I knew that You always hear Me, but I say this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me.”I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude standing around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the multitude that standeth around I said it, that they may believe that thou didst send me.
5 sermons cite this verse
… Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me. God is never working on just the thing that we are worried about or praying about. There are so many complexities about the stories. there's there's unbelief and there's wrestle and he's working on the people involved around in the story and there's there's this there's this picture of his glory and that the story is so much bigger than that we can't even comprehend or see and I think sometimes in our life all we can see is the miracle at hand. But remember, there's audiences. There's characters in our lives. There's the people around us. There's the family members. There's the story that is impacting. Our miracle is meant for his glory, that it may shine in us and through us, that we might be able to say, God, you showed up, not that I could have, but that you could receive all the honor and the glory. Amen. …
… He'd already been praying. I knew, I knew that you always hear me, but I am saying this, or I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, the people navigating circumstances that is slowly crushing their faith. The people navigating circumstances in the past that totally crushed their faith. Circumstances that are too hard, too heavy, wondering if God cares, wondering if God hears your prayers, wondering if God is angry with you, wondering if you did something wrong, wondering if you could have done something right that would have kept these things from happening. Or maybe wondering if all of this is just fiction, stories, children's stories to keep us in line. He says, I knew, I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe. And once again, believe what? I'm glad I was not there so that you might believe. Believe what? And here it is. And this is a big it. …
… And Jesus raised his eyes and said, Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me. But because of the crowd here, I have said this, that they may believe that you have sent me. And when he had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands and his face wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, untie him and let him go. Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. I bet you'd have a seat. so uh one of my uh we a lot of us have guilty pleasure things right so i one of my guilty pleasure uh tv shows i don't know why but all of them almost all of them are surround reality tv i don't know why maybe it's me you're escaping reality by going to reality tv but one of these shows i haven't watched in a while one of these shows was a tv show called the bar rescue and the bar rescue it was always the same setup bar rescue it's one of those kind of genre like a homestead rescue where the expert rescuer comes in. So bar rescue is always the same story. It was this bar that was struggling. They were in debt. They didn't know how to run a bar. And here all …
so they took the stone away and Jesus looked up and said father I thank you that you've heard me I know that you always hear me but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me and when he had said this Jesus called in a loud voice Lazarus, come out. Verse 44, the dead man came out. if that doesn't do something in you, slap both of your cheeks real fast. The dead man came out. His hands and his feet were wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth was around his face. Organs that had already begun to decompose started pumping and beating again. blood started recirculating again muscles and tendons woke up this really happened and why did it happen so that 2 000 years ago we would be talking about lazarus no lazarus means the one who helped me the point of the sign of all the signs is that we would think about lazarus coming out of the tomb and we would go, my God is awesome. He can do anything. And Jesus said to them, take off the grave clothes and let him go. I love that. Don't you love that Jesus had to tell everybody standing there, go help the man out. Dude's got cloth around his face and around his and around his feet, he's just bouncing into the rocks. …
… you will see the glory of God. So they took the stone away and then Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing there that they may believe that you sent me. And when he said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. can we just feel that for a moment if there was a moment that I could say, dear Lord, please just give us video, like real time. These people are not used to seeing people come out of caves. This isn't a common occurrence. This isn't an everyday situation. People are like, what is happening? And he just very calmly says, Lazarus, come out. And we read the text, and the dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face. We got a dead man looking like a mummy walking out of a cave. …