No Greater Love Part 4 Marching Orders 04-05-26

Apr 19, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Confronting the Stone

Jesus stood before Lazarus’ tomb, the stench of death thick in the air. He told Martha, “Take away the stone.” She hesitated—rotting flesh lay behind that barrier. But Jesus insisted. Only by confronting the decay could resurrection begin. [06:59]

Jesus calls us to face what we’ve buried. Hidden sins, unhealed wounds, or shameful secrets fester in darkness. Like Martha, we fear the mess. But Christ’s power works where we dare to expose our pain.

What stone have you refused to move? Is there a relationship, habit, or memory you’ve sealed off? Name it today. Jesus waits to bring life where death reigns. Will you let Him into the place you’ve walled off?

“Take away the stone,” Jesus said. (John 11:38–39, NIV)

Prayer: Ask Jesus for courage to confront one buried hurt or sin.
Challenge: Write down one hidden struggle and pray over it for 2 minutes.

Day 2: Thanksgiving Before the Miracle

Jesus lifted His eyes and thanked the Father before Lazarus stirred. The corpse still lay wrapped. The crowd still doubted. Yet Jesus praised God for what He was about to do—a prayer of trust, not results. [07:57]

Gratitude before breakthrough declares God’s faithfulness. Jesus didn’t wait for Lazarus to walk to give thanks. He anchored His prayer in God’s character, not circumstances. True faith thanks God for the answer while still in the tomb.

Many of us withhold praise until we see victory. What if you thanked God today for the healing, provision, or restoration He’s already working? When did you last praise Him for an unseen answer?

“Father, I thank you that you have heard me.” (John 11:41–42, NIV)

Prayer: Thank God for three promises He’s fulfilling, even if unseen.
Challenge: Text one person: “God is working in ___. Join me in thanking Him.”

Day 3: Cutting Burial Clothes Loose

Lazarus stumbled out, alive but bound—linen strips clinging to his arms, face wrapped like a mummy. Jesus ordered, “Unbind him.” Resurrection required both life and liberation. [08:38]

Christ frees us from grave-clothes—old habits, toxic mindsets, or shame that entangle. Like Lazarus, we need others to help cut what restricts us. Freedom isn’t just walking out of darkness; it’s shedding what hinders our walk.

What binds you even after God’s deliverance? Gossip? Fear? Bitterness? Who can help you remove it? What “linen strip” will you ask God to sever today?

“Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” (John 11:44, NIV)

Prayer: Confess one habit that hinders your freedom.
Challenge: Throw away or delete one item that represents a binding influence.

Day 4: Faith Precedes the Victory

The injured player hobbled, missing shot after shot. His team rallied—passing, defending, believing. Suddenly, broken ankles couldn’t stop three-pointers. Faith turned desperation into triumph. [16:01]

Jesus said, “Your faith has healed you.” Miracles follow bold trust, not perfect conditions. Like the team, we choose to act despite limitations. Victory comes when we play as if Christ’s power is already moving.

What “game” have you quit because you felt unprepared or wounded? Where is God calling you to step onto the court anyway? How can you act in faith before seeing results?

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go…” (Matthew 28:18–20, NIV)

Prayer: Ask God for faith to obey one step He’s shown you.
Challenge: Write “I GO WITH CHRIST’S AUTHORITY” on your hand. Share it with one person.

Day 5: Multiplying Negatives into Positives

The priests bribed soldiers to lie: “Disciples stole the body.” But their scheme backfired—the lie spread the truth. What Satan meant to bury, God used to amplify. [21:37]

God transforms attacks into platforms. Persecution birthed the early church. Slander became a megaphone. When we face opposition, Christ’s authority flips the script. Our trials multiply into testimonies.

What negative situation feels overwhelming? A conflict? A loss? How might God repurpose it for good? Will you trust Him to write a resurrection story from your rubble?

“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” (Romans 8:28, NIV)

Prayer: Pray for God to redeem one current struggle for His glory.
Challenge: Replace one anxious thought with: “God will turn this into good.”

Sermon Summary

A clear theological pattern emerges around love, faith, and resurrection as practical realities for daily life. The narrative of Lazarus lays out four steps toward restoration: confront the stones that hide decay, pray with confident thanks before the outcome, answer the call out of darkness, and cut loose the burial cloths that hinder new life. That pattern serves as a model for inner resurrections—recovering dreams, relationships, hope, and spiritual vitality—because physical resurrection points to deeper, ongoing transformation available to every believer.

Love functions as both command and power. Jesus’ final discourse in John 15 frames love as the defining ethic—laying down life, indwelling union, and the promise that obedience unlocks divine provision. Obedience and reciprocated love place believers within the sphere of God’s authority so that requests aligned with that relationship bear fruit. Authority given to Christ secures the mission: going, baptizing, and teaching becomes the primary engine for communal and personal renewal.

Faith acts as the operative force that precedes and activates resurrection. Illustrated by a sports comeback, faith changes perception, steadies resolve, and manufactures possibilities where human resources fail. The enemy aims to disrupt that faith through fear, distraction, and manufactured lies; yet such attacks often catalyze the very positives God intends when faith holds.

Practical discipleship flows from this theology: moving forward despite imperfect conditions, modeling Christlike obedience, and teaching by example. Resurrection happens not as a one-time miracle but as a cooperative process—God’s power paired with human faith and obedience—resulting in transformed lives, families, churches, and communities. The call closes with a summons to be overcomers: to partner with divine power, refuse fear, act in faith, and let visible change testify to God’s restorative work.

Key Takeaways

1. Confront the stones hiding healing Facing hidden sin, grief, or avoidance allows true restoration to begin. Removing what blocks sight and smell exposes what must be healed; avoidance preserves death, confrontation invites resurrection. This requires honest prayer, trusted companions, and willingness to be vulnerable before God. [06:59]
2. Thank God in advance Offering thanksgiving before outcomes reflects confident faith in God’s character and timing. That posture shapes expectation, aligns will, and communicates trust that God is already at work beyond present senses. Preemptive gratitude steadies the soul amid delay and primes action that cooperates with God’s movement. [07:57]
3. Faith always precedes resurrection Belief activates divine power; faith is the antecedent to visible change, not merely an emotional boost. Persistent trust reframes obstacles as opportunities and sustains action when evidence lags. Living by faith compels forward steps that invite God’s transformative intervention. [17:02]
4. Go, obey, make disciples Obedience and movement, not paralysis, propagate resurrection into the world. Teaching by example and baptizing in love demonstrate the risen life and attract others to follow. Collective obedience multiplies renewal across families, churches, and cities as disciples embody and transmit God’s restorative way. [22:54]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[06:22] - Series: No Greater Love
[06:59] - Lazarus: Confront the Stone
[07:57] - Prayer: Thanking God in Advance
[08:19] - Calling Out of Darkness
[08:38] - Unbind and Let Go
[09:09] - John 15: The Mandate to Love
[17:02] - Faith Precedes Resurrection
[19:17] - The Enemy Attacks Faith
[22:54] - All Authority and the Go Command
[26:32] - Obedience, Example, and Discipleship
[27:40] - Be an Overcomer and Testimony

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
- John 11:38-44 (NIV): Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said...
- John 15:9-17 (NIV): As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love...
- Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV): Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me...”

Observation Questions

In John 11, Jesus tells the crowd to remove the stone from Lazarus’ tomb despite concerns about decay. What specific action does Jesus model here about confronting difficult realities? [06:59]
How does Jesus’ prayer in John 11:41-42 reflect his confidence in God’s character, even before Lazarus is resurrected? [07:57]
In John 15:14, Jesus links obedience to friendship with him. What does this passage say about the relationship between love and action?
What authority does Jesus claim in Matthew 28:18, and how does that authority shape the disciples’ mission? [22:54]

Interpretation Questions

Why might avoiding “stones” (hidden struggles, sin, or grief) prevent resurrection in our lives, as illustrated by Lazarus’ story? [06:59]
Jesus thanks God before Lazarus is raised. How does preemptive gratitude reflect faith, and why might it matter more than thanking God after a breakthrough? [07:57]
The sermon compares faith to a sports comeback. How does persistent trust in God’s power “manufacture possibilities” even when circumstances seem impossible? [17:02]
Matthew 28:19-20 commands disciples to “go” and teach obedience. Why might movement and action—not just knowledge—be essential for spiritual renewal? [22:54]

Application Questions

What “stone” are you avoiding that hides a area of decay (e.g., a broken relationship, unaddressed sin, or buried grief)? What practical step could you take this week to confront it with Christ’s help? [06:59]
Think of a situation where you’re waiting for God to act. How could you practice thanking Him in advance this week, even before seeing results?
The sermon says faith “precedes resurrection.” Where in your life do you need to act in faith first, even if the outcome isn’t yet visible? What would that look like tangibly? [17:02]
Jesus calls us to “go and make disciples” by example. Who in your life could you intentionally model Christlike obedience to this month, and how? [22:54]
The enemy attacks faith through fear or distraction. What lie or fear have you recently believed that hindered your trust in God’s power? How can you replace it with truth? [19:17]
Lazarus needed others to cut his burial cloths. What habits, mindsets, or relationships are still binding you, and who could help you “cut them loose” to step into new life? [08:38]

Sermon Clips

49s

#FaithPrecedesVictory

“``So the first element in the formula for resurrection is faith in God. And I gotta say it that way because you hear it all the time, but you gotta understand that it's real. That the faith always precedes the resurrection. That's what Jesus said when he resurrected Lazarus. He said, He said, I know. I thank you God because I know that you hear me. In other words, Jesus exercised and articulated his faith that God would do what he's going to do before God did it. The faith always precedes the victory.”

41s

#LifeOnTheInside

“But the unique aspect is that his death allowed us to overcome every kind of death in our own life. Death of your dreams, death of a relationship, death of of hope in your life, giving up on what God wanted you to to overcome or do have victory over. Those are the real deaths. This body is just a vehicle. Everybody in this room is gonna lose this vehicle. So that's not a big deal. The big deal is whether you have life on the inside.”

45s

#FaithWinsInWeakness

“When you have faith and a resolution in your heart and mind that you're gonna get this thing done, You can have your worst game. You can be injured and hobbling, and God will find a way for you to win. Faith can change everything. I was looking at the eyes. You could see it change. You could see them get together and they said, we're not gonna lose this thing. Now it's one thing to have faith in something as mundane as a game. But my beloved, whenever Jesus would heal anyone, he would say, your faith has healed you.”

41s

#ObeyThroughFaith

“Not asking us to obey anybody here. We're saying everybody here obey God. So we all submit to God. But when all of us are humble and go and obey and don't find reasons not to and make reasons to, that's when God resurrects your life, he resurrects your family, he resurrects your job and your vocation, He resurrects your church. He resurrects your city and your state and your country and your world. He does it one soul at a time when we obey through faith.”

43s

#BecomeAnOvercomer

“So be an overcomer. Become resurrected, be transformed, but know that it's not just God, it's you. Your faith, when all the chips are down, can turn things totally around, move you up, put you in a higher place, transform you, make you more like him, and you will be God's trophy. You will be God's example of his reality and his power when people see how he took you out of your darkness and into his wondrous light. Amen. Amen.”

43s

#ThankGodInAdvance

“And I think that this is the linchpin, and we're gonna talk about that a bit today In our own faith journey, in our own personal resurrection, do we have the faith to thank God in advance for what he's about to do? Then after that, he calls Lazarus. And Lazarus, in his darkness, answers the call to come out of darkness into God's wondrous light. And then finally, fourthly, when he's out, he's still bound in his burial clothes. So Jesus says, cut loose his burial clothes and set him free.”

31s

#StepOutInFaith

“to do what you know God has commanded you to do, to do what you know God has promised of you in your life, to step out even though, oh, well, this peace is not in place, and that peace is not in place. And what if that happens? And what if this happens? That's the enemy fanning the fire. And that's you believing the lie. Just like the double lies here, if you're believing, oh, we can't move. Oh, I can't do this or that because these things are not in place. My beloved, it will never be in place before you go.”

39s

#WalkByFaithNotSight

“You have the faith to go to put them in place. And if you act on your love and faith of God inside of your heart, God will transform the circumstances. So the great deception of the enemy is to get you to walk by sight instead of by faith. The great answer of God is to resurrect everything around you through faith by going because he said so. So when he tells us to go and make disciples of all nations, a disciple is a person who is learning to become a Christian.”

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