 God, I'm gonna evangelize everybody I meet. God, I'm gonna read my Bible every day. God, I'm gonna obey my parents. I'm gonna do everything that I'm supposed to do. I'm gonna be the most responsible. I'm never gonna repel. God, I'm doing this for you. I am so tired of believing this dumb, dumb lie. It has so heavily impacted my whole faith journey up until now and I think now I'm just getting to like finally the root of it and beginning to figure out, okay, how do I get rid of this dumb thing that's putting so much weight on my shoulders and expectation and just really manipulating the way I see God and how I interact with him. I say all this to say that you guys, maybe you watching this, might be believing a similar thing and you might not know it, okay? Cause the thing was for me, I believed this for a long time, maybe subconsciously or not. If somebody were to ask me, do you believe this? I would say, no, no, I don't believe that, but I lived like I did. I lived like I did and that was where my expectations were. So this is very vague because you don't know what the lie is, but I'm gonna share it with you in a second. This all came up for me when I was reading the story of Lazarus. Now Lazarus, it's a familiar story for most of us. The story of Jesus and his friend and his friend died and Jesus came in and he said, Lazarus come out and Lazarus is all stinky and he's got all these garments of these claws on him because that's what they would do at the dead and he comes out and he's alive, right? This is a beautiful story, but what I didn't really clue into or hone into as much was the beginning part of the story. And this is what really triggered this lie that I believe because I think someone within this story believes this lie too or could believe this lie. Let's jump in. So we go to John 11 where Mary and Martha, we know Mary and Martha, they're going to Jesus and they say Jesus, hey, your friend who you love is ill. Okay, number one here, if I were Jesus and I'm not Jesus, but if I were God and obviously that's not gonna happen and is impossible, but if I were God, I would say I want the people that I love that I'm closest to my best friends to be taken care of. If I have total power, then why wouldn't I want them to be totally healthy and healed and happy and use my power for them? If you were a superhero, you'd probably want to fly your friends around, make sure that they're well taken care of, that they're safe. But here, Jesus, he does something interesting, okay? Mary tells him this and yet he stays where he is for two more days. That doesn't seem like a very good friend. That doesn't seem like somebody that really cares. And Mary here is kind of building this thought like, okay, what's going on, Jesus? You are close friends with me and with Lazarus. Like, you know us and yet you're staying where you are and you're not healing them. Okay, what's going on here? Lazarus dies, that's insane. Lazarus dies, Jesus let Lazarus die. Then Jesus, he finally comes to where Mary is and where Lazarus has died. And Mary comes to him and she's just honest. She's just straight up with Jesus in a way that maybe a little bit disrespectful, not super honoring, but she's just like more curious than anything maybe. She says, Lord, if you hadn't had been here, my brother would not have died. That's just the facts. Like Jesus, if you were here, I thought you cared about us. Number one, I thought you loved us. If you were here, you would have prevented this. Okay, let's zoom out for a second. If I was Mary, my presupposition would be, God's gonna care for the people that he care for for the people that he loves the most. Okay, so if I get really close to God, then God is gonna make my life go the way I want it to. You know, if I do all the things that God wants me to do, if I'm with him, if I'm present with him, I enact his principles, I obey him, I listen to him, then when I call on him, he'll be there for me. The lie is, is that God is obligated to give me what I want. If I do, if I'm close to God, if he loves me more than other people, I try to get him to love me more than other people, that's the truth of it. If I try to be God's star child, that was where I was at. I wanna be God's star child. God, I'm gonna start the Christian YouTube channel. God, I'm gonna evangelize everybody I meet. God, I'm gonna read my Bible every day. God, I'm gonna obey my parents. I'm gonna do everything that I'm supposed to do. I'm gonna be the most responsible. I'm never gonna repel. God, I'm doing this for you. And you're standing there, and in your moment of need, you're asking God, God, my brother Lazarus, the one that you love, he's ill, help me. Help me, God. And God seems to acknowledge it, but he stays where he is for two more days. And I can even imagine myself in Lazarus' perspective, man, I'm ill, literally my best friend, close to it, at least from my perspective, is the Messiah, and that he doesn't come to me when I need him to heal me. So I have this presupposition, this understanding that if I do everything right, if I'm close to God, if I do what he wants me to do as best as I can, then at the end of the day, God will say, hey son, I've been seeing what you're doing, and I'm proud of you. Not only am I proud, but I'm gonna reward you. I'm gonna give you the life that you want. I'm gonna make the relationships that you have super easy and fun and good. I'm gonna make sure that you're financially successful. I'm gonna make sure that your career and your ministry does super well. I'm gonna make sure that you're just a happy, joyful person and you don't need to encounter hardship or sorrow or pain or depression or anxiety. Any of that, I'm gonna push that away because I see you and I see what you're doing and I wanna reward that. And that was the lie, that was the presupposition that I approached my life with. Okay, we go back into the story. When Mary had said, hey, Jesus, Lazarus, who you love, he's ill, what did Jesus say to that? Okay, because we come to Jesus with similar propositions, similar words and that desperation there. We say, Jesus, I'm struggling here or my friends struggling or my family struggling. You love them, so do something about it. And this is what Jesus says. He says, this illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. What is he talking about? He literally tells Mary what the purpose of this is and yet it goes right over her head. This happens a lot with Jesus and we can laugh and we can say, oh man, Mary had the answer literally right in front of her and yet we do this all the time because we have God's word and we've read the answer and yet we still ask God and we still have false expectations of God and we still don't understand what he's doing even though he's told us in a broad sense what he is doing. So in this context, Lazarus was ultimately raised from the dead, but he still died. He still ended up dying. Like he still, you know, after a few years, I don't know what's not documented here. He did eventually die, okay. But the truth of what was going on here was that God was using this for his glory, that he was willing to allow people that he loved and himself to go through pain, to go through hardship, to go through sorrow and grieving in order that his purposes would be fulfilled and God would be brought glory. Okay, that was what he was willing to take place for the glory of God. That's a tough truth. That is a tough truth. But then on the other side of that, after Mary came to him and she said, Lord, if you had been here, he wouldn't have died. I think a lot of us can relate to this sentiment. God, if you had been here, my marriage would be together. God, if you had been here, my finances would have been in a better place. God, if you had been here, I'd be successful at my job. God, if you had been here, my relationships would be so much better. But where were you, God? Where were you? And we bring this accusatory tone to God. God, where were you when my mom is struggling with cancer? If you had been here, she'd be healed. And we bring that to God. And what does Jesus say? Well, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews had come with her or were also weeping, he was moved deeply in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. You see the savior weeping not only for those around him that have experienced the sorrow and pain of Lazarus' death, but also his friend. His friend had died. And you're asking yourself, why would God allow his friend to die? And yet he makes it clear. It's that I would be brought glory. And in this case, it is through his resurrection. I come back to this reality that our pain is not purposeless. That God weeps for us in the midst of that pain, in that midst of that sorrow. But we need to drop this idea that just because we're trying to do everything right, that God is obligated to give us the life that we want, that he's obligated to answer every prayer that we have, that he's obligated to make our life work in the way that we want it to. I did my part, God, now it's your turn to do yours. God, I was a close friend with you. Now I'm asking you to do this for me. We make accusations that God, oh, he's not good, because he's not giving me what I want. But who's on the throne then? I'm on the throne. I'm on the throne. Friend, you're not on the throne. And God is not a vending machine that you put in your good works and you get out what you want. That's not how he works. He's told us that it's for his glory. This whole thing is for his glory. The pain that we experience, the story that he's writing, that's for his glory. And he relates with us so deeply and his compassion for us in the midst of the pain, in the midst of the questions. When we don't understand God, why weren't you here? He has compassion for us in the midst of that. I wanna drop this whole lie that God is gonna make my life work exactly the way I want it to because I'm a good person. Because that is good works and that is a life lived to get from God. God, I'm gonna do this for you so I can get this. God, I'm gonna do this for you so that I can finally obtain this life that I've been craving so much, this significance, this security, this acceptance, this love that I'm craving. That's how I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna be perfect. I'm gonna try to be perfect or I'm trying to honor you and that's what I'm gonna get from you. No, I'm gonna drop that lie. That is a lie and it's a lie derived to separate us from God, to keep us moving in this realm of duty, this realm of obsession about one more thing and my life will be complete. If this just goes right, then I'll be happy. If this just goes right, then I'll be satisfied. No, none of that will satisfy you. And so God wants you to drop that, drop that lie. That's not how it works. How does it work? Everything is a gift from God. The pain, the suffering, the sorrow that we experience. It is designed to cast our eyes on him that in that, God would be glorified. That God is writing a story, a testimony through all of that. That's designed to point people's eyes onto him. As the most beautiful, as the most glorious is saying, okay, hey, that life that you thought was gonna be perfect for you, that life that you so deeply craved, I want you to let go of that. Cause that's an idol. That's something that will separate you from me. So I'm taking it away from you. And I know you thought you could get it by doing everything right, by being the star child. I know you thought you could. And I'm sorry that you believe that. But I want you to let go of that and recognize that I have a better story for you. I have a better plan for you. And that doesn't mean that your life is gonna go better or good or the way that you think it should. But this better plan, this good plan that I have for you, places you in a space of molding where you are ready to be molded and become the person that God wants you to be. That is it, that is it. If we can be open to that in the midst of the pain, in the midst of the suffering to say, okay, I'm gonna go through all these things because I know that God, he cares for me. He is compassion for my hurting heart. And in the midst of this, he is softening me to be ready to be molded. Oh, that's what we want, that's what we want. So friend, I encourage you today, if you've been buying into the Sly 2, this belief about Jesus, let go of it, let go of it. And it's gonna take some time. It's gonna take some reworking. I'm still working through it myself because I carried that for so long. That's not the way that God works. And I pray that when you drop that lie, it'll free you. It'll free you to just embrace God, to embrace the pain that you experience and know that God cares for you so deeply. And he loves you. And he's given himself for you. And that your sin, even though it is so great and it is so huge, and your pride that has led you to this place that you think you can manipulate God, God has forgiven that in his sacrifice. He has given you so much grace that you far beyond what you deserve. And you can rest in that, friend. You can rest in that. Thank you for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, I encourage you to subscribe. If you wanna support what I'm doing with the ministry here, I'd ask you to support on Patreon down below or give a one-time gift on PayPal that would be such a blessing. Thank you for watching again, and I'll see you next time. God bless.