Strengthening Family Bonds Through Faith and Purpose

Good morning, Berean cousins! Hallelujah! I was glad when they said, "Let us go into the house of the Lord." Hallelujah! God, we bless Your name.

On this Independence weekend, we thank God for giving us independence and for His salvation and His Son. We thank God for who He is and what He does and will do. We glorify God and lift His name high in this place. We taste and see that the Lord is good, and His mercy endures forever. We come to give God the praise and the glory in this place. The name of Jesus is lifted high. For Jesus, we shall be saved. We glorify God and put His name higher. We release His glory in this place. We hear the sound of an army arising in this place. We love God and glorify His name. We need God's power, healing, and breakthrough. Jesus is on fire, and we say love. There is no one like Him, and no wonder. We need His eyes. Hallelujah, for He is worthy of glory and honor.

With the congregation:

O Lord Jesus, we thank You for the month of July. Father God, we thank You for the family unit. Father God, we thank You for the blessings that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the love that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the joy that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the peace that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the hope that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the faith that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the grace that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the mercy that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the favor that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the strength that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the wisdom that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the understanding that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the anointing that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the power that You have given us.

We say, "Lord, we need love with each other in life." We love You, never bless You, actually die. Come on, Hallelujah!

I want to invite you to the altar; it's family month. Husbands, wives, moms, dads, children, grandchildren, aunties, uncles, I want to invite you all to the altar. This is the month of July when families come together, when we go on vacations, when we do our family reunions. Let's get together and pray one with another; this is family month.

Thank You, Father God. Let us go to the throne room now. Thank You, Father God, for this another day. Thank You, Father God, for this the month of July when we could come together as families.

O Lord Jesus, Father God, just touch the family unit. O Lord, touch husbands. O Lord, touch fathers. O Lord, let them step in their rightful place and be leaders in the house. Bless the moms, O Lord Jesus. Bless them and let them be the center point of our lives.

Father God, bless the children. Let them walk behind moms and dads, and their moms and dads be good examples for them. Oh Lord Jesus, yes, touch them, Father God, right now.

Lord Jesus, let that will be done in the family unit. O Lord, let us be on one accord when it comes to spiritual health. Father God, let us spend time praying together.

Oh Lord Jesus, let us be on one accord when it comes to our finances. Father God, let us learn how to put You first, and as You bless us, let us bless others in the Kingdom of God in our tithes and givings.

O Lord Jesus, have Your way in our lives. Father God, and then let us come alongside others while they are doing things that may not be right for the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus. We come against things like open marriages and same-sex marriages.

Father God, Your word says, "Let a man leave his mother and father and cling to his one wife." O Lord Jesus, we just ask, Father God, that we can come alongside in situations like that and allow the Holy Spirit to use us. O Lord Jesus, and we can come alongside and use biblical principles relatively.

Father God, we can be loving and not judging. Oh, have Your way, O Lord Jesus. Bless our pastor right now. Father God, cover him from head to toe right now. Continue to breathe into him visions and dreams, and then give him the courage and the boldness to share with the congregation.

O Lord Jesus, we thank You for the month of July. Father God, we thank You for the family unit. Father God, we thank You for the blessings that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the love that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the joy that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the peace that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the hope that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the faith that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the grace that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the mercy that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the favor that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the strength that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the wisdom that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the understanding that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the anointing that You have given us. Father God, we thank You for the power that You have given us.

The Berean Christian Church exists to bring glory and honor to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by cultivating commissioned Christians to minister through the word, worship, and witnessing to His congregation, community, city, country, county, and other continents.

Our mission is fulfilled by building up leaders through the word, equipping the laity, reaching the lost, witnessing, exalting the Lord in worship, and learning the word and nurturing through love and witnessing.

Our vision statement is to be biblical proprietors in the word of God, ethical, practicing morality and integrity, exceptional, operating in excellence, influential, making an infallible impact on society, instructional, teaching constantly and systematically, liberal, sharing of our time, talents, and treasures, motivational, inspiring others to positive actions, practical, applying biblical principles relatively, punctual, being time conscious, radical, thinking outside of the box, relational, developing healthy relationships, and universal, establishing a holistic ministry.

We thank God for our mission, vision, and value statements. It's time for us to get to know each other. This is a friendly church, so if you're not friendly, you shouldn't have come today. Let's greet some of our cousins and see who's sitting next to us, behind us, and in front of us.

This is the day that the Lord has made, and we're here to rejoice and be glad in it. We thank God for your presence today. We thank God for all the things that have transpired in our church over the last seven days.

We thank God for Sister Lavares who went through Adam Miller's class last week. We thank God for the Beyond family who joined us last week. We are so glad to have them and appreciate them.

We also thank God for those who traveled to South Georgia for the celebration of our brother Willie Stewart who went on to be with the Lord. He was 54 years old and had four children, 21 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. We thank God for the team of Minister Lillian, Mr. Jerry, Deacon John, and Deacon Willie Robinson who all traveled down.

We want to thank our streaming audience for participating and being a part of what God is doing in this place. We thank God for each and every one of you, whether you are watching from your homes, the hospital, on vacation, or out of the country.

It is so good to see everybody today on the first Sunday in the month of July. We are halfway through 2023. Is there anybody here today with perfect attendance for the month of July? If you are going to miss next week, just come to the 12:30 service, and you will be caught up. We praise God for those with perfect attendance.

It was a blessing to be able to go with us in their family. We have a couple of things going on that I don't want you to forget about. Grief Share is this Saturday at 10 o'clock. We need help with facilitators, and we have 15,000 women helping us, but we need three more men. We also have some children and youth struggling with grief, and we are looking for someone with a gift of working with young people to do a two-week session on Grief Share.

This Friday is First Friday for all of our teenagers in middle school and high school. We will have water games, and it is free, but you must know a Bible verse. Numbers 11:23 is the verse.

On July 12th, we are going to a Treetop Quest, and the cost is thirty dollars.

We need help with our sound, video, and media ministry. We have a table outside, and we want to train you how to take shots of your path.

Come on and help us!

We are excited to announce our joining Ministry and QR code. If you go to the QR code on your phone, a plethora of ministries will come up in our church that you can be a part of. We want to get you involved and connected. We want to know you and for you to know us. If something happens to you, Pastor wants to know if you need a hospital visit.

We are also excited to announce our Marriage Ministry. We will be having a lunch and learn on July 22nd from 12:30 to 3:30. The cost is forty dollars. The scripture for the Marriage Ministry is Ephesians 5:21, "Submit to one another in the fear of the Lord."

On the same Saturday, we will also be having a back-to-school giveaway. We will be blessing our elementary, middle school, and high school students with a box of school supplies and a book bag. We can only take 40-45 couples at the most, so please go ahead and register. Come out and get blessed!

Parents, listen up! We have a great opportunity for you to register for school supplies. It will be from 10 to 11:30. You must be there at 10, as we will be giving away the supplies. During this hour and a half, we will have dynamic speakers talking about our young people. This event will be on the last Sunday of the month, which is July 30th.

We are also going to every flagpole in Gwinnett County Middle School and High School for the last 10 years. We will meet at 3 o'clock PM and pray for the safety of the school. We will read scriptures and pray for the parents, teachers, administration, and students.

If you can't make it on Thursday at 3 o'clock, you should still go to the school and pray with your child no later than the second week of school. We will give you the format of how to pray and what to do.

We are excited about this blessing, and we want to celebrate with Joel, who will be married on Wednesday for 67 years! We are thankful for all of our married couples and all of our single people. God bless you.

We all stand up to honor Brother and Sister Joel, who have been married for 67 years. Oh my God, don't they look good? Let's all come close together so we can get a picture of them. Hallelujah! Take your seat so people can see. Look at them; they are beautiful! Somebody give me a picture with them.

We need to be over here for 67. We got 37; we got 30 more to this. Come on, let's get into the light. Oh my God, look at them all. Well, isn't that beautiful? Thank you, man, you got that shot, you got the money shot.

All right, Father, we thank You for the Jones, the 60s, 70s. Be pretty sure Katina blessed Keith anointed bless them. They find a body; think of what they add to this church as a couple.

Oh God, have Your way. Thank You for Your daughters; thank You for their grandson. Oh God, You continue to keep them now in Jesus' name, amen.

Come on, y'all, I think you're just now getting home. If you shot the camera, Ashton, you got to move quicker, you got to move quicker, honey. Hallelujah, you got it, praise God.

All right, good job. Come on, thank God for the Jones, man, man, 67 years.

Anybody else in here been married 60 years?

Anybody else in here 60 plus? 60 plus?

Anybody 60 plus?

Anybody 50 or 50 plus years in here married? 50 plus?

45? Where, where? I can't see. Where we're at? I can't see them; I can't stand up. I see Tony raising their hand, but 51 years, come on, praise God, hallelujah, man, that's good stuff.

Anybody over 40?

Anybody over 40 stand up over 40 years? 40 years?

40 years? That's good stuff, man. Y'all look at these people, 40 years, hallelujah.

30 years?

Anybody 30 years? 30 years?

Look at 30 years. I see you 30. Come on, I see you being perfect. We got 37, 30.

What about 20?

Anybody 20? 20 or more? 20.

I see a couple of 20s, a couple of twenties; I see you 20 represent.

What about 10 years or 10 years been 10 years?

All right, 10, 10, all right.

What about the five?

You, anybody zero to five? Zero to five, come on, look at God.

Zero to five, any new anywhere else in here?

We still newlywed Anthony, newlyweds just one year only.

Well, come on, y'all, let's thank God for all of our married couples. Hallelujah! God bless you, appreciate all of you, prayer of them, and we thank God for singleness because you wouldn't be married if you hadn't been single.

Come on, help me somebody. You've got to be single before you get married.

So all those little single and content, even though you ain't, but you're content, come on and stand up.

Come on, all the single in the house, come on, come on, show them what you're working with, just in case somebody's thinking about it.

Hallelujah! Go ahead and give them one right quick.

Hallelujah! Tell them you just don't know.

I'll get a little here, praise God.

But we're thankful for all of our married couples and all of our single people. God bless you.

We thank God for our singles and our marriages. Our goal is to get our single ministry up and running. Let us know if you want to help us get a single ministry core team first.

We thank God for our young people, first through fifth grade, and we are preparing for children's church. Come on, let's thank God for all of our young people, first through fifth grade.

We thank God for our teenagers, sixth grade through high school. Come on, give us some love, give them some love. Victory! Come on, y'all, thank God for our children.

Now, we are preparing for the Lord's Supper. Jesus instructed us to take the Lord's Supper to remind us of His death, His burial, and His resurrection. We are also reminded that we are saved and belong to Him.

In First Corinthians 11:28, it reads that we should examine ourselves before eating and drinking. If we eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are eating and drinking God's judgment upon ourselves.

Before we go to examine ourselves, let us be mindful that this is about Jesus Christ and that all of our sins, past, present, and future, have been covered. As we meditate, let us think about Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. This is why we take communion.

Let us meditate and examine ourselves. We examine ourselves and thank Father God for the opportunity to partake in the Lord's Supper. We thank God that over 2,000 years ago, He gave His life, died, was buried, and resurrected for our sins.

We ask for His forgiveness for any sins we have committed, omitted, or sins of old. We take this communion in faith, realizing it is covered. We pray for the elements that are taken, that God will take them from a natural to a supernatural. We honor His body in Jesus' name.

We ask the streaming audience to also participate in the Lord's Supper. We ask them to get their crackers and juice and commune together.

In First Corinthians 11:23-24, it says, "On the night when Jesus was betrayed, He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. He broke it in pieces and said, 'This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, He took the cup of wine after supper, saying, 'This cup is the New Covenant between God and His people, in agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.'"

We thank God for allowing us to partake in His supper and for what He did for us on Calvary's Hill. We thank God that all of our sins are forgiven and it is finished on the cross. We thank God for demonstrating His love toward us and for sending Christ to die for us. Praise God for the blood that never loses its power. Hallelujah!

Substitution for our sin because Jesus and God gave their all, we are to want to give our all. It's often time; it's offering time, tithe time. Go and praise God, and we ought to give back to God in our worship.

We got to give back to God when it comes to our finances. We got to be figuring out how do I give back to You, God, mentally, emotionally, how do I give energy back to You?

Put up the ways how we can give back to God. One way is through our tithe and offering. God says every time I bless you with a hundred dollars, if you just give me 10, you can keep the 90. If I bless you with 500, just give me 50, you can keep the 450. If I give you a thousand, you just give me a hundred, I'll keep the 900.

Matter of fact, the other 90 is still you doing what you want to do. To ask me how to best even use that, because even once you give me what I'm asking for, I want to help you with what you have left over.

I found there are a lot of believers who tithe, but they do what they want to do with the other 90. First thing I've discovered, if we can let God direct that 90, Hallelujah, we can watch God really bless.

Thank you last week for 47,000, come on, praise God, hallelujah. We can't be God-given. I want to encourage you, man, if you're not tithing, become a consistent giver. If it's just ten dollars a week, twenty dollars a week, five dollars a week, just be and make sure you put it in an envelope.

Don't give anonymously; just give, and this is what it is, do the best you can.

And they will forget y'all doing a pandemic. A lady came to our church and said, "I've been holding my tithe for the whole pandemic." She had ten thousand dollars cash, and we just counting them one dollar bills and them ten dollar bills; she just has stacks.

I want to ask her what she did for them; I said, but ain't none of my business. We thank God, Hallelujah.

I want to encourage you, man, if you're not tithing, become a consistent giver. If it's just ten dollars a week, twenty dollars a week, five dollars a week, just be and make sure you put it in an envelope.

Don't give anonymously; just give, and this is what it is, do the best you can.

And they will forget y'all doing a pandemic. A lady came to our church and said, "I've been holding my tithe for the whole pandemic." She had ten thousand dollars cash, and we just counting them one dollar bills and them ten dollar bills; she just has stacks.

I want to ask her what she did for them; I said, but ain't none of my business. We thank God, Hallelujah.

I want to ask you to go to our website and click on the platforms of giving. Thank You, God, in Jesus' name, amen, amen.

Lord, You are good, yes You are again. Every day, goodness all the time, all the time, forever. Come on. God, we thank You that all that we have belongs to You, and now we give it back to You to be used for Your glory, building up Your kingdom.

God, if You can't be tired, help us to be consistent at five percent, consistent at four percent; it's consistent because You're so consistent with us. Have Your way.

We give God those in church, even those who are streaming, God, who are watching. Pray that they'll go to our website and click on the platforms of giving. Thank You, God, in Jesus' name, amen, amen.

Lord, You are good, yes You are. Again, every day, goodness all the time, all the time, forever.

Come on, if you're holding stuff at home, money stored away in bank accounts, stuff that belongs to God that we're holding on to, and God is in release it so that you can be blessed, hallelujah.

How many out there tithe? You know that tithes and worries? How many out there tithe and know you know you can't be God-given? Go ahead and stretch your hands this way.

Y'all, how many know He's a good God?

Hey, how are you at home?

Hey, foreign, I feel good. Come on and praise God in this place.

Who can testify that God is good?

Hey, He's a mighty good God; that's why we're here today, that's why we're celebrating today because all we have is today.

All we have, Dr. Rucker, is today.

Hey, You're a good God.

Hey, remember we thank God for each and every one of you today. Hallelujah, good stuff, good stuff, good stuff, good stuff, good stuff.

Listen, if you're visiting with us here for the first time, will you please stand?

How many are here for the first time?

Come on, thank God for these first-time visitors.

Come on, come on, come on, first-time visitors in the house.

Welcome to Berean Christian Church; we are a church that's committed to worship, the word, and witnessing.

God bless you, God bless you for being here, God bless you remains 10, and I want to place something in your hands, something in your hand.

And if you can just fill that out for us, please, that'll be a blessing. Or if you go to the QR code on that form, we just want some information on you.

We'd love to call you, write you, just to tell you how much we appreciate you coming and being a part of our church.

Come here, let's thank God for all these visitors again, all these things again. Hallelujah.

Now, one big family, what are y'all? Is that a reunion or something over there?

This is your family reunion?

Awesome! And what family is this?

The Neely family?

Wow, isn't that powerful?

Man, God bless y'all, thank y'all for coming and sharing with us.

Man, ain't that a blessing?

You know your family reunion, you said, "We're going to church."

It'd be like, "You ain't going to church; I ain't coming down here to go to church."

Man, did they say church?

Ain't going to church, and we didn't get that many to come to church; that says something about y'all family, amen.

Come on, thank God again. Hallelujah!

They don't show up like that, do they? Hallelujah!

So that's good stuff, good stuff.

Hey, it's good to have my mom at work here.

Come on, thank God for mother.

Leave my mom from Alabama's in the house, in the house.

Next to your mom is always good to see you, always good to see you.

Then I just thank God for all these young adults who are here in the house today.

Come on, all of our young adults, 18 or 30, would you stand?

Those in college, just young adults, come on, come on.

I see something; they sprinkle all over.

God bless, is that Jade over there?

Thank God for Janet, who just graduated with a 4.0, I heard, is that right?

Come on, thank God for saying awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, and that's without cheating too, I heard, huh?

Without cheating, that's very good.

Hallelujah! Good to see you, good to see you.

What school did you graduate from?

Straight University, my my God.

Well, please don't stray; you get it?

No, she graduated from Stray University, and I said please don't astray.

Thank you; y'all got to catch, you know, congratulations, congratulations, congregation gotta see how we can use.

My youngest son drove all the way from Fairborn just to see my mom in church.

That's a blessing!

My mom is 91 years old, and we're still trying to find her birth certificate.

What a blessing it is to have your mom at 90.

Take care of Mama while you can because when Mama is gone, you're going to miss her.

I was blessed with two good Godmothers.

My mom is from Alabama, and she's 63.

Always good to have her in our presence.

Take care of Mama, take care of your family while you have them.

Love on your family, even if some of them are trifling.

Remember when Daddy used to say, "If Rodney comes over, don't let him in the house if I'm not here."

We thank God for our family.

Our theme for this month is operating in a divine order as a family.

That means God is doing things His will, His way, based on His word as it relates to me and my family.

So God, have Your way.

We thank God for families; that's what we're focusing on this whole month.

We're excited about what God is doing.

Turn with me to John chapter 11.

We pray everybody has a handout and also able to secure a pen to take notes.

We thank God for those who are using their iPhones and iPads to take notes.

Always have something in case you want to show somebody.

I believe that sometimes God puts something in your spirit, not just for you, but for you to pass on to somebody else.

There's somebody who needs to hear what you're hearing today, and somebody who needs to receive what you're going to receive today.

Now don't forget, any time a man or woman of God is speaking, 90 seconds of this message is carved out just for you.

Some of y'all got a plethora of 90 seconds in the worship.

Make sure you get your 90 seconds that you take home.

Matter of fact, you ought to get in a car sharing with each other, "Here's the 90 seconds God had for me."

Even your children and your youth, when you ask them what did y'all talk about today, what did you learn today, you're saying what were your 90 seconds a day, what did God say to you?

I wonder what would happen if families did that together.

Y'all remember last week we talked about families coming together and praying together.

We talked about this praying together and what that would do for families.

I want to hear some stories from some of you who've decided to go home and try this.

Once a week, grab hands with everybody in the family and pray.

Now we ought to be in John chapter 11 by now.

If you're not, would you help a person find John chapter 11?

I'm starting at verse number three.

Look what verse number three says: "So the sisters sent word to Jesus, 'Lord, the one you love is sick.'"

Go all the way down to verse 21.

Look what verse 21 says: "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "If you had been here, my brother would not have died."

That's Martha. She had a sister.

Look with the sister.

Mary was filled with grief when she saw Jesus and fell at His feet.

She said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Everyone needs family members who are caring, faithful, loving, forgiving, respectful, spiritual, trustworthy, supportive, loyal, and able to keep us accountable.

It would be great if we could develop a mission statement for our family that is less than 10 words.

Lemma verses 1 and 2, number two was family decisions, verses 3-37, and number three was deliverance, verses 38-42.

The Rucker family is committed to developing a mission statement with less than 10 words.

Here are the three value statements that are important for our family so that everybody in the family knows:

1. Family Dilemmas (Luke 11:1-2)
2. Family Decisions (Luke 11:3-37)
3. Deliverance (Luke 11:38-42)

We can learn from the story in the Bible about a family who displayed some awesome things that can help us in our life.

Let's investigate this story and write down these three things.

We can then go back home and study them.

This whole month is about the family operating in divine order as a family.

Let's think about how we can grow closer to family members and what we can do in the next seven days to grow closer as a family.

If our marriages get off track and are not aligned in God's will, we can always go back to our mission statement to see if we have left it.

Hallelujah! Let's remember our mission statement and help each other out.

If I show up on Saturday when they're getting married, come on and help me!

We all face dilemmas and problems in life, but it is the decisions we make that determine our deliverance.

We should always strive to make the right decisions.

To help us make the right decisions, we should remember Matthew 7:7 which says, "Ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened."

In five months, we will have a Scripture Memory Sunday at our church.

Everyone should prepare a Bible verse that they know by heart.

On that day, we will share our Bible verses one at a time.

If someone says your Bible verse, just say it again.

Our decisions have a lot to do with our deliverance or destruction.

We have control to decide what the outcome of some things will be by the decisions we make.

God is sending somebody today whose decisions have been off base.

They can't figure out what the problem is and why things can't get any traction in their life.

Life can be affected by the decisions we make and the people we choose to surround ourselves with.

We must be careful to listen to the right voice, the voice of God, and not the wrong one.

If we are hearing the wrong words, it can lead to us making the wrong decisions and behaving in a way that is not beneficial.

We must ask God to show us the right path and to help us make the right decisions.

This is something that the younger generation is beginning to understand.

We don't have to be ashamed to seek help from a therapist or somebody else who can help us navigate our feelings and trauma from our past.

This trauma can affect us even if we haven't opened it up and dealt with it yet.

The story of Mary and Martha in the Bible is a great example of this.

Their brother Lazarus was sick, and they asked Jesus for help.

We must ask God for help and deliverance in our lives.

He can bring back to life the things that have been dead for a long time.

We got a sick brother in our family, and that's a problem.

Anytime you have somebody sick in your family, it's a dilemma.

We all have some sick folk in our family, and we're all dealing with some kind of sickness or illness, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

It's terrible when you're hurting, and no one knows about it.

Some people try to bring people to church because they feel like spiritually it will help them come out of what they're going through.

But some people embrace being sick because they get all the attention from everybody.

We need to know that there are some people who like being sick, and they want to draw you in.

We need to stop being sad and get up and put some clothes on.

We all have something going on in our life, but we need to recognize where we are and realize it's not a good place.

We need to get to a better place, and God will help us get from one place to another.

The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but God has come so that we may have life and have it abundantly.

That's why we need to keep coming to church, Bible study, and prayer.

If you've been watching since the pandemic and haven't been to church, God will convict you.

We all can't see what God sees, but God can get the glory out of your life.

At least once a month, I'm coming to church to tell you Hallelujah.

There are some things that God wants to do.

We are going to text Jesus and let Him know that our brother whom He loved is sick.

We are not going to tell Him to heal him or come; we are just going to tell Him he is sick.

Their expectations were for Him to come, but sometimes God does not meet our expectations because He knows what is best for us better than we do.

The Bible says that Jesus decided that the sickness will not end in death; it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it.

When Jesus heard the news about Lazarus being sick, He said that God can get the glory out of our pain, shame, guilt, incarceration, and divorce if we give it to Him.

We must walk by faith and not by sight, as we cannot see what God sees.

God can get the glory out of our lives if we leave it in His hands.

You can't figure out God no matter how hard you try.

His thoughts and ways are far beyond our own.

Instead of trying to understand Him, just trust Him and watch Him work in your life.

He will get the glory in the end.

Even when things don't seem to be going your way, God still loves you.

He has all power and knows all, but some things He won't reveal until we get to heaven.

Until then, trust Him, and He will make sure you are alright.

The Bible tells us a story of Jesus arriving four days after Lazarus had already been in the tomb.

Everyone was surprised to see Him, but He still showed up.

This is a reminder that God is always faithful and will always show up when we need Him.

Martha heard Jesus come and went out to meet Him, but Mary stayed at home.

Martha said to Jesus, "If You would have been here, my brother would not have died."

Mary, on the other hand, had a habit of falling at Jesus' feet.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."

In John 12, Mary storms into a house and breaks an expensive bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume over Jesus, pouring it over His head and feet and washing it with her hair.

This was her way of expressing her love for Jesus.

Jesus then prayed the 11th prayer in the Bible, saying, "Father, I thank You that You have heard me."

Jesus was interceding on behalf of mankind, sitting at the right hand of God.

He then said, "I thank You that You have already heard me."

With a loud voice, a miracle took place, and Lazarus came forth.

Jesus had told His disciples that a miracle was going to take place, and He had told Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life."

He was telling them to believe in His words and trust that if He spoke it, it would come to pass.