
book and in his messages this profound reality which I love. And it is that death is abnormal. It’s
not right. And we know it. It shouldn’t happen.

It’s up on the screen. Adversity. It’s our biggest enemy. It hits every family, every home, every
living person. It hits our nation. It hits the world. It’s in our history. There is the murder. There is
the cancer. There is the death. There’s old age and so on. And we are weeping. We are weeping
over it and so is Jesus and he cries out in his spirit and his aggressive nature of overcoming
death and he deals with it.

But before he wants – he says to Mary, where have you laid him? No theology there. Only
tears. The theology of tears. And she shows him and he’s weeping and he sees the Pharisees.
He sees religion. He sees the grave. And it contradicts his whole nature.
He is not a Pharisee. He is the liberator. He is not like a religious tyrant. He is the humble,
suffering Savior of the world and he shows it to us. Mary, you are important to me. I want to
show you what life is about. I am here. And between these two – prosperity and adversity –
there is the discovering of God. Discovering the Holy Spirit, the wind. Discovering the nature of
God. Discovering this book as a way of life. Hiding it in our hearts.

So, when death knocks on the door, we go, who is it? Death. I’ve been waiting for you. Is it your
time? Is it time for you to come and take me? Is it your time? Did God send you? If the devil
sent you, I rebuke you. If God sent you, I’ve been waiting. But I have news for you. I have
overcome you because Christ overcame you. Amen. Would you pray with me, please?

When we draw near to Jesus, then we can hold life loosely. When we come to Jesus we can
have a job. We thank God for our jobs but we can also hold them loosely for one day we will
lose them. If we are healthy, we love our health. We thank God for health but we also hold it
loosely. We know it can change in a day.

We have children. We hold them loosely. We love them with all our hearts. We have a wife or a
husband. We hold them loosely. We know what it is. We know what life is in this sense. This
sense that God wants to speak to us. Minister to us. And lead us in life. (Prayer)

 

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