Loose Me And Let Me Go

Text – St. John 11: 40 – 44

Subject – Loose me and let me go!

Intro. The greatest problem that we as believers are faced with is our past. The situations that plague us most are things that took place before we met The Lord. Even if they took place after you met The Lord, and happened in a moment of indiscretion, people have a tendency to remember. They tend to remember the bad more than the good. The wrong more than the right, the downs more than the ups. As people we tent to view the negative a lot more than the positive. Now, that may be what people tend to do, but we as believers also are held back when it comes to the opinions of others. We let what people think, or even assume, cause us to change what we do. The Apostle Paul in the book of Phil. Made it clear that he was forgetting those things that are behind. He did not care if people did not forget, he himself needed to forget. He himself needed not to be held back. He himself needed to press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So today, allow me to pull some valuable information from this filimar situation of Lazarus and Jesus to show you that if you were once dead Jesus can raise you, and his first command to your life is to all of your old habits, situations. He commands that they loose you and let you go.

I. Living Without The Lord, You Are Dead

A. Remember how reckless you were

1. Acted without thinking

2. Did everything you felt you were big enough to do

a. a life without control

b. acted without consideration of God, or others

B. Easy to say others, but you were dead too

1. We too often forget where God has brought us from

2. Some can’t praise because they don’t see his value

a. think you brought yourself

b. If it had not been for The Lord

C. Jesus knew his friend Lazarus was dead

1. Had gotten the reports of him being ill

2. Was God Knew it all, To show his power through Lazarus

a. Has done the same with us

II. He Bringing Us To Life Is Something Others Felt Was Impossible

A. You may know some people that can’t believe who you are now

1. Remember who you were and how acted

2. Felt you could never change

a. Can never say what God cannot do

b. Don’t limit God to your world

B. Don’t be hindered by the small minds of others

1. People that know your family

2. Want to group all people together

a. Don’t allow people to bunch you with others

b. Be what God made you even if others don’t believe

C. When Jesus Showed Up, Asked Mary and Martha, do you believe

1. We must learn to trust The Power Of God

2. People with them didn’t believe, but you have to self

3. Went to the graveyard, prayed to The Father for Lazarus

a. Jn. 14, no man come to The Father

b. Vs. 39, Martha said it’s too late, he’s too far gone

c. Jesus said see The Glory of The Lord

D. Raised Lazarus, But there was a problem, Still had on Grave clothes

III. After We’re Raised There Is Evidence That We Were Once Dead

A. There may be residue of old habits

B. Friends that are not saved, or just a history

1. Keep you from walking freely in your new life

2. Tends to hold us back

C. Lazarus couldn’t walk, was held back by death residue

1. Jesus will not raise you and leave you bound

2. Gave the command, Loose him and let him go.

Was he talking to the people or the Grave Clothes, People were afraid, shocked

People may have kept the clothes as a souvenir, Lazarus wore this cloth

He told the grave clothes, get off him, stop holding him back, let him go

People may try to keep me tied up, but God told my old ways to Loose me

If you want him to, he’ll tell that lying tongue to loose you and let you go

I’m walking in freedom today, I’ve been set free

CTC AM Worship Sunday, April 27, 2003

Sunday, December 28, 2003 Holy Trinity

Reverend Kenneth Eugene Cherry